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Welcome to our online catalog. LCPA offers thousands of live and online courses to satisfy your professional development needs. Our easy-to-use filter enables you to find just the right courses to enhance your knowledge and help you succeed even more.
Whether you have an hour during lunch or an entire day, LCPA provides quality, flexible options to fit your schedule. Look for the "See more dates" dropdown to view availability. Several events/classes produced by LCPA can be taken either LIVE (In-Person) or VIRTUAL—please ensure you register for the correct one.
LCPA is proud to partner with ACPEN, CPA Crossings, Surgent, AHI, AICPA, and K2 Enterprises to deliver high-quality webcast and self-study content in a convenient and cost-effective manner. Stand-alone courses and all-access packages are available. Filter using the Vendor name. Learn more.
Accounting for Leases
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Online/Webcast
2.60 Credits
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In February 2016, FASB issued ASU 2016-02, Leases, which provides new guidelines that change the accounting for leasing arrangements. To be able to properly account for leases, financial professionals must understand ASU 2016-02 (also referred to as Topic 842). This guidance covers information on how leases should be accounted for. The previous leasing standard (ASC 840) had been in existence for almost 40 years. Under ASC Topic 842, lessors continue to classify leases as operating, direct financing, or sales-type. While lessees now classify leases as operating or financing leases. Previous guidance only required capital leases to be reflected on the BS. The new guidance requires all leases to be reflected on the BS. This is a major change for organizations and will cause their balance sheets to swell as leases must now be disclosed on the balance sheet. The standards original effective dates were prior to 2019. In April 2020, due to COVID-19, FASB voted to defer the effective date for ASC 842 for private companies and certain not-for-profit's for one year. For private companies and private not-for-profits, the leasing standard will be effective for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2021, and interim periods within fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2022. For public companies the leasing standard is effective for fiscal years beginning after December 15, 2019, including interim periods within those fiscal years. The course covers elements of lease classification for both lessees and lessors. Also, numerous examples are incorporated as reference. Speaker - Lynn Fountain
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I want the TRUTH: Preparing to be an Expert Witness
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Online/Webcast
2.00 Credits
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Many practitioners dealing with government and not-for-profit issues are asked to serve as expert witnesses in courts of law or other adjudicatory venues. This session will discuss key issues you need to know when you are asked to serve in this capacity, including: Applicable standards and other engagement acceptance considerations. Preparation requirements and techniques. Dos and don'ts of testifying. Avoiding commons traps and tricks designed to undermine your effectiveness. The session will conclude with a “mock cross-examination” with participants serving as the jury to identify what our witness does right and what he does wrong. Speaker - David Cotton
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Inventory, Expense and Payroll Fraud
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Online/Webcast
2.00 Credits
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Inventory is a wonderful place to both hide fraud and commit fraud. The reasons that inventory is subject to so much fraud is the it is often very large, spread out over a large area, and many people have access to it. When there are little or no internal controls related to inventory control, you are begging employees to steal it. No with so many ways to dispose of stolen inventory via the internet, i.e., EBAY, inventory fraud is much more appealing to a lot of individuals. The more common ways to commit expense fraud and how to cover it up will also be discussed. Travel and entertainment are some of the favorite areas of committing expense fraud. In addition, payroll fraud will be discussed. Although there are many ways to commit payroll fraud, it is very easy to prevent. This presentation is designed to familiarize the participants with the many ways to commit inventory, expense and payroll fraud, how to detect it, and more importantly, how to prevent it. Speaker - Dennis Dycus
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Was It Fraud or Just Poor Audit Quality?
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Online/Webcast
1.60 Credits
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This session describes a state agency's quality review of a not-for-profit organization's A-133 Single Audit. The case study describes the organization audited, its federally- and state-funded programs, and the CPA firm retained to do the audit. Various anomalies in the financial statements alerted state officials to potential problems, and a detailed quality review followed. Find out how the entity turned hundreds of thousands of dollars in bank overdrafts into hundreds of thousands of dollars of cash on its balance sheet. Explore other “creative” ways to deal with fixed assets, accounts receivable, and related-party transactions. Were the auditors just sloppy, ignorant, negligent? Or were they active participants in producing fraudulent financial statements? You be the judge. Speaker - David Cotton
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Controller Series: Insightful Financial Analysis
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Online/Webcast
1.00 Credits
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Anyone can "crunch numbers" but it takes special skills to make them meaningful to the user. Financial statements and ratios need to be interpreted correctly using a process that sets the context, identifies the right analysis tools, and makes recommendations in an understandable format. This course will help you present your insights in a way that is insightful and impactful to your client.
