CPE + Events Catalog

Sarbanes-Oxley legislation. Although there have not been any changes in the legislative concepts of the law since its release in 2002, some aspects of executing the work have evolved. Sarbanes-Oxley was passed in 2002 and year one of attestation for publicly traded companies was 2004. Years later the legislation continues to challenge companies, auditors and compliance professionals when evaluating a company's control structure. SOX 404, although the most prominent, is only one of the many requirements covered under the legislation. In addition, the impetus of COSO 2013 has re-focused companies' efforts on evaluating their key controls. Companies must continually evaluate whether they have designed and identified the proper controls and have adequate tests in place to determine control efficiency. With the evolution of technology solutions, the impact of information systems changes must be continually evaluated to ensure controls are adequately addressed. 

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Financial professionals and public companies should stay current on recent SEC and PCAOB standards to ensure compliance, improve disclosures, and strengthen audit quality. John Fleming, Kaplan Financial Education discussion leader, explains the SEC's pay-versus-performance, cybersecurity and clawback rules, staff guidance on materiality, and top comment-letter trends. He also reviews PCAOB standards'covering audit evidence, analytical procedures, confirmations, and quality-control requirements.

The construction industry faces many unique challenges to survive and remain profitable. These include specific accounting and reporting aspects for construction contracts and estimating project costs and profitability. Analyze revenue recognition under the percentage of completion method (including comparing current standards to the new FASB revenue standard) by exploring the underlying details. Reduce potential errors made using established concepts, including the shortfalls of the "cost to cost" method. Take a focused look at construction contractors' accounting, reporting and auditing. Discuss techniques and examples that provide a realistic audit approach for the contractor, including detailed auditing procedures for many types of contracts.

Implications for the profession For CPAs and finance professionals, sustainability has quickly become a significant topic with profound impacts on the profession. Acknowledging the importance of sustainability issues in today's business environment is the first step toward adapting to the changes brought about by the increasing demand from stakeholders for sustainability information from businesses. Foundations of sustainability issues You'll delve into sustainability issues and opportunities to develop a high-level understanding of the key topics, including: The three pillars of sustainability Key bodies that have created appropriate reporting standards, guidelines, frameworks, and requirements Recent developments in the sustainability reporting landscape Showcasing your new knowledge Upon completing the course, you'll receive a certificate and digital badge to demonstrate your new expertise in this evolving field. This certification program is provided through our partnership with the AICPA.

Internal auditors play a critical role in ensuring ethical, compliant AI adoption by promoting strong governance, clear accountability, and lifecycle monitoring. Nick Ajmera, internal audit leader at an electrical utility, outlines board-level oversight, cross-functional committees, and unified policies aligned to frameworks like ISO/IEC 42001 and NIST. He highlights key risks'bias, drift, privacy, and explainability'and recommends KPIs, vendor controls, and monitoring tools to sustain effective AI governance.

Analytical procedures evaluate financial information through the examination of plausible relationships among both financial and non-financial data. They also encompass such investigation, when necessary, of the identified fluctuations or relationships that are inconsistent with other relevant information or that differ from expected values by a significant amount.

ASC 842 reshaped lease accounting'but technical compliance alone is not enough. In this course, Bill Harter brings lease accounting into practical focus, exploring how to identify a lease, measure right-of-use assets and liabilities, and navigate remeasurements, modifications, and classification changes. Participants will also examine common implementation pitfalls and process breakdowns, gaining actionable insights to strengthen controls, improve cross-functional coordination, and maintain precision in real-world lease accounting.

Be an Audit Hero: Solve Fraud with Red Flag Mania's Challenge! Calling all lifelong learners and audit enthusiasts! Red Flag Mania's Audit Challenge is your chance to step into the shoes of a real-world auditor and put your skills to the test in a thrilling, self-study program. This interactive experience throws you headfirst into a realistic fraud case. Become a detective of internal controls as you: Hunt down the culprit: Utilize your investigative techniques to identify the perpetrator behind the fraud. Test internal controls: Assess the effectiveness of a company's safeguards and pinpoint weaknesses that allowed the fraud to occur. Upskill yourself: This self-study program turns you into an auditor, cracking a real-world fraud case. Hunt the culprit, test controls, and build trust. Game-based learning sharpens your audit & investigative skills. Enroll now! This course is produced by Red Flag Mania. Want the full experience - Purchase the When We Prey Bundle !

This study examines how a paradigm shift from traditional to digital audits could affect the audit expectation gap. It uncovers possible new areas of the expectation gap and threats and challenges resulting from this paradigm shift. The findings suggest that audit digitalization will result in the profession transitioning from the defensive approach of educating users on auditors - duties to a constructive approach of using digital tools to perform some of the duties that users expect of auditors. Digital technologies have the potential to enhance internal controls and facilitate fraud prevention and detection, thus narrowing the expectation gap with these critical issues. The potential benefits of switching to the constructive approach include lower costs for audit firms, enhanced audit quality, and improved client perceptions of auditors.

