CPE & Event Calendar

Organizations that use primitive costing methods make predictable mistakes, allocating too much cost to easy, high-volume "gravy" products and too little cost to difficult, low-volume "dog" jobs,  putting an organization with inferior information at a significant competitive disadvantage.  The secret to being the “smart competitor” is learning how to deal with overhead.  This session will show you how to assign 16 key overhead categories.  Whether you work in a wholesale, retail, healthcare, service or manufacturing business, you will find this session invaluable.  Get your cost right, and you will be able to give the "dogs" to your competitors and keep the "gravy" for yourself.

Organizations collect massive amounts of data, but far less information that actually improves decisions. This session focuses on how CFOs and CPAs can tactically manage data to generate insight, improve performance, and reduce risk. Participants will explore financial and non-financial data, data organization, and the role of analytics in understanding customers, operations, and employees. The session emphasizes clarity, simplicity, and storytelling so data supports better decisions rather than overwhelming stakeholders.

A detailed analysis of the calculations related to determining a shareholder's tax basis for S corporation shares and loans. How to use the Form 1120S, Schedule K-1 information for basis determination. An illustrative example demonstrates how the process works, as well as the many potential pitfalls. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is reshaping industries, decision-making, and everyday life at an unprecedented pace. While its potential for innovation is immense, AI also raises profound ethical challenges around fairness, accountability, transparency, and human rights.  Bias in algorithms, misuse of personal data, opaque decision-making, and the displacement of human judgment underscore the urgent need for ethical frameworks to guide AI development and use.

If you find yourself working with PDF files consistently throughout the day, this course will teach you how to review, annotate, format and organize PDF files more effectively and in less time. You will also learn how to use Adobe Acrobat for e-signatures to reduce document processing time significantly and enhance confidentiality. Adobe Acrobat has many features that you can take advantage of and this course will explain and demonstrate how to use them. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

Are you considering becoming a fractional CFO, or possibly a public CPA firm or consulting practice that wants to offer fractional CFO services or advisory services? Either way, do you truly know what to do and how? Are you aware of the many pitfalls? Becoming a successful fractional CFO is complicated and it is not a trivial career change! Review the lessons learned from experienced fractional CFOs on how to enter, engage and run a thriving fractional CFO practice. Whether you are in public practice, a consultant, or in industry - be prepared for this as a possibility. Many fractional CFOs do not execute their practice as they could, and that is why they are not very successful. This discussion includes over fifty (50) recommendations to strengthen your fractional CFO practice. What do clients typically need? Are you better as a solo practitioner or should you join a firm? How to manage the relationship(s)? Every effective organizations make plans and if you want a winning fractional CFO business, come join us and learn how. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

Since 2017, employees have not been eligible to take an itemized deduction for a home office. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act suspended all miscellaneous itemized deductions for tax years 2018 through 2025. That deduction is scheduled to go into effect in 2026. Self-employed individuals can deduct office expenses on Schedule C, Form 1040. The home office deduction includes typical office-connected expenditures such as supplies, postage, computers, printers, and all the other ordinary and necessary expenses a person would have in connection with running a home office. The home office tax deduction for the self-employed would cover expenses for the business use of a home, which includes mortgage interest, rent, insurance, utilities, repairs, and depreciation. This program discusses many of the most important issues relating to the deductibility of home office-related expenses.

While once thought just to apply to banking and financial institutions, entities now need to apply fair value accounting under ASC 820 across a variety of transactions. Whether you are assessing financial instruments, leases, business combination accounting, or impairment measurement, GAAP either requires or allows the use of fair value measures in an expanding number of circumstances. Now is the time for you to get up-to-speed on the basics of the fair value approach. In this course, we will review when fair value accounting is required and when an entity can select to use it. Then we will review the basics of the ASC 820 model, including the concept of "exit price," the various approaches that an entity may follow when using a fair value approach, and the different levels of inputs that an entity may consider when determining fair value. Lastly, the course will provide examples of when and how to apply this complex accounting guidance.