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Budget Mastery: Process, Problems, and Solutions
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Online/Webcast
2.00 Credits
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The budgeting process can be a mundane one for accountants. Let’s be realistic and agree that even the word “budget” does not bring excitement to you and your departmental colleagues. The constraints and pressures can lead to poor decisions in both the technical and human components. This session is the first part of a four part series and will cover the big picture of keeping the process fresh, pragmatic and useful. We discuss these keys in an engaging manner by discussing both our flaws and strengths, including how to build on these characteristics towards an enjoyable solutions-based method that should deliver effective results for your organization. Speaker - Bob Mims
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Sampling - Avoiding Common Mistakes on Financial Statement and Compliance Audits
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Online/Webcast
2.00 Credits
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Sampling is an important method for determining the extent of testing controls, testing compliance, and tests of substantive details. It allows the auditor to apply procedures to less than 100% of the population yet extend results to project likely conclusions about the entire population. This module will describe the proper process for both attribute testing and variable sampling in financial statement and compliance audits. Speaker - Jennifer Louis
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Advanced Cost Accounting: Eliminate Calculation Distortions
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Online/Webcast
2.00 Credits
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Organizations that use primitive costing methods make predictable mistakes, allocating too much cost to easy, high-volume "gravy" products and too little cost to difficult, low-volume "dog" jobs, putting an organization with inferior information at a significant competitive disadvantage. The secret to being the “smart competitor” is learning how to deal with overhead. This session will show you how to assign 16 key overhead categories. Whether you work in a wholesale, retail, healthcare, service or manufacturing business, you will find this session invaluable. Get your cost right, and you will be able to give the "dogs" to your competitors and keep the "gravy" for yourself. Speaker - John Daly
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Leases: Mastering the New FASB Requirements
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Online/Webcast
8.00 Credits
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FASB ASC 842, *Leases*, standards decoded By learning essential information about lease accounting requirements, you'll understand the core principles of the standards and how to apply them. You'll explore topics, such as: Identification Recognition Measurement Presentation and disclosure requirements Deliberate application of lessee accounting model You'll also learn about classifying leases, the amortization of the right-of-use asset, and the interest on a lease liability. Additional topics include: Short-term leases Purchase options Variable lease payments Sale and leaseback transactions Leveraged leases
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Building Your Personal Net Worth: Invest in Your Future
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Online/Webcast
2.00 Credits
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By the nature of our work and training, financial professionals have more personal finance knowledge than the general population. However, sometimes we spend so much time planning our company's future that we neglect or defer taking steps to build our own personal net worth. If you are dissatisfied about the speed that you are accumulating savings, this session will help put you on the right track. Even if you are meeting your goals, this session will provide insights and ideas which will add to and reinforce what you may already be doing. Speaker - John Daly
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Current Audit Environment and ASB Activity
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Online/Webcast
2.00 Credits
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Insights into the unique challenges in today's auditing landscape Examine the current audit considerations and guidance as you learn about the challenges auditors face in light of recent ASB pronouncements and exposure drafts. In doing so, you'll gain an understanding of topics critical to success in today's rapidly changing regulatory environment, including: Unique challenges for audit and attest engagements Auditor responsibilities and implications for audit planning Statement on Quality Management Standards (SQMS) No. 1 and SQMS No. 2 Statements on Standards for Accounting and Review Services (SSARSs)
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Current and Upcoming FASB Issues
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Online/Webcast
1.00 Credits
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Keeping up with FASB changes You'll explore changes in accounting, including: Relevant pronouncements Exposure drafts Projects Additionally, you'll be able to identify recently issued FASB standards and guidance that cover broad and narrow issues, as well as understanding how to apply them. You'll also learn about upcoming standards that will be effective in the near future.
