WICPA CPE & Special Event Catalog
Key Tax Issues for Individual Taxpayers
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Online
2.00 Credits
Member Price: $89
This course addresses the most recent legislative developments impacting individual taxpayers, with a focus on important provisions, rules & concepts to apply when preparing client returns. Please Note: If you need credit reported to the IRS for this IRS-approved program, please download the IRS CE request form on the Course Materials Tab & submit to kori.herrera@acpen.com.
Communicate Financial Concepts to Non-Accountants
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Online
2.00 Credits
Member Price: $89
Do you ever get blank looks when you present your company's financial statements? Does your board nod knowingly, during your presentation, but never seem to have any meaningful questions? It could be that they have no idea what you are talking about & are just pretending to understand! Learn how to connect with your CEO, board, fellow managers & ordinary employees so they understand your message.
Cybersecurity: Protecting Your Firm's Data & Reputation
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Online
2.00 Credits
Member Price: $89
Cybersecurity protection of digital data continues to be a top priority for CPAs. The cyber threats continue to increase and are becoming more sophisticated with the advent of AI technology. The first step is to understand what the primary threats are, the potential damage they can inflict and, most importantly, how to mitigate the risks. This course will prepare you have informed conversations with your IT service providers to ensure you are employing best practices in cybersecurity protection. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.
Navigating IRS Authorizations: Form 2848 & Form 8821
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Online
2.00 Credits
Member Price: $89
Providing a practical overview of the IRS Power of Attorney, Form 2848 and IRS Tax Information Authorization, Form 8821. Participants will explore the differences between these forms, understand when each is required and how to comply with IRS requirements for representing clients and accessing their tax information. The course will cover practical issues, ethical considerations and best practices for managing client authorizations through the IRS Centralized Authorization File (CAF) system. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.
Surgent's Controller/CFO Update: Hot Topics Facing Today's Financial Professional
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Online
4.00 Credits
Member Price: $159
In today's rapidly changing world, finance professionals are required to wear many hats and are often the keys to the success of the organization. On one hand, they need to be abreast of the latest proven financial skills for making the best decisions and on the other hand, they need the best skills to motivate, manage and lead people. Being pigeonholed into one area or another is neither good for career building nor good for the organization. We'll cover the latest issues that all CFOs and controllers need to know about and provide how-to guidance to allow for immediate use in their organizations.
Surgent's Ethics for the Industry Accountant
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Online
4.00 Credits
Member Price: $159
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 one another, 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. Note: This course qualifies to count toward the WICPA membership Ethics CPE requirement.
Avoiding Legal Liability & Peer Review Deficiencies in Nonaudit Services, Including Bookkeeping & Preparing Financial Statements
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Online
4.00 Credits
Member Price: $149
The majority of peer review deficiencies & malpractice claims result From nonaudit services. This course will provide best practices for avoiding legal liability & quality control concerns.
Common Deficiencies in SSARS Engagements
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Online
4.00 Credits
Member Price: $149
Preparation, compilation and review engagements continue to receive heightened attention in peer review, even years after the issuance of SSARS No. 21. This course examines the most common deficiencies identified in peer reviews of SSARS engagements, with an emphasis on practical compliance and engagement quality. Participants will explore frequent problem areas in preparation, compilation and review engagements and discuss why these deficiencies occur. The course focuses on understanding the root causes of noncompliance, rather than simply listing technical errors and highlights practical approaches firms can use to improve consistency, documentation and overall engagement performance. Designed for practitioners performing SSARS engagements, this course helps participants strengthen compliance while maintaining an efficient and practical approach to engagement execution. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.
Accounting Fraud 26-27
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Online
8.00 Credits
Member Price: $329
Gain an understanding of the concept of fraud, the Fraud Triangle theory, fraud risk, fraud detection and prevention. Learn about best practices in fraud detection and fraud deterrence. This course includes real-world cases of fraud, how they were perpetrated and how they were detected.
Estate Planning: A Comprehensive Overview 26-27
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Online
8.00 Credits
Member Price: $329
To get started in estate planning, learn the basics of intestate succession, probate, wills, health care directives, general powers of attorney, trusts, gift and estate tax planning, as well as transfers of assets. Become familiar with some basics of transfer tax planning, including A-B trusts and QTIPs/marital deduction planning, portability, planning with life insurance trusts, family limited partnerships and more. Also, particular attention will be paid to the human elements that are impacted by estate planning and related tax strategies.
Financial Statement Disclosures 26-27
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Online
8.00 Credits
Member Price: $329
Disclosures are on of the most challenging areas of financial statement preparation and one of the most cited deficiencies in peer reviews. This program tackles the many disclosure requirements with detailed discussions on topic requirements and examples. This is a fast paced course that covers all the major balance sheet accounts, as well as revenue and expenses. Attention is also paid to the Statement of Cash Flows.
Internal & External Fraud: Underst&ing It & Working to Control It 26-27
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Online
8.00 Credits
Member Price: $329
Regardless of size, all organizations must be aware of the risks associated with intentionally fraudulent acts. Fraud can be executed from within an organization, by external parties, or both. Therefore, a primary method to thwart fraud is understanding how and why it occurs. First, understand why internal and external intentional defalcations take place. Discuss the difficulty in understanding the motives driving those who undertake fraud. Finally, review measures organizations can implement to stop fraud and add security to the enterprise.
