Auditing
| Course Title | Credits | Description |
|---|---|---|
Pre-Engagement Planning Activities  | 2 | A Practical Break-Down of “Real World” Best Practices Applied in Highly Successful Audits is a series of eight individual sessions that guide professionals through the complete audit process from “A to Z” – starting with Pre-Engagement Planning Activities, and going all the way through Wrap-up and Quality Control. Attempting to perform an effective and efficient audit can be intimidating and confusing, for new and experienced auditors alike. This series will provide valuable tips and techniques from an experienced auditor that are needed to successfully design and perform financial statement audits in “real-life” circumstances. Extensive illustrative examples will be used to reinforce a practical understanding of the most critical principles and standards that support a high-quality, insightful, and profitable engagement. This 2-hour session is designed to provide participants with a solid understanding of the important judgment calls that are made before the audit engagement even begins. While these decisions are made by the audit partner/manager, the impact of these conclusions has a direct impact on the entire engagement team. Professional judgment calls at this early stage influence the auditor’s assessed risk of material misstatement (i.e., “what could go wrong” in the client’s financial statements due to fraud or error). In addition, safeguards to protect and preserve threats to independence and objectivity are designed at this stage of the audit. |
| Preliminary Planning Activities | 2 | A Practical Break-Down of “Real World” Best Practices Applied in Highly Successful Audits is a series of eight individual sessions that guide professionals through the complete audit process from “A to Z” – starting with Pre-Engagement Planning Activities, and going all the way through Wrap-up and Quality Control. Attempting to perform an effective and efficient audit can be intimidating and confusing, for new and experienced auditors alike. This series will provide valuable tips and techniques from an experienced auditor that are needed to successfully design and perform financial statement audits in “real-life” circumstances. Extensive illustrative examples will be used to reinforce a practical understanding of the most critical principles and standards that support a high-quality, insightful, and profitable engagement. This 2-hour session focuses on the initial information that is gathered and important conclusions that are reached at the on-set of engagement planning and the performance of certain risk assessment procedures. This phase of the engagement sets the stage for how much effort will be invested in evaluating the design and implementation of internal controls (which is covered in Session 3 of this series). Key professional judgments made at this stage provide the foundation and rationale for risk assessment conclusions that are ultimately used to design the nature, timing, and extent of further audit procedures (which is covered in Session 4 of this series). One of the most important learning points that participants will take away from this session will be the recognition that these preliminary activities are not just “check off the box” tasks, but are critical to early judgment calls about the risk of material misstatement, which directly influences the audit effectiveness and efficiency. |
| Internal Control Considerations | 2 | A Practical Break-Down of “Real World” Best Practices Applied in Highly Successful Audits is a series of eight individual sessions that guide professionals through the complete audit process from “A to Z” – starting with Pre-Engagement Planning Activities, and going all the way through Wrap-up and Quality Control. Attempting to perform an effective and efficient audit can be intimidating and confusing, for new and experienced auditors alike. This series of eight individual segments will provide valuable tips and techniques from an experienced auditor that are needed to successfully design and perform financial statement audits in “real-life” circumstances. Extensive illustrative examples and exercises will be used to reinforce a practical understanding of the most critical principles and standards that support a high-quality, insightful, and profitable engagement. This 2-hour session focuses on important internal control considerations. This includes both evaluating the design and implementation of internal controls, which is required on all engagements. It also includes testing controls for operating effectiveness, which should be considered as part of the risk assessment procedures. This area is one of the most commonly misunderstood and misapplied aspects of the audit process, particularly given the recent significant changes in auditing standards. Inappropriate or inadequate judgment calls made at this stage of the engagement could have the greatest impact on financial statement audit effectiveness and efficiency. Missteps in this area also have the greatest likelihood of being identified as deficiencies in peer or regulatory review. |
