MACPA Statement // October 2018

STATEMENT MACPA’S

OCTOBER 2018

A more diverse, inclusive profession?

Efforts to transform the look, feel, and mindset of the profession have been top of mind lately.

Have they been successful?

Page 4

ALSO INSIDE Conversation is key: Two voices on diversity and inclusion

Page 12

Maryland Association of Certified Public Accountants, Inc.

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CONTENTS October 2018 | Maryland Association of Certified Public Accountants, Inc.

CHAIR’S COLUMN.............................................................................. 2 FEATURES A more diverse, inclusive profession?................................................................... 4 Conversation is key: Two voices on diversity and inclusion................................ 12

DEPARTMENTS Public Practice...................................................................................................... 16 Tax Corner............................................................................................................ 18 Financial Planning................................................................................................ 22 Business & Industry.............................................................................................. 27 From Our Partners............................................................................................... 30

MEMBER NOTES................................................................................ 39 CLASSIFIEDS........................................................................................... 41 UPCOMING EVENTS & COURSES.................................... 46

ADMINISTRATION

TECHNICAL SERVICES

Pam Bartoshek pamb@macpa.org

Cora Edwards cora@macpa.org

Amy Stumme amy@macpa.org

MaryBeth Halpern marybeth@macpa.org

COMMUNICATIONS

SPONSORSHIP AND ADVERTISING

Bill Sheridan bill@macpa.org FINANCE Margaret DeRoose margaret@macpa.org

Amy Puente amyp@macpa.org Krislyn Suljak krislyn@macpa.org

Laura Swann, CPA lauras@macpa.org

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

MEMBER SERVICES

Natalie Atonakas natalie@macpa.org

Lauren Baker lauren@macpa.org

Pamela C. Devine pam@macpa.org

Rebekah Brown, CPA rebekah@macpa.org

Chris Dougherty chrisd@macpa.org

PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT

Laura Dorsey-Shaner laura@macpa.org

Akesha Brown akesha@macpa.org Debbie Zizwarek debbie@macpa.org

OCTOBER 2018

Terri Smith terri@macpa.org Jennifer Stevens jennifer@macpa.org

Dee Sullivan dee@macpa.org Emily Trott emily@macpa.org Ryan Wey ryan@macpa.org Rebecca Zimmerman becca@macpa.org

2018-19 BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Leon Katsnelson Andrew Page, CPA Keith Parker, CPA Karen Syrylo, CPA Denise West, CPA, CGMA

SENIOR STAFF MACPA EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

OFFICERS

J. Thomas Hood III, CPA tom@macpa.org

Samantha Bowling, CPA, CGMA Chair

MACPA DEPUTY EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Ray Speciale, Esq., CPA Vice Chair

Jacqueline E. G. Brown jackie@macpa.org

Avonette Blanding, CPA Secretary/Treasurer Kenneth Kelly, CPA, CGMA Immediate Past Chair DIRECTORS Christine Aspell, CPA Mark Cissell, CPA Jeffrey Cook, CPA, CITP, CISA

DIRECTOR OF FINANCE AND ADMINISTRATION Skip Falatko, CPA skip@macpa.org

WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU! See below to submit content Bill Sheridan | MACPA Dulaney Center II 901 Dulaney Valley Road Suite 800 Towson, MD 21204 FOR CONTENT SUBMISSION: bill@macpa.org feedback@macpa.org TO ADVERTISE IN THE STATEMENT: krislyn@macpa.org P: 410.296.6250 F: 410.296.8713 Toll free: 800.782.2036

The MACPA reserves the right to edit all submissions for grammatical style and / or length.

