CPE & Event Calendar

To many clients, CPA firms all look the same. While services and specialties may vary significantly from one firm to another, it is hard for the average person to see this by simply looking at the sign outside our office door. Is there any way to make us stand out more to the outside world? Through surveys, statistics, and examples, this course looks at how CPA firms can develop a marketing plan beyond just relying on referrals. We look at the pluses and minuses of various marketing channels, regulatory constraints, and how to measure success in the competitive financial services space.

Each year brings its own set of tax planning challenges, and this year is no exception. This course aims to arm tax planners with planning strategies and ideas that all clients, but in particular, wealthy clients, middle-income clients, and closely held business owners need to consider right now to take advantage of present opportunities and plan for future tax advantages. Learn strategies that can really have an impact on client lives, while also bringing value to you and your firm. This material is continuously updated for recent legislation impacting individual taxpayers.

In this course we will explore the foundational leadership attributes that, when applied, will transform your practice. Learn how accountability, integrity, and ownership applied together can dramatically increase the functionality, effectiveness, and motivation of your team. Upon completion of this program, you will have the clarity to incorporate integrity, ownership, and accountability for yourself and within your practice to help achieve your firm's vision.

As financial and tax professionals well know, information overload is a constant struggle we face because things change quickly, and the sheer number of changes being made on a daily basis is enormous. Of great importance to small and medium tax and advisory firms is differentiating between changes that are relevant to our practice and our clients and changes that are new but totally irrelevant. Distinguishing between the two is difficult and time-consuming. Mike Tucker and a team of experts are pleased to present a weekly series designed to eliminate the clutter and get you what you need to stay up-to-date and perform for your clients. Mike and his co-presenters will dispense news on current events impacting taxes, finance, and industry. The subject matter will differ each week and intermittently include topics such as Social Security and Medicare. The panelists will discuss personal and corporate tax matters as well as other late-breaking news related to practitioners' personal finances and those of their clients. Every financial professional will benefit from this series. This is a cost-effective way for accountants to fulfill their compulsory continuing education because this weekly series will include almost 40 one-hour presentations. Sign up today - your clients and your bottom line will thank you.

Positive client relationships require work. Miscommunication, unrealistic expectations, and differing personality styles may strain a client's relationship with professional advisors. Fortunately, there are tested strategies that foster and strengthen client relationships. Creating appropriate boundaries early on is one of many effective strategies that can help. This course explores actions accounting and finance professionals can take to create and grow their client relationships. This webinar provides actionable insights on how to engage new and old clients alike. Strained client relationships can harm both the client and the firm's profitability. Yet automation, for example, allows some firms to remain more engaged while others miss the mark. There is a science underlying client retention that involves understanding the client journey, ensuring consistent client interactions, and equipping employees with the tools needed to satisfy client needs. Understanding these skills should help you protect the relationships that sustain your business.

To make more money in less time, all accountants need to learn to market themselves effectively to their clients or their firm. For better or worse, promotions and more money go to those who are the best marketers, rather than the most competent accountants.  In this fascinating and fun workshop, participants will learn seven key ways to get more clients and/or promotions through the art of marketing.

This course is designed to refresh your understanding of the critical importance of risk assessment in the audit practice. We'll briefly discuss the impact of AICPA's Clarity Project for audits and the need to update firm processes to incorporate the risk assessment standards. Participants may alternatively need to fine-tune an implementation of the risk assessment standards. These standards are designed to eliminate the connect-the-dots methodology of checklist auditing and add critical thinking back into the audit process. They remain a problem area for many firms, resulting in engagement and peer review deficiencies. This course has been updated to include a more in-depth discussion of SAS No. 145, Understanding the Entity and Its Environment and Assessing the Risks of Material Misstatement. We will break down this complex and misunderstood subject with an easy-to-understand approach.

While ethics training is required by many states, the true value of the CPA license is in understanding how critically important ethical behavior is to our customers, our firms, and the public. This course will explore the basic tenets of ethical behavior and use case studies to explore ethical dilemmas in various companies and organizations with a focus on dilemmas that may face CPAs in the industry.

Social media - it's a buzzword, but is it beneficial for your firm's brand? And more importantly, your bottom line? This course focuses on the latter and takes a deep dive into which social media platforms are best for accounting firm lead generation, recruitment, client retention and more. Attendees will take away a practical framework and actionable tactics for integrating social media into your firm's overall marketing and communications strategy to help you grow your revenue without having to spend hours on social media or even be on it personally if you don't wish to! This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available for questions during the event.

Join us for an insightful presentation featuring John Higgins, a renowned technology advisor to the CPA profession, who has assisted many firms with Microsoft 365 (M365) deployment. Discover how to leverage the M365 suite of apps to unlock new efficiencies and opportunities within your firm. Don't miss this chance to supercharge your practice with cutting-edge tools! Whether you are a solo practitioner or larger firm, this "bootcamp" will provide you with an ROI many times greater than your investment to attend. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

Each year brings its own set of tax planning challenges, and this year is no exception. This course aims to arm tax planners with planning strategies and ideas that all clients, but in particular, wealthy clients, middle-income clients, and closely held business owners need to consider right now to take advantage of present opportunities and plan for future tax advantages. Learn strategies that can really have an impact on client lives, while also bringing value to you and your firm. This material is continuously updated for recent legislation impacting individual taxpayers.