| Assessing and Responding to Risk | 2 | A Practical Break-Down of “Real World” Best Practices Applied in Highly Successful Audits is a series of eight individual sessions that guide professionals through the complete audit process from “A to Z” – starting with Pre-Engagement Planning Activities, and going all the way through Wrap-up and Quality Control. Attempting to perform an effective and efficient audit can be intimidating and confusing, for new and experienced auditors alike. This series of eight individual segments will provide valuable tips and techniques from an experienced auditor that are needed to successfully design and perform financial statement audits in “real-life” circumstances. Extensive illustrative examples and exercises will be used to reinforce a practical understanding of the most critical principles and standards that support a high-quality, insightful, and profitable engagement. This 2-hour session focuses on how to appropriately identify, evaluate, document, and respond to risks of material misstatement due to either fraud or error in order to effectively and efficiently design the nature, timing, and extent of further audit procedures (tests of controls for operating effectiveness and substantive audit procedures). |
| Substantive Testing | 2 | A Practical Break-Down of “Real World” Best Practices Applied in Highly Successful Audits is a series of eight individual sessions that guide professionals through the complete audit process from “A to Z” – starting with Pre-Engagement Planning Activities, and going all the way through Wrap-up and Quality Control. Attempting to perform an effective and efficient audit can be intimidating and confusing, for new and experienced auditors alike. This series of eight individual segments will provide valuable tips and techniques from an experienced auditor that are needed to successfully design and perform financial statement audits in “real-life” circumstances. Extensive illustrative examples and exercises will be used to reinforce a practical understanding of the most critical principles and standards that support a high-quality, insightful, and profitable engagement. This 2-hour session focuses on performing the substantive audit procedures outlined in the detailed audit plan. Common deficiencies in performing and documenting these further audit procedures will be discussed. |
| Engagement Wrap-Up | 2 | A Practical Break-Down of “Real World” Best Practices Applied in Highly Successful Audits is a series of eight individual sessions that guide professionals through the complete audit process from “A to Z” – starting with Pre-Engagement Planning Activities, and going all the way through Wrap-up and Quality Control. Attempting to perform an effective and efficient audit can be intimidating and confusing, for new and experienced auditors alike. This series will provide valuable tips and techniques from an experienced auditor that are needed to successfully design and perform financial statement audits in “real-life” circumstances. Extensive illustrative examples will be used to reinforce a practical understanding of the most critical principles and standards that support a high-quality, insightful, and profitable engagement. This 2-hour session focuses on all activities that occur during the wrap-up phase of the engagement. This aspect of an audit engagement is where all good intentions are at risk of unraveling and creating deficiencies in audit quality and compliance with professional and regulatory standards. |
| Identifying, Evaluating and Communicating Internal Control Deficiencies | 2 | A Practical Break-Down of “Real World” Best Practices Applied in Highly Successful Audits is a series of eight individual sessions that guide professionals through the complete audit process from “A to Z” – starting with Pre-Engagement Planning Activities, and going all the way through Wrap-up and Quality Control. Attempting to perform an effective and efficient audit can be intimidating and confusing, for new and experienced auditors alike. This series will provide valuable tips and techniques from an experienced auditor that are needed to successfully design and perform financial statement audits in “real-life” circumstances. Extensive illustrative examples will be used to reinforce a practical understanding of the most critical principles and standards that support a high-quality, insightful, and profitable engagement. This 2-hour session focuses on how to properly fulfill the requirements for identifying, evaluating, and communicating internal control deficiencies identified during the course of the financial statement audit. |
| Engagement Wrap-up and Quality Control Considerations | 2 | A Practical Break-Down of “Real World” Best Practices Applied in Highly Successful Audits is a series of eight individual sessions that guide professionals through the complete audit process from “A to Z” – starting with Pre-Engagement Planning Activities, and going all the way through Wrap-up and Quality Control. Attempting to perform an effective and efficient audit can be intimidating and confusing, for new and experienced auditors alike. This series will provide valuable tips and techniques from an experienced auditor that are needed to successfully design and perform financial statement audits in “real-life” circumstances. Extensive illustrative examples will be used to reinforce a practical understanding of the most critical principles and standards that support a high-quality, insightful, and profitable engagement. This 2-hour session emphasizes the key activities that ensure that appropriate quality control procedures were performed on the financial statement audit. |