Statement of fact and opinion are made by the authors alone and do not imply an opinion on the part of the officers or members of MACPA. The Statement is published four times a year by the Maryland Association of Certified Public Accountants, Inc. Bill Sheridan, Editor Krislyn Suljak, Advertising Sales

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CHAIR’S COLUMN

To best serve Maryland’s CPAs, sometimes we have to leave Maryland

BY SAMANTHA BOWLING, CPA, CGMA / PARTNER, GARBELMAN WINSLOW CPAs “Here’s how you know you’re from Maryland: When you visit the south, you’re from the north … and when you visit the north, you’re from the south.” — Unknown That about sums it up. We Marylanders are stuck in the middle. We’re neither up nor down, here nor there. We defy convention, and we like it that way.

Maryland is the MACPA’s home. It’s where we live, it’s what we love, and its CPAs are who we serve. We couldn’t prouder of that.

To best serve Maryland’s CPAs, though, sometimes we have to get out of Maryland.

This profession is changing radically, in ways we’ve never seen before. Amazing technological advances, generational shifts, and groundbreaking new legislation and regulation are colliding in a perfect storm of transformation that is remaking accounting and finance as we know it.

This stuff is happening out there. This isn’t a Maryland phenomenon. It’s global. It’s happening everywhere, and if we want to help Maryland’s CPAs get ahead of these changes — and we do — we have to be everywhere.

We have to talk to the global thought leaders who understand what’s happening, so we can help you understand what’s happening.

We have to attend the events that take deep dives into these issues, so we can teach you what we’ve learned.

We have to partner with the organizations that are on the cutting edge of these changes, organizations that are creating resources and solutions that will help CPAs thrive in a changing and complex world.

A lot of those thought leaders, events, and organizations aren’t based in Maryland, so we must go where they are, and learn from them, and bring that knowledge back to Maryland’s CPAs. So we do. With Tom Hood, one of the accounting profession’s most influential people, leading the charge, the MACPA spends a great deal of time, money, and energy outside Maryland’s borders. When we do that, we’re not ignoring you; we’re trying to help you become better CPAs.

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When Rebekah Brown, the MACPA’s director of development, attends the AICPA’s E.D.G.E. conference each year, it’s so she can learn about the issues that impact young accounting and finance professionals … and thus share that knowledge with you.

When Bill Sheridan, the MACPA’s chief communications officer, interviews thought leaders from coast to coast for his “FutureReady” podcast or speaks at accountingrelated conferences throughout the country, it’s so he can bring back the lessons he’s learned and share them with Maryland’s CPAs. When the MACPA’s learning affiliate, the Business Learning Institute, brings innovative training programs to organizations across the nation, it’s so Maryland can have a hand in transforming this profession.

When Tom Hood spends time speaking at national (and even international) events and working with firms far and wide, he does it intentionally: He wants to bring Maryland’s CPAs onto the national and international stage with him. He wants Maryland’s CPAs to have a seat at the table as our profession grapples with the issues that are changing it in real time.

In turn, the MACPA has become a team of thought leaders in their own right, and organizations (and even regulators like the PCAOB) throughout the profession seek us out to provide them with insight and guidance into the trends that are impacting our world.

Everything we do is with an eye toward Maryland. We do it all so we can help you become better CPAs. That means that, occasionally, we have to spend a considerable amount of time away from home.

And when we’re away, keep in mind that not a penny of your dues dollars are being spent out of state. Our travel expenses and conference fees are covered by those who invite us to speak. Often, in fact, they pay us for our thought leadership.

Always know that wherever we go, we’ll always come back, packed with a boatload of information that will help you become more future-ready and better serve your clients.

That information is available in a number of different areas: • Tom Hood’s professional issues updates — a series of which are held throughout Maryland each spring and fall — provide members with updates of what’s happening around the profession, thanks to information Tom has received during his trips across the nation.

• All members receive our “MACPA Weekly” e-newsletter each Friday that highlights the things that are happening profession-wide that we need to know each week.

• Bill Sheridan’s weekly “Future-Proof” podcasts feature interviews with thought leaders from coast to coast, each of whom offers ideas of what Maryland CPAs need to do to become more future-ready.