Recent feedback from the AICPA has emphasized the importance of performing an effective risk assessment to identify and evaluate the risk of material misstatement in a financial statement audit. SAS 145, the 2023 amendment to AU-C 315, makes significant changes to the extant risk assessment standard and certain changes to other standards as well. The amendments clarify confusion that the AICPA believes auditors experienced under the existing standard and also conforms, for the most part, to the IAASB standard on the same topic. SAS 145 has been effective for two years now starting with December 31, 2023 audits. This course will focus on how to perform the risk assessment process under the new standard, providing participants with a summary of the changes to existing guidance. It will discuss linking the results of the risk assessment to further testing (internal control and substantive testing) and procedures performed in concluding on the evidence obtained. In addition, it will also discuss documentation and audit communications.

This comprehensive fall tax update provides an in-depth review of the latest federal tax changes and IRS guidance following the enactment of OBBBA 2025, highlighting new legislation and provisions, regulatory shifts, and planning opportunities that will affect individual and tax compliance in the current filing season and beyond.

Workpapers are the primary support for findings, conclusions and opinions on any audit or other attest engagement.  This course will provide the essential tips and techniques for ensuring workpaper documentation is of a high quality, yet efficient, nature.

Dynamic arrays can be a tremendous time-saver in Excel, but most business professionals remain unaware of what should be a commonly used tool. With dynamic arrays you can reduce the time you spend creating and updating formulas and improve your accuracy at the same time. You can also take advantage of some innovative features associated with dynamic arrays to automate many calculations and data entry tasks. If you've yet to discover dynamic arrays, make plans to participate in this session to learn how you can take advantage of this terrific feature. If you're ready to transform your data into actionable insights and finally get the reports you need, this session is your game-changer. Join us and take control of your QuickBooks Online reporting like never before!

This program addresses the most recent developments impacting partnerships operating as LLCs, with a focus on legislative, administrative, and tax form changes. Emphasis will be placed on partners "tax basis" capital accounts - now required for tax form reporting.  *Please Note:  If you need credit reported to the IRS for this IRS approved program, please download the IRS CE request form on the Coursw Materials Tab and submit to kori.herrera@acpen.com

Traditional budgets often consume significant time while delivering limited operational value. This session reframes budgeting as a tactical management tool rather than a once-a-year accounting exercise. Participants will explore how to redesign the budget process to improve communication, accountability, and decision-making across the organization. The session emphasizes output-based metrics, flexible budgeting approaches, benchmarking, and educating non-financial managers so budgets become a tool for managing performance, not just controlling spending.

Artificial Intelligence has taken the world by storm. In just three short years, AI platforms such as ChatGPT, Gemini, and Copilot have revolutionized how business professionals approach everyday tasks. In this session, you will learn how you can use AI to help you solve specific problems and work more efficiently, effectively, and accurately. Throughout this session, we will focus on real-world scenarios and how AI can help you realize better results in less time. This is a must-see session for all who want to improve efficiency and effectiveness. 

This course emphasizes the practical application of incident response frameworks through case studies of AI-related cyber incidents. It focuses on preparing financial professionals to effectively manage and learn from cybersecurity crises.

Designed for accounting, auditing, and attestation practitioners at all levels in public accounting and business and industry, this course provides a detailed review of the multitude of FASB and AICPA standards and reports issued over the past few years, including a discussion of the FASB's Stage 3 PIR report on ASC 606. It also provides an overview of recent PCAOB inspection report findings and SEC rulemaking activity. Through hands-on examples and illustrations, this course will help you apply the guidance in practice. We further discuss other important A&A practice matters to be aware of, including an update on the quality management standards and soon-to-be-effective requirements for engagement quality reviews.

This course provides a high-level overview of the most important accounting, financial reporting, compliance and audit issues facing nonprofit entities and their accountants. The focus is on explaining the basis behind major issues and trends in executive summary (yet practical) form, enabling professionals to understand the most important aspects of relevant standards, and the basis for any potential changes on the horizon. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

Clients often ask accounting and finance professionals whether they have the "best" pension plan and whether they are using it to its maximum advantage. This program explains how various pension plans work and analyzes why a small or medium-sized business owner would choose one plan over another.

How debt is allocated to the partners in a partnership is important. It dictates how much money may be taken tax-free as a distribution, the losses that flow down to the partners, and the gain or loss on the sale of a partnership interest. However, the allocation of debt can differ depending on the type of debt it is and the type of partner we are talking about. Furthermore, 704(c) can complicate things. And what in the world is a constructive liquidation scenario? In this course, we will tackle the concept of debt allocations - how you do it, what it means, and why you do it.