Business Law
| Course Title | Credits | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Basics of Business Law | 1 | Do you know how to keep your company and your clients on the right side of the law? How can management and directors protect themselves from liability? This course will focus on three areas accountants should be aware of contracts, intellectual property and employment law. |
Business Management & Organization
| Course Title | Credits | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Faster Disaster Recovery | 1 | We often think about hurricanes and tornadoes as disasters but have you thought about the impact of new technology, a product recall, or even fraud? Could your business survive 6 weeks without power? |
| Essence Of Entrepreneurship | 1 | Entrepreneur can be defined as a person who starts a business and is willing to risk loss in order to make money. This course will discuss an alternative approach to building your business plan, along with a candid discussion of the “dark side” of being an entrepreneur. |
| Effective Change Management | 1 | How do you react to change? Change is difficult, even when it is good and for the right reasons. This course will discuss various methods and ideas to consider in helping you navigate the turbulent waters when dealing with change. |
| Business Benefits of Sustainability | 1 | Does your business have a sustainability initiative? Recognize the benefits and business impact of sustainability and identify the steps to get started. |
| Better Budgeting and Forecasting | 1 | What comes to mind when you think of budgeting? Takes too long? No follow-up? It protects the status-quo? If you’ve considered “banning the budget”, this course will show you how to transform it into a planning process that helps your organization achieve its strategy. Discover 21 tips to change your budgeting process that results in a detailed one year budget, to a planning process resulting in a strategic, progressive and long-term achievement of your goals. |
| How to Build a Culture of Engagement that Maximizes Trust, Accountability and Performance | 2 | Building and changing a culture requires a special type of leadership, one committed to clearly identify and reinforce specific behaviors and expectations. These leaders understand their role is to create the conditions for success by engaging individuals in productive and meaningful work. They are intentional about creating the culture they want for their organization or business. |
Communications & Marketing
| Course Title | Credits | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Client Needs: Beyond Best Practices in Client and Customer Service | 1 | Customer Service is moving to Customer Experience, and modern firms must keep up with their clients, or fail at sustainability. Competition is no longer just down the street. Clients are demanding more value, and wanting a shift from reactive reporting to real-time services. In the future, the customer experience will be measured by value, contribution, impact, and sustainability. |
| Smarter Decision-making | 1 | Leaders fail because of bad decision-making. Business professionals need to be able to respond to today’s rapidly changing business environment by making quick and smart decisions. This course will help you understand and build decision-making. |
| Presenting Financial Information | 1 | Have you ever presented financial information to a group of non-financial people only to get the glazed-over and under-whelmed look from your audience? Presenting numbers is difficult -how can you get past that? In this course, you’ll learn general tips, common mistakes, and ways to improve your financial presentations. |
| Powerful Presentation Skills | 1 | America’s greatest anxiety, public speaking, is a necessity in today’s business world. Those who can speak in front of crowds and have effective presentational skills tend to move up the corporate ladder more swiftly. Discover how to stand in front of an audience, project confidence, and knowledge, all the while making a connection and capturing your audience’s imagination to be powerful and persuasive. |
| Masterful Marketing | 1 | You have developed strong technical expertise but what about those skills necessary to grow and expand your business? This module will discuss various methods of lead generation, investing in your people, the importance of branding, and the use of social media. |
| Listening For Leaders | 1 | There is a big difference between hearing and listening. Listening is harder than you think. It’s not about you, it’s about the audience about the person you’re talking to. Listening is about setting aside our issues, our concerns, our biases, and our judgment so that we can truly listen to what someone else is saying. |
| Excellent Customer Service | 1 | What does excellent customer service mean to you? Discuss the importance and skills needed to provide excellent customer service to both your internal and external customers. |