• Our extensive library of e-learning programs, on-sight and on-demand sessions, and other professional development opportunities include knowledge from thought leaders throughout the world, and they’re all designed to keep Maryland CPAs on the cutting edge of what’s happening in our profession.

Regardless of where we are, we’re here to serve you. Maryland’s CPAs are our top priority. Everything we do, we do to make you better at what you do. If you have suggestions for how we can do that better, we would love to hear them. Reach out to us at MACPA.org/contact.

We have to be global, so that we can be local. We have to be everywhere, so we can better serve you here. In Maryland.

Because Maryland is our Our purpose.

Our home.

passion.

STATEMENT

A more diverse, inclusive profession?

Efforts to transform the look, feel, and mindset of the profession have been top of mind lately.

Have they been successful?

B Y R O B NA N C E

Women have been entering the accounting profession in higher numbers since the 1990s. That’s one of the positive trends driving our profession forward. “At the end of the day,” says Rebekah Brown, CPA, director of development at the Maryland Association of CPAs, “we all just want to make the accounting profession better.”

But are we getting better?

Plenty of signs point toward a more diverse profession, but is it, really? A PwC report titled “Making Diversity a Reality” finds that 73 percent of female millennials working in financial services believe their organizations talk about diversity, but opportunities are not equal for all.

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So yes, progress has been made, but much still must be done. How do we create programs that provide all minority accountants with the tools they need to be successful?

CPAs looking to promote diversity and inclusion might want to follow a four-point plan: cultivate, elevate, nominate, and celebrate.

To improve the participation of women and minority CPAs in the profession, the starting point is to cultivate them. As firms cultivate women and minority CPAs, it’s important to “walk the talk” by elevating them within the firm. As the participation of women and minority CPAs is cultivated and elevated, they can serve as role models to their peers and the next generation of women and minority CPAs. This is accomplished by nominating them as mentors, for leadership roles in the community, and for awards.

STATEMENT

“We need to be creative and get children enthusiastic about what an accounting career can do for them.”

- DR. R. MITHU DEY, CPA “The MACPA is working toward a profession that includes everyone,” said MACPA Executive Director Tom Hood, CPA. “Our profession and our state need more CPAs. It’s a dynamic career with a diversity of paths and options. With more CPAs retiring every day, there is a huge opportunity for students pursuing this path.”

Still, in 2017, minorities represented only 17 percent of all employees and fewer than 5 percent of all partners at accounting firms in the United States. These figures are thought to be a little higher in industry accounting, but not substantially.

Why are the numbers of minorities in the accounting profession so low? While the profession’s intentions to change and become more inclusive of minorities are good, we still have plenty of work to do to create truly inclusive environments.

DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION: THERE’S A DIFFERENCE Diversity and inclusion: two important words that spark two true statements. The first is that “a diverse CPA profession is a better CPA profession.” Most people agree. They believe today’s public accounting firms and corporate finance departments should be as diverse as the people they serve.

The second statement casts a cloud over the profession: “A lack of racial diversity and inclusion is plaguing the accounting profession.”

Dr. R. Mithu Dey, CPA, associate professor of accounting at Howard University in Washington, D.C., wants to know what African-American accountants and prospective accountants are thinking in terms of their careers, how they are treated in the profession, and what they want from the profession.

The Howard University School of Business Center for Accounting Education’s recent research report titled “Analysis of Work Experiences of African-American Professionals in Accounting” shows negative trends for African-American accountants in acceptance by colleagues, job satisfaction, and work-life balance.

According to PwC’s “Making Diversity a Reality” report, AfricanAmericans make up some 14 percent of the U.S. population but hold fewer than 3 percent of senior positions in financial services.

The research also shows that the talent pipeline is a major issue.

“The accounting profession is not in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics), and we’re competing against a government machine for dollars,” Dey said. “The lesson on how to compete is that we must capture students at an early age. The accounting profession is behind in marketing and recruitment, battling for students — and we need to do a better job of getting in early. We need to be creative and get children enthusiastic about what an accounting career can do for them.”