Toby Groves, founder of Cognificent Learning, explores how cognitive psychology shapes judgment and decision-making in auditing and other high-stakes professions. Drawing on his background as a CPA and psychologist, he explains how stress, bias, situational awareness, and overreliance on technology'including AI'affect audit quality and ethical outcomes. Groves emphasizes operational definitions, metacognition, and deeper engagement with information to strengthen professional judgment under pressure.

The IRS's new Centralized Partnership Audit Regime shifts much of the audit burden onto partnerships themselves. Colin Walsh, partner at Baker Tilly, explains that the rules introduce new adjustment options, heighten potential costs, and complicate filing decisions. He offers broad strategies for navigating the change and emphasizes the need for an engaged partnership representative as the guidance and enforcement landscape keeps evolving.

In this session, we will delve into intelligence and asset search methods that enhance investigations and facilitate recoveries. We will examine various sources of publicly available information, learn how to identify and verify pertinent data, and provide examples of how this information can be effectively utilized in traditional forensic accounting scenarios. This session was recorded on March 19, 2024 at the 2024 Fraud & Forensic Accounting Virtual Conference.

Managing the risks of cyberattacks has become more difficult as companies rely on a growing number of third-party vendors for services like cloud computing and software development. SOC 2 (System and Organization Controls 2), a compliance standard developed by the AICPA, helps ensure that companies protect their clients' data securely. Audrey Katcher is a partner in RubinBrown's Business Advisory Group, overseeing the group's Information Technology Risk Services (ITRS). She offers her expertise in third-party assurance and SOC reports, helping companies understand and manage technology risks for the benefit of their clients and their businesses.

Michael Hoose, CPA and Director at Cherry Bekaert, discusses ASUs effective for 2024 and 2025 across private and public entities. He covers debt conversion options, EPS computations, asset and liability valuation under ASC 606, and portfolio hedge accounting. Topics include supplier finance, common control leasing, insurance contract assumption updates, fair value measurements, tax credit amortization, joint venture accounting, crypto asset reporting, and income tax disclosures.

Contracts are the backbone of the construction industry but also a significant source of financial risk. This session will focus on risk management strategies for contract negotiation, delivery method selection, preconstruction services, change orders, and retainage policies. Learn how CPAs can help clients minimize financial exposure and enhance documentation transparency. This session was recorded on March 25, 2025 for CalCPA's Construction Management Conference.

Valuation techniques and cash management activities are two other tool categories that can round out your analytical toolbox. This course will initially discuss how to turn your financial plan into a powerful valuation engine. We then will discuss the formation of an efficient cash management program based on solid banker relationships. Finally, we will review the ten steps for keeping your financial toolbox full and effective. Companion course: Corporate Finance Competency: Three Basic Tool Categories

Financial skills needed in many situations are constantly changing. It is prudent to routinely look into your toolbox to restock or revise your toolset. This course will examine three tool categories that form the foundation for many analytical processes. The first category is Financial Statement Analysis. This tool does not have to be complicated. We will present an effective and efficient financial statement analysis approach. The second category is Integrated Strategic and Financial Planning. Businesses need to know where they are going and integrate strategic direction into financial and individual plans. Learn to build an effective integrated planning model. The third category is Action-oriented Business Metrics. Financial professionals generate a vast quantity of metrics. Examine how to turn these financial measures into operating results. Companion course: Corporate Finance Competency: Analytical Toolbox

Numerous fraud cases point out that it doesn't take a sophisticated level of complexity to steal from an organization. Fraud is intended to be hidden and thus can very easily meet its target to deceive. Fraud has a pervasive role in today's corporate environment, and organizations that choose to ignore fraud risk or disregard its impact become a fraudster's opportunity. This course will provide the professional with valuable knowledge about fraud risk and various best practices in fraud prevention programs designed to mitigate such risk. The course will also provide an introduction to fraud investigations and forensic accounting and is ideal for the professional seeking to expand his or her knowledge base and who may be at a mid-level position within an organization with operational or supervisory responsibilities, or both.

For decades, scholars searched for a connection between a corporation's current performance with respect to sustainability and the future returns of its stock. In 2016, Khan, Serafeim, and Yoon published an apparent breakthrough in this quest: guidance on materiality from the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board allowed the construction of corporate sustainability scales that reliably predicted stock returns. Their finding had an immediate and broad impact, but it remains, in its authors - own words, just - - first evidence. - - Here, we further explore the relationship between material sustainability and stock returns by performing a - - model uncertainty analysis. - - We reproduce the original estimate but conclude that it is a statistical artifact. We then use machine learning to explore the practicality of employing historical associations to determine which aspects of sustainability are material to investors. We conclude that, for one popular source of data on corporate sustainability, accurate guidance on materiality may be difficult to achieve.

This interactive session will cover areas where audits can use data to drive efficiency and how to visualize the data for maximum insight. The availability of high-quality data is allowing auditors to leverage technology to perform more effective and efficient audits. Understanding data and how to use it to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the audit is critical. Case studies and sample documentation reinforce major concepts and help participants apply the techniques discussed.