| Emotional Intelligence | 1 | Life happens and most of us bring our feelings to work. We need to understand how we react and how we deal with our own emotions. Emotional intelligence in the workplace is about understanding how you affect others and how others affect you. |
| Communicating For Connections With Coworkers, Clients, And Customers | 1 | How you communicate with your clients can make or break your career! We all know how to talk, but how do we make sure we are really connecting with others? This course will discuss different personality styles and demonstrate the different ways to communicate information to them. See how recognizing their personality style(s) can turn communication breakdowns into breakthroughs. |
| Building a Stronger Professional Network | 1 | Networking is one of the most powerful tools accountants can develop, but it takes time, energy, and commitment in order to build a strong network. Having a strong network will assist you in launching a new idea or plan, developing new business and clients, reducing costs in recruiting, and leveraging your career. |
| Financial Storytelling: The Key in Growing Your Organization to the Next Level | 2 | Are you responsible for presenting financial information to your organization, business associates, or clients? If you’re a CEO, CFO, CPA, financial analyst, or a manager needing to communicate financial information in an impactful way, this workshop will give you the necessary tools to tell more effective stories with your financial data. It is imperative in this fast-paced business environment that accountants gain a high-level understanding of the technology advances to help them focus their time on finding the story behind the numbers. Bring financial information to life and use it to communicate a story to an audience, with a focus on simplicity and ease of interpretation. This is accomplished through a mix of financial data, visualization, storytelling theory, best practices, and practical application. (Available in 1-4 hour format) |
Ethics – Behavioral
| Course Title | Credits | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Ethics: Avoiding the Slippery Slope of Ethical Pressures | 4 | You may want to be on the nightly news, but not for an egregious breach of ethics. You may be saying, “that will never happen to me.”; And those were the words spoken by Wells Fargo, United Airlines, Senator Al Franken, and Steve Wynn. Sadly, a claim of an ethical failure stays in the news for almost 5 years. Long enough to damage your reputation and lower your profitability. An ethical climate needs constant care and feeding to be maintained. In this lively and thought provoking session, we will discuss why ethics is both complicated and difficult, how to prevent employees (and you) from taking the first step down a slippery slope, and walk through a six-step process for creating an ethical culture. |
Management Services
| Course Title | Credits | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Risk Management | 1 | Do you know if your organization is risk-averse or risk aggressive? This course will define risk management and discuss the types of risk and risk management processes. |
| Project Management | 1 | Project management is a results-focused concept that needs to be in the accountants’ toolbox. For CPAs in public accounting, every engagement, tax return audit and SOC report is a project. For CPAs in finance, your month in close, and fraud and risk assessment are projects. This course will discuss the project management process from building a business case and planning, to execution and managing your team. |
| Preventing and Detecting Fraud | 1 | Fraud costs US companies $400 billion annually. Do you know where the fraud is in your organization? Don’t let your company continue to be a victim. |
| Business Process Improvement | 1 | Have you ever tried to improve a business process only to be told: “that’s the way we’ve always done it”? This course will discuss ways to improve your business processes to make them more efficient and better for your organization and customer. |
| Balanced Scorecard | 1 | Balanced Scorecard is a performance measurement framework that added strategic non-financial performance measures to traditional financial metrics to give managers and executives a more balanced view of organizational performance. |
Personal Development
| Course Title | Credits | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Development: Moving From Employee to Manager to Leader | 1 | First-time supervisors face unique challenges as they transition to management. They must supervise work with which they may be unfamiliar, and supervise employees with whom they had previously been co-workers or employees with greater seniority. They must understand the extent of responsibility and decision-making authority they have, finding ways to communicate expectations to their employees and making possibly unpopular decisions. Excellence in technical or financial skills does not automatically translate to excellence in leading and supervising others.This course will give new supervisors, managers, and leaders the skills and understanding needed to successfully navigate the transition. |