Howard University’s research also shows that public accounting firms are: • Not hiring African-Americans at the same rates as Asians and Hispanics.

• Not retaining African-American accounting professionals.

• Needing to figure out why and put plans in place to better recruit and retain.

The research suggests that African-American accounting professionals want to believe they have the same opportunities as their white colleagues. The numbers also indicate that black professionals want white professionals to “acknowledge that you had more opportunity than me.” That desire for an understanding perspective from the black community is an important matter to be considered.

Dey says several initiatives are focused on increasing and retaining the number of under-represented minorities entering the profession. “There aren’t enough people of color in the pipeline,” say many public accounting firms and accounting departments throughout the nation.

Getting there requires support. According to the research, many black accountants find they need to work twice as hard to get the same recognition as their white counterparts. The data further indicates that black accountants believe competency isn’t as important a factor in their career success as it is for their white counterparts.

Kim Drumgo, MBA, PMP, director of diversity and inclusion at the Association of International Certified Professional Accountants, emphasizes the differences in the career stages pipeline. AICPA data shows that non-white populations make up a greater percentage of the beginning stages of the pipeline, but not so much toward the partner end.

• 41 percent of BA enrollments • 37 percent of BA and MA graduates •3 0 percent of hires •2 2 percent of professional staff •1 2 percent of CPAs •5 percent of partners The AICPA research shows a trend toward a more diverse profession, but at a very slow pace. In 2015-16, 41 percent of bachelor’s and master’s of accounting enrollees were non-white.

Nine years prior, that figure was 38 percent.

Organizations that nurture the best and brightest young under-represented minorities during their early career years do so by doing these things: • Address “pipeline” issues.

• Develop an inclusive culture.

• Increase emphasis on CPA credential importance.

• Assure a rounded complement of assignments to build experience.

• Provide fair, consistent, and timely performance evaluations.

• Strengthen mentorship so it is more about advocacy and sponsorship.

• Work to establish informal relationships with senior management (senior managers and above) during early career years.

• Recognize that diversity and inclusion is a two-way street and that both the firm and the under-represented minority must do their part.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 7

OCTOBER 2018

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Here’s what under-represented minorities must do: •R each out to other under-represented minorities.

• Make personal commitments during their early years as a manager to stay with their organization for the long haul.

• Earn professional credentials and certifications within one or two years of employment.

•B ecome a CPA. •P articipate in firm-wide development programs.

•D evelop strong technical skills.

•W ork toward being a subject matter expert.

•P ractice social and interpersonal skills.

•H ave an interest in the profession.

•P ossess the drive to succeed.

Outreach, education, and awareness are essential to further development. Linda Devonish-Mills, CMA, CPA, CAE, MBA, is one a proponent of outreach and education. In July, DevonishMills was named director of diversity and inclusion at the Institute of Management Accountants. She performs outreach to students in historically black colleges and universities and encourages students to stay within the accounting profession, enlightening them to the potential careers in management accounting and what the Certified Management Accounting designation means in terms of career choices.

“I have enjoyed my career and have been able to branch out from the typical accounting role,” Devonish-Mills said. “Knowing the options — more than just the public accounting options — is important for the entire profession. The role of advocacy is important, and it begins with outreach and educating folks on what management accounting is comprised of and the different opportunities that can be pursued. The lack of education has been why there hasn’t been an abundance of minorities in management accounting.”

“Education,” said Nelson Mandela, “is the most powerful weapon you can use to change the world.” Devonish-Mills is singing the praises of the accounting profession while expanding and diversifying the talent pipeline every step of the way.

THE POWER OF COMMUNITY AND NETWORKS Creating a network of resources and relationships that enable and empower minority accounting professionals to succeed and achieve fulfilling careers is the backbone to diversity success.

