CPE & Event Calendar

This course goes beyond the basics and addresses important practical issues that an experienced practitioner must know. Even if you have attended other S corporation courses, you will learn something new in this course.

The employer-employee relationship strains both sides in uncertain times, and businesses need CPAs, controllers, and other advisors to provide understanding of the complex legal, tax, and health care issues associated with all aspects of employment. This course provides in-depth coverage of this critical area. It will be updated and supplemented throughout the year to cover breaking developments.

In today's data-driven world, spreadsheets serve as the backbone of business and personal productivity. However, creating complex and error-prone spreadsheets can lead to critical mistakes and inefficiencies. This course aims to equip you with the knowledge and tools to build robust spreadsheets, implementing a range of controls and safeguards to ensure data integrity, streamline processes, and maximize accuracy. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.

Young doctors sometimes arrive at an exotic medical diagnosis (You've got Kuru!), when a more common place explanation is likely (You've got a cold). These diagnoses are known as Zebras and doctors are taught, "When you hear hoofbeats, think of horses not zebras". Sometimes, the patient really has a rare disease and suffers from misdiagnosis and subsequent improper treatment. Similarly, managers, auditors, and investigators often see indicators of fraud, but dismiss them because they've been taught or assume based upon experience that it is just a mistake that looks like fraud. This session uses case studies to explore some of the more common symptoms of fraud that are often misdiagnosed.

Join Us for Our Next Community Meeting All NECPAs members are welcome to attend. Community meetings are a great way to connect with peers, share insights and stay engaged with the profession. CPE Credit Information To receive CPE credit, you must: Be in attendance for at least 50 minutes Respond to required attendance check polling questions Please note: We recommend using the email address linked to your NECPAs profile when logging into Zoom. Join the Community Roster By joining the community roster, you'll gain access to this group's forum on The HUB—an exclusive space where members can: Connect with other community members Post questions and messages Access meeting materials and resources Questions? Contact Melissa Nystedt at mnystedt@necpas.org.

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.  

According to a 2020 AICPA survey, advisory and consulting services were considered the greatest unmet needs of clients. The recent growth in Client Advisory Services (CAS) has led many to ask what is included in this broad category as well as how to develop the services for clients. With so much focus on the recent success of CAS offerings, now is the time to learn how the services differ from what you currently offer, which of your clients would benefit most, and what you need in place to add a quality CAS program to your firm's menu of services.

Answering clients' tax questions accurately and on time is a key challenge for tax practitioners. Through simple, plain language explanations and examples, this course will help practitioners perform tax research more efficiently by describing the structure of the primary sources, highlighting the difference between primary and secondary sources, and describing the steps in the tax research process.

Cloud computing has become a source of cyber-crime. “Cloud forensics is the application of digital forensics in cloud computing as a subset of network forensics to gather and preserve evidence in a way that is suitable for presentation in a court of law.” Cloud forensics is a combination of the varied types of accounting forensics including: •    Digital forensics •    Network forensics. •    Hardware forensics In cloud crime, the cloud is considered the object when the target of the crime is the cloud service provider they are directly affected by the act. It is considered the subject of the crime when the criminal act is committed within the cloud environment. It is considered the tool when it is used to plan or conduct a crime. This course will delve into the many concepts involved in cloud forensics. The course complements other courses in the series of Becoming a Forensic Accountant.  

Most organizations manage their income statement, but many virtually ignore the balance sheet until balance sheet problems create seemingly insurmountable emergencies. This session discusses how to analyze and manage your financial statements more holistically, allowing you to identify and correct balance sheet issues early. How do you choose whether to raise debt or equity" What are the key considerations and the advantages of each" What is the cost of capital" What are the "hidden" balance sheet risks" We will also examine several crucial ideas you can incorporate into your analyses to enhance performance and reduce risk. If you want to enhance your corporate finance skills, this session is for you.

The ancient Romans had a saying about using caution when appointing someone to a position of trust, "don't set a wolf to watch the sheep". That saying is in use today and has changed to include "don't put a fox to guard the henhouses";. The thought is similar, but the wolf and fox are vastly different animals. Wolves rely upon their strength to survive while foxes rely on their cunning. Like foxes, fraudsters rely upon their cunning to defeat or circumvent internal controls. This session reviews the investigation of a deputy court clerk who exploited a weakness in internal controls and committed fraud in the courthouse.

Finance technology decisions (ERP, FP&A, AP/expense automation, close/consolidation, bank integrations, and AI-enabled tools) can dramatically improve close speed, forecasting, and control execution-but vendor demos and "AI" marketing often hide integration complexity, data readiness gaps, governance risk, and long-term total cost. This course provides a practical, vendor-neutral approach for CPAs and finance leaders to evaluate and implement corporate finance technology with an audit-ready mindset. Participants learn how to cut through AI claims using an AI capability framework, apply a weighted vendor evaluation scorecard focused on controls and assurance, build a five-year total cost model that captures hidden and ongoing costs, and follow an implementation roadmap with checkpoints and red flags to reduce failure risk and improve ROI realization. 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 on ethics in communication and reporting covers essential topics to ensure integrity and professionalism in our interactions. We begin with the fundamentals of ethical communication, emphasizing the importance of honesty, transparency, and respect. We then explore four must-have communication skills crucial for effective and ethical exchanges. The session also provides practical application steps on how to improve these ethical communication skills in daily practice. Finally, we discuss the problems associated with unethical behavior in reporting and communication, highlighting the potential consequences and the importance of maintaining ethical standards to build trust and credibility.

The controller has several broad areas to stay up to date on regarding compliance initiatives: Financial compliance Regulatory compliance Operational Compliance IT Compliance

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.  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 a bit deeper into the world of forensic accounting and identify some of the specific areas of expertise required to become a forensic accountant. We will then first delve deeper into the art of document analysis and handwriting analysis.  

Strong analytical procedures are critical for evaluating the fair presentation of financial statements. In addition, Financial statements are only as good as the information and trends that they produce for operational, strategic, or compliance purposes. This course will provide insights into how to determine the strength and efficiency of nonprofits in achieving objectives and knowledge to improve the analysis of the fair presentation of a nonprofit's financial statements.  

Organizations and individuals enticed by the siren song of artificial intelligence cannot ignore ethical considerations. Professionals must consider accuracy of information, data privacy, independence, source citations, organizational policies, security, data retention, and other ethical matters. This course discusses ethical issues associated with the utilization of AI in a professional setting and provides suggested best practices. 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 is a continuation of our series on preparing to become a forensic accountant. Within this segment we focus on elements of computer forensics. This session is designed to delve into further investigative procedures used in computer forensics.  

Excel remains a staple tool for virtually all accounting and financial professionals. In this session, learn about many of the newer features in Excel, along with some you may have overlooked in the past'truly "must-see CPE!?

Younger professionals comprise a significant part of the accounting and finance workforce. Whether you are an owner of a small accounting practice or a manager in a multinational accounting firm, it is important to understand the characteristics and expectations of this large segment of the workforce. Research reveals that many of the common stereotypes surrounding young professionals are unfounded and counterproductive. This course provides an understanding of who young professionals are in comparison to their predecessors, the Gen-Xers and baby boomers. Equally important, the presentation will look at common myths regarding young professionals and why understanding this class of employees provides opportunities for your organization to grow and succeed.