| Teamwork And High-performance Teams | 1 | Did you know that the core principles of improvisation are the same core principles in efficient, effective, and productive teams? This course will discuss the skills and principles that are used in building successful teams, including trust, respect, support, adaptation, listening, and communication. |
| Strategy for Success | 1 | Does your firm or organization know why it does what it does? Do you have a mission statement? This course will help you identify the importance of why an organization should know its “Why,” how to use backcasting as a strategic planning tool and understand the most important thing about a mission statement. |
| Latest in Leadership | 1 | We can all list a variety of leadership skills but how do you develop them into your own leadership style? This program will explore leadership through a different lens by evaluating your leadership style and how to capitalize on your own personal strengths. |
| Creativity and Innovation | 1 | This course will demonstrate proven methods that CPAs and other business professionals can use to unlock their creativity and innovation. You will discover new ways to break through mental barriers, SALY thinking, and roadblocks in order to improve performance, creative thinking, and innovation. |
| The Strategic Finance Department – 15 New Roles | 1 | The world has changed, but has your finance department changed with it or are they doing the same things the same way they always have? Being technically competent is no longer enough; you have to be able to connect with people throughout your organization. In this session, we will cover definition and characteristics of strategic leadership.We will review 15 roles to enhance: your position in the organization, your interactions with other departments, and your strategic role in your organization. These strategic roles will help move you and your department into the future; go from being a disliked cost center to an appreciated, value-adding resource within your organization.This course is designed to build on what you are already doing right and add specific steps you can implement immediately to have a positive impact on your organization’s future. |
| The Future-ready Finance & Accounting Professional – Welcome to the Fast Future | 1 | Recent research from the AICPA says that the business environment for CPAs and their clients will be characterized by “unprecedented, massive and highly accelerated change” through 2025. To thrive in this new age of hyper-change and growing uncertainty, it is now imperative to learn a new competency–how to accurately anticipate the future. This session will show how to anticipate these trends and move from being a crisis manager to an opportunity manager. At the end of the session, participants will set actionable steps to elevate and accelerate their organization’s strategy. |
| How to Identify, Explain, and Present Pertinent Financial Information to Non-Accountants | 1 | Do your business associates and/or clients have difficulty understanding the financials? Are they making decisions without comprehending the financial impact of their actions? They frequently “smother” in detail and crave for knowledge. This high-impact course is loaded with practical ideas and techniques to help associates and clients make better business decisions. Financial Information is one of management’s most useful tools, yet far too many non-accountants are unable to read financial reports and use this information to enhance performance. |
| CPA Firm Business Development | 1 | A basic understanding of data analytics using Excel can allow for CPA firms to immediately, and cost effectively, add value to their clients! This session introduces the value of a data analytics and how CPA firms can immediately stand out from other firms by bringing these capabilities to their clients, and potentially streamline their current work processes by taking advantage of Excel’s data analytics and visualization capabilities. |
| From Financial Expert to Strategic Business Leader: Leader Evolution | 1 | Many leaders in finance and accounting organizations describe their passage from technical expert to financial leadership positions as a modern-day version of trial by ordeal. It’s sink or swim. The good news -there is a better way. Leaders development through a set of clearly defined stages that require different ways of thinking, different perspectives, and new skills. This workshop lays out the roadmap for professional development that applies to every CPA and finance and accounting professional that wants to advance their career and create a favorable impact on the organization.Note: This is available in a 2-hour on-demand format |
Personnel/Human Resources
| Course Title | Credits | Description |
|---|---|---|
| The Next Generation: A Different Take on the Generations | 1 | With rapidly shifting demographics, the very nature of the Human Capital we depend on is shifting. Most “Generational” discussions focus on the differences of discrete groups within our population, and the result can be somewhat divisive. This program has a different focus – a more inclusive look at the generations, with a focus on communication methods to bridge the gaps. With the overall size of the millennial cohort in the workforce, this presentation spends a majority of its time on communicating with Millennials. |