The National Association of Black Accountants is a non-profit membership association dedicated to bridging the opportunity gap for black professionals in the accounting, finance, and related business professions. Representing more than 200,000 black professionals in these fields and headquartered in Greenbelt, Md., NABA is committed to educate, engage, and empower its members.

That gap is very real. According to the latest U.S. Census statistics, blacks make up 13.6 percent of the total U.S. population but only 10.8 percent of the employed market, and fewer than 9 percent of them classified as accountants and auditors. For analysts and financial managers, it’s closer to 7 percent.

HOW CAN YOU MAKE A DIFFERENCE? Knowing the low or sometimes declining numbers of minorities in the accounting profession may evoke two reactions: Hopelessness that things will never change, or hopefulness to make change. If you are among the 90 percent who are hopeful to make a change, here are three things you can do: 1. S eek opportunities to speak about accounting in the classroom. AICPA studies indicate that today’s minority CPAs have been influenced by a speaker or a teacher who introduced them to accounting early in their career decision-making process – high school and middle school. Don’t wait to be asked. Let local middle and high school teachers know you are passionate about the profession and are willing to donate your time to the classroom. The MACPA can provide resources, Powerpoint presentations, and giveaways for your presentation. Contact rebekah@macpa.org for details.

2. M entor a minority student or young professional.

Mentoring has proven to be one of the most effective ways to increase diversity in many different industries, and the accounting profession is no exception.

Mentoring and coaching minority students and young professionals can be a meaningful experience for both the mentor and the mentee. Learn more about the MACPA’s mentor program at macpa.org/mentorshipconnection, and about the AICPA’s online program at aicpa.org/mentoring.

3. B ecome an accounting tutor. If you have technical skills to share, consider sharing them through tutoring.

Your tutoring and encouragement can increase the likelihood of success for many minority students in the final stages of their studies, whether it be graduation or sitting for the CPA exam. Connect with the school of business at your local universities. Indicate that you are interested in donating your time to tutor students who need tutoring assistance in accounting courses or in preparing for the CPA exam.

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OCTOBER 2018

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“The accounting profession is welcoming to everybody and everyone. The potential for monumental change is real.”

One key component of the firm’s retention strategy is to offer programs and activities that appeal to its entire workforce.

“Every voice in our firm is important,” Davis said, “and we offer opportunities for all staff to bring their ideas and concerns to the table, whether that’s through our open-door policy or the Employee Engagement Committee.” In addition, diversity training is conducted annually.

“If you find success, it will spread to other places,” said Laura Concannon, an MACPA member and a Baltimore CPA for more than 30 years. “We need to continue to get CPAs to understand. We can do a lot to help. Understanding, having real conversations, and taking time to listen — we can all do it.”

THE AICPA LEADS THE WAY The AICPA works to encourage and promote diversity and inclusion within the profession and its workforce. The Institute’s National Commission on Diversity and Inclusion (NCDI) was formed in 2012 to serve as champions within the accounting profession. It proposes strategies to recruit, retain, and advance under-represented minorities in the profession. The vision of the NCDI is to create a seamless handoff of students from the pipeline to the profession — and to ensure retention and advancement.

What’s critical for everyone to consider and practice? Engage in a breadth of perspectives. Increase participation with those who are not like you. And ultimately, practice changed thinking.

Lead the way for those around you who are perhaps not as willing or enlightened.

The AICPA’s Inclusion Champions represent a cohort of CPAs across the country who help foster discussions on diversity and inclusion throughout the profession. The Inclusion Champions are highly skilled and trained to reach the profession through speaking engagements and other activities.

Concannon started her journey to improve diversity and inclusion a couple of years ago.

One such Inclusion Champion is the MACPA’s Rebekah Brown.

Optimistic about the changes that lie ahead, the next generation of accountants, and the brand awareness of the CPA profession, Brown is helping to guide the profession forward. She recognizes that it takes an extensive and far-reaching effort from firms, corporations, industry organizations, and more.