In this webinar, accountants will discover how to double their firm's revenue through CFO and advisory services. Many accounting firm owners are stuck in what we call The Accountant's Trap. It's where the firm owner is trapped working for low fees, dealing with high-demanding clients, all the while being burnt out on compliance and transactional work. To make matters worse, these firm owners can't raise their fees because there is always another accountant or bookkeeper willing to do the work for less -- not to mention all the tech companies trying to get into our space. Does this sound familiar? If so, this webinar is for you. This course is for any practice owner looking to transform their practice - and double their revenue - by offering a productized CFO/Advisory service. We'll cover the systems you need to transform your practice and the services you should offer to double your firm's revenue. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

Forensic accounting, forensic accountancy or financial forensics is the specialty practice area of accounting that investigates whether firms engage in financial reporting misconduct. Forensic accountants apply a range of skills and methods to determine whether there has been financial reporting misconduct. Financial forensic engagements may fall into several categories. For example: Economic damages calculations, whether suffered through tort or breach of contract. Post-acquisition disputes such as earnouts or breaches of warranties Bankruptcy, insolvency and reorganization Securities and tax fraud Money laundering Business valuation Computer forensics/e-discovery This session is designed to delve into further investigative procedures used including digital forensics. Future sessions will focus on computer forensics, network forensics and mobile forensics.  

"There is not enough experienced talent available in the market" is one of the most common challenges cited by accounting firms today. Many firms are understaffed and struggle to find talent to fill the gaps. Engaged employees are more productive, and they stay longer. Discover the four steps to successful employee engagement, enabling you to develop, engage and retain staff and become more attractive to future employees.

The need for a forensic accountant has grown in the last two decades, with more expected in the future. From oil well spills to divorces - from stealing trust funds to partnership disputes - forensic accountants are needed to find and calculate losses. They are financial detectives that are needed to explain the money story to attorneys, judges, and juries. If you are interested in starting a forensic accounting practice or adding on this service to your existing firm, this course is for you. In this presentation, you will know what service to provide possible clients, how to find those clients, and the cost-effective ways to start the forensic accounting practice. Your instructor has over 20 years of experience as a special agent with IRS-Criminal Investigation where he conducted investigations into tax and money laundering crimes across the globe. After his successful investigative career, he started a CPA firm from scratch that focused on forensic accounting. He shares the successes and failures in starting a forensic accounting practice, including getting the right credentials, various ways of marketing to potential clients, closing the deal with engagement letters, and delivering the service to the client. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

This course will help you develop a strategic marketing and business development plan for your firm using 7 key principles to help maximize lead generation. You will learn how to establish and grow your B2B business in any niche using time-tested strategies, proven processes for attracting and retaining customers, and how to measure your results so you can spend your money and time effectively to own your market and attract higher ROI clients. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

Working from home presents both benefits and challenges for professionals. For employees, working from home provides opportunities to be more productive and gain time that would otherwise be spent commuting to and from the office. Employers who utilize remote work enjoy fewer fixed costs, more efficiency, and greater employee satisfaction. Without proper planning, professionals who work remotely may experience increased anxiety and disorganization. They may also jeopardize data privacy. However, when executed properly, working remotely can help organizations become more efficient and profitable, while at the same time improving employee morale. This webinar looks at how firms and companies have successfully implemented work from home programs and discusses mistakes that can be avoided through proper planning.

Could you imagine a drug dealer using a credit-card terminal to accept payment? How about someone paying for a television they bought off the back of a truck with a personal check? Hard to imagine, right? Most criminals conduct their business in cash. For years, criminals kept their ill-gotten gains in cash and used it to pay for everything from real estate to jewelry to things such as private school tuition. This prompted governments around the globe to pass laws prohibiting large cash payments or, at the least, requiring such payments to be reported. These laws created the need for criminals to conceal the true source of the money or to "launder" it. To combat these threats, laws, and regulations have been enacted in countries around the globe that make financial services firms, and in some cases individuals, responsible for preventing or stopping money laundering. Within this course, we explore AML warning signs and potential mitigation techniques companies and professionals can take to help eliminate money laundering.

This interactive workshop is designed for small and medium CPA firms looking to improve internal processes and manage clients' needs and expectations. We'll review how to be efficient and profitable in your firm. Additionally, we will explore pricing models and best practices. This course is case study oriented to reinforce concepts.

It is no secret that accounting firms, like many other organizations, have begun launching operations in the metaverse. For those unsure, the metaverse is a digital or virtual space where participants simulate a host of activities ranging from shopping to entertainment and business transactions. Why wouldn't accounting firms and other professionals want to get in early on this new frontier? All types of businesses have begun purchasing and setting up shop in this new virtual world. These are no small endeavors - professionals are creating business plans to operate successfully in the virtual world that started off originally as a niche format for gamers. Accounting firms are starting to announce their acquisition of virtual real estate, and some are paying a premium to obtain prime locations. To operate successfully in the metaverse, professionals need to understand the environment and the rules of the game. This course provides an introduction to the metaverse and an overview of opportunities, risks and rewards for professionals who wish to stay relevant in the ever-expanding virtual world. Participants will walk away with an understanding of where we are in this rapidly developing space, plus gain insights on how to establish a presence or advise clients who wish to explore metaverse opportunities.