| Motivating the Next Workforce | 1 | Productivity. Low turnover. High-performance culture. None of these buzzwords work if the organization’s engagement process is broken and people are underperforming. It’s time to look beyond the “buzzwords” and truly rethink motivation and performance management instead of tweaking “business as usual”.Good performers can become bad performers, and bad performers get comfortable and stay. This presentation is a fast-paced look at some clever and aggressive new engagement and retention processes that are both effective and legally compliant, mixing fresh case studies with psychological theory. Unfortunately, engagement is far from an exact science. There’s no secret formula, no easy calculation, no worksheet to fill out.This course will review how to hire well and techniques to keep your best performers engaged and wanting to stay with your organization. |
| Inclusion: Building a Sustainable Culture of Diversity | 1 | There’s a perfect storm going on. We’ve got the new economy, a new generation coming online, and we have LinkedIn pulling people away from us and bringing them to us. Also, there are ethical issues. All of these issues surround and apply to the issue of diversity.Simply put, diversity is the mix of people you have in an organization, Inclusion is how you integrate and manage them. In the “New Normal” world of the modern economy, having a culture that encourages the full participation of all people on the team is a real competitive advantage.This fast-paced course updates one’s strategic view of the world of Diversity and Inclusion and applies it to the specialized world we work in. |
| Building a Productive, Resilient Workforce | 1 | When it comes to hiring, using a conventional hiring process may not be as reliant as flipping a coin. A coin flip may often be better because it would bypass a lot of hidden biases and inefficient processes. We need to get back with a clean sheet of paper and do it better.In this course we will look at improving a process that is deeply flawed, and we will look objectively and outside the box on things we can do to identify and hire high performers. |
| Avoiding Ulcers in the “New Abnormal World” | 1 | In today’s “new abnormal” COVID environment, waves of changes are pushing at each of us from all sides and forcing us to adapt. What works? What fails? How can we adapt faster? This facilitated discussion covers the topic from both the human capital viewpoint and from the operational side of the Manager’s desk. We will build the skills and processes needed to manage others through change – either co-workers or clients. |
| Get the Right Work Done (in less time): The Future of Time Management | 2 | Do you feel that you are multi-tasking more and getting less done? Do you work harder and longer and your “To-Do” list never gets any shorter? Well it’s time to work smarter, not harder; work less and get more done! This session will review the challenges with time management and the lies told that don’t work. We will cover solutions that are both personal and universal, and tactical and practical to power-up your productivity and leave you with more time for the important things in life – family, friends, and fun! |
General Accounting
| Course Title | Credits | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Accounting & Attest Update Part 1 | 1 | Hot Topics for Current Period Audits and Other Attest Services: Both public and private CPAs must be current on changes to various potentially relevant professional standards, including changes related audits, compilations, reviews, and other attest services. This module provides recent and proposed changes to relevant professional and regulatory standards that have potential impact on public accounting services provided in the current period. |
| Accounting & Attest Update Part 2 | 1 | Hot Topics for Preparing Current Period Financial Statements: Both public and private CPAs must be current on changes to various potentially relevant accounting and financial reporting standards, including U.S. GAAP. This module provides recent and proposed changes to relevant technical standards most relevant to the preparation and fair presentation of current period financial statements. |
| Federal Tax Update 2022 | 4 | This course (broken into 4 parts) is essential for the tax practitioner who wants to update their knowledge of individual income taxation. Part 1 of the series deals with status issues that a practitioner encounters when preparing federal income tax returns. Part 2 of the series deals with income issues a practitioner will encounter when preparing federal income tax returns. Part 3 of the series deals with deduction issues that a practitioner encounters when preparing federal income tax returns. And finally, Part 4 deals with remaining miscellaneous issues not covered in the first three parts of the program that a practitioner encounters when preparing federal income tax returns |
The Industry Average For CPE Credits Is $239 Per Year
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Good every year for as long as long as you maintain your CPA license.