A&A Update for Nonprofits & Single Audit: 2026
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Online
8.00 Credits
Member Price: $239
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.
Steps to Stop External Fraud
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Online
2.00 Credits
Member Price: $89
Until recently, a percentage of organizations discounted the risk related to external fraud attempts. Most were only concerned with protecting physical assets such as inventory or fixed assets. However, because of the many highly publicized corporate hacking events, such as the ones that affected the Colonial Pipeline and JBS Meats, more attention is being paid to external fraud risk of all types. In this session, we look at what is included in a definition of external fraud and then delve into specific control issues that can give rise to increased risk. We then discuss measures that organizations can employ to help reduce exposure to external attacks. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.
Retaining Talent in a Competitive Marketplace
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Online
4.00 Credits
Member Price: $149
Retaining Talent in a Competitive Marketplace -Creating a Benefits Program Employees Care About In today's competitive marketplace, retaining talented employees is becoming increasingly difficult. A solid benefits program can make a difference in the fight for talent - but only if those benefits matter to the employees you are trying to hire! Through statistics and case studies, this course will explore what benefits are most valuable to employees. We will also explore the basic types of retirement and health insurance plans and discuss what financial leaders should consider before adopting a benefits package. This event may be a rebroadcast of a live event and the instructor will be available to answer your questions during the event.
World-Class Cost Accounting: A Practical Application: 8 Hour Version
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Online
8.00 Credits
Member Price: $250
The first half of this course will help you gain an invaluable skill set to advance your career by learning how to design & apply a comprehensive cost accounting system modeled on a real company. This course shows you how to precisely identify all direct & indirect manufacturing costs for each product, link direct costs to their base drivers & recognize fluctuating variable & semi-fixed costs that are actually direct in nature. You'll also learn how to trace certain fixed costs to products, distinguish which fixed costs are directly assignable & apply budgeting techniques to establish accurate standard costs. The second half will help you enhance your career with an invaluable skill set in cost accounting. This program presents a comprehensive cost system based on a real company, guiding you through the accurate classification of manufacturing overhead costs. Learn to distinguish between true variable & fluctuating variable costs, identify fixed overhead costs that are direct or directly assignable & account for variances From standard costs. In this model, all manufacturing overhead costs are fully traced to products, providing practical insights you can apply directly in the workplace.
Risk Assessment of IT Systems
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Online
1.00 Credits
Member Price: $39
This course provides an overview of the risk assessment requirements under SAS 145, with a focus on the evaluation of Information Technology systems in the planning of an audit. SAS 145 introduced significant changes to risk assessment procedures, including an increased emphasis on understanding & evaluating IT environments. The course addresses key areas of concern related to IT systems & their impact on audit risk. Participants will gain practical insight into identifying risks within IT systems & understanding how those risks affect the audit process. As part of his presentation style, Jeff incorporates engaging elements designed to reinforce learning & maintain focus.
Preparing to be a Forensic Accountant: Focus on Computer Forensics: Part III (Steganography)
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Online
1.60 Credits
Member Price: $79
This course is a complement to our series on Becoming a Forensic Accountant & the focus of the course is on steganography techniques. Steganography is the art & science of embedding secret messages in a cover message in such a way that no one, apart From the sender & intended recipient, suspects the existence of the message. The first use of steganography can be traced to 440 BC when ancient Greece, people wrote messages on wood & covered it with wax, that acted as a covering medium Romans used forms of Invisible Inks, to decipher those hidden messages light or heat were used. During World War II the Germans introduced microdots, which were complete documents, pictures & plans reduced in size to the size of a dot & were attached to normal paperwork. Null Ciphers were also used to hide unencrypted secret messages in an innocent looking message. Given the amount of data being generated & transmitted electronically, it's no surprise that numerous methods of protecting that data have evolved. There are various types of steganography: Text Steganography: Hiding information inside the text files. This involves changing format of existing text, changing words in a text, generating random character sequences or using context-free grammars to generate readable texts. Image Steganography: Process of hiding text in an image without distorting the picture. Video Steganography: Technique to hide any kind of files into a cover video file. Audio Steganography: The secret message is embedded into an audio signal which alters the binary sequence of the corresponding audio file. Network Steganography: The process of utilizing active network protocols as carriers to transmit a covert message, undetectable by an uninformed party, From a host to its destination. This session will review these methods & also discuss relevant software.
Becoming a Fractional CFO: What to Do & How?
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Online
2.00 Credits
Member Price: $89
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.
Surgent's How to Effectively Represent Clients Under IRS Audit
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Online
2.00 Credits
Member Price: $99
Increased funding resulting from the enactment of the Inflation Reduction Act will allow the IRS to target many more wealthy individuals and large businesses for audit. These efforts will become more intense over the next several years as the IRS employs artificial intelligence in more of its audits. This program discusses how and when the IRS's energized audit efforts will result in more audits of taxpayers and what attendees need to know to effectively represent clients that the IRS audits.