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Auditing Financial Statements of ERISA Plans
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Online/Webcast
4.00 Credits
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Conducting a compliant audit You'll learn about proper audit procedures to test the line items of the statement of net assets available for benefits, including investments. You'll also cover the audit procedures to test the activity in the statement of changes in net assets available for benefits, including participant testing. Your new knowledge will help you conduct compliant audits of ERISA plan financial statements. Plan investments Additionally, you'll gain an understanding of how to differentiate plan investment procedures based on the type of audit and risk assessment. To do this, you'll look at ways to identify: Types and classifications of common plan investments The audit procedures required for investment activity, contributions and benefit payments or withdrawals at the participant level Other audit considerations You'll also explore other audit considerations, including: GAAP requirements for presentation and disclosure of employee benefit plan financial statements Procedures to determine the plan's tax status Related parties, parties in interest and prohibited transactions Additional procedures for Form 11-K filers
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SAS No. 122, AU 240, Consideration of Fraud in a Financial Statement Audit
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Online/Webcast
3.00 Credits
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When performing a financial statement audit, auditors have always been responsible for the detection of anything that would cause a material misstatement of the financial statements whether caused by error of fraud. However, in the past the audit profession focused on material misstatements due to errors and more or less ignored the possibility of misstatements due to fraud. Now, SAS No. 122, AU 240 requires significant documentation as to what the auditor did in order to determine if there any material risk of a misstatement of the financial statements. This presentation is an overview of what the auditor is to document in there working papers on every financial audit as to the procedures they performed in order to determine the risk of a material misstatement. If a material risk is discovered, they are then required to document what they did in order to determine if the financial statements were misstated. Speaker - Dennis Dycus
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Audit Skills for Beginners
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Online/Webcast
4.00 Credits
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Learn the basic skills new staff need to hit the ground running and efficiently complete assigned tasks, including what new auditors are expected to know and do, including the nature, timing, and extent of common audit procedures. Focus on why certain procedures are performed and perform typical procedures. Speaker - Jennifer Louis
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Preparing to be a Forensic Accountant - Focus on Computer Forensics - Part 3 (Steganography)
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Online/Webcast
1.60 Credits
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This course is a complement to our series on Becoming a Forensic Accountant and the focus of the course is on steganography techniques. Steganography is the art and science of embedding secret messages in a cover message in such a way that no one, apart from the sender and 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 and 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, and plans reduced in size to the size of a dot and 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 and 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 and also discuss relevant software. Speaker - Lynn Fountain
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New PCAOB Quality Control Standard Overview
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Online/Webcast
2.00 Credits
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Due to advances in technology, use of outside resources, and more, PCAOB released a new integrated, risk-based standard focused on accountability and continuous improvement for all PCAOB-registered firms. This course will provide an overview of the significant elements and foundational principles of this new standard. Speaker - Jennifer Louis
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Preparing to be a Forensic Accountant - Focus on Computer Forensics - Part 2 (Cryptology)
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Online/Webcast
1.00 Credits
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This is a continuing part of our series on forensic accounting. Within this segment we discuss the concepts that are part of computer forensics known as cryptology. The term cryptography is from Ancient Greek and means “hidden secret”. It is the practice and study of techniques for secure communications in the presence of adversarial behavior. Cryptography is about constructing and analyzing protocols that prevent third parties or the public from reading private messages. Cryptography starts with secrets. Various aspects in information security such as data confidentiality, data integrity, authentication and non-repudiation (where a statement’s author cannot successfully dispute its authorship) are central to modern cryptography. Speaker - Lynn Fountain
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Why Auditors Fail To Detect Fraud
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Online/Webcast
2.00 Credits
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Prior to the original SAS No. 82 on Consideration of Fraud In A Financial Statement Audit (now codified as SAS No. 122, AU 240), the word fraud never appeared in a single SAS, nor was it described anywhere. SAS No. 82 stated that auditors failed to detect fraud for two reasons: 1) They did not know what it looked like and 2) They had not been trained to look for it. Although the SASs did not provide any guidance, auditors have always been responsible for the detection of anything that would cause a material misstatement of the financial statements whether caused by error or irregularities. (They would not even say the word fraud until it appeared in SAS No. 82) The standards were replete with guidance on the detection of an error but silent on how to detect irregularities. Now auditors are required to document in every financial statement audit their process of determining the risk of financial misstatement due to fraud. This presentation is designed to focus on frauds that were missed by the auditors and, in some cases, why it was missed. There will also be discussion as to what the auditor must do in order to improve their track record on detecting fraud. As reported on the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners Occupational Fraud 2022: A Report to the Nations, only 4% of frauds were initially discovered by the external auditor. It was reported that more frauds were discovered by accident, (5%) then was discovered by the external auditor. Speaker - Dennis Dycus
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The Role of Internal Audit in SOX Compliance
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Online/Webcast
2.00 Credits
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The Sarbanes Oxley Act (SOX) continues to pose challenges with compliance. Companies must continue to evaluate whether they have designed and implemented an adequate system of internal controls over financial reporting (ICFR). This course will address the best practices that ensure an effective and efficient approach to SOX compliance. Speaker - Jennifer Louis