- REBEKAH BROWN, CPA, MACPA Keeping the conversation going is key.

“Reaching out more made me a happier person. I’m interacting with more people and different people,” she said. “You get so much out of it by putting yourself out there. It’s well worth it — and it’s a very personal thing.”

DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION AS A RETENTION ISSUE The firms and companies that are succeeding with retention of minority accounting professionals instill a welcoming infrastructure. Minorities who know there are other minorities at their firm or company — who know there’s real opportunity for advancement beyond the token person from their race, sex, etc. — are far more likely to stay than look elsewhere for employment.

One organization that is winning on this front is Gelman Rosenberg & Freedman in Bethesda, Md. Kimberley Davis, MHRIR, SPHR, SHRM-SCP, the firm’s human resources director, has been living and breathing diversity and inclusion during the past 12 years at the expanding international firm. Now 112 employees strong, the firm is more than a “success story”; it’s an interesting case study in practice management growth.

“Diversity and inclusiveness are at the heart of the firm’s values because we believe that our staff and culture should reflect the diversity of our clients,” Davis said. “Our recruitment strategy is one in which we pursue the best candidates for our clients and the firm culture, which leads to a diverse workforce.”

“The accounting profession is welcoming to everybody and everyone,” she said. “The potential for monumental change is real. If 10 years down the road diversity and inclusion are not substantially better in the profession, it will only be because organizations didn’t step up and firms were not structured well enough to receive minorities and operate accordingly. Together, we can make it happen.”

Avonette Blanding is part of that effort. As CFO of Maritime Applied Physics Corporation in Baltimore and secretary / treasurer of the MACPA’s Board of Directors, she knows the importance of mentoring and “paying it forward.” Accounting is more than just numbers, Blanding says — it’s for thinkers. Being a CPA requires analytical thought.

“The MACPA Career Awareness Program exposes students to all of the career options,” she said. “We do more than count beans, and we do more than taxes. These are things that young people who are thinking about their career choices need to know. The MACPA’s mentoring program has a good representation. On top of that, technology and reach will help to make the accounting profession be more diverse. This is a very exciting time of change.”

Gelman Rosenberg & Freedman walks the talk. The firm’s staff speaks 17 different languages, 45 percent of the firm’s staff are women, and 45 percent of the firm’s personnel are either AfricanAmerican, Latino, or Asian.

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STATEMENT

A SEAT AT THE TABLE The world is changing. Many of today’s customers and clients want to see a reflection of what their public accounting firm believes. Young professionals, too, want to see successful role models who look like them so they can believe they can do it, too. That’s a fundamental necessity.

Jeannine Brown is a Business Learning Institute thought leader who has been active in the National Association of Black Accountants. “When we look at the growth and what some people call the ‘browning of America,’ combined with global competition and technology, it’s critical for companies to be focused in this area,” said Brown, the CEO of consulting firm Everyday Lead and a former NABA board member. “The term ‘the inclusion of diversity’ is one that I use often.”

Everything minorities bring to the table is important. Why? It’s a matter of innovation and ideas, of a firm’s or company’s culture, of being the best an organization can be on all fronts. “As a black professional,” said Brown, “I want people to be concerned about me as an individual, as a person, and don’t expect me to represent the entire community of women or black people.”

Organizations must create the right programs for recruitment, retention, and advancement. Mahatma Gandhi once said, “You must be the change you wish to see in the world.” The accounting profession is all about change, improving businesses, and bettering the financial situations of hard-working people of all types. The opportunity to improve lives and be leaders is a golden opportunity in which we can all play a meaningful role.

“The term ‘the inclusion of diversity’ is one that I use often.”

- JEANNINE BROWN, CEO, EVERYDAY LEADER Though perceived bias remains high, trends suggest that white supervisors are moving, or are attempting to move, past race when performing evaluations. Coping with discrimination is one of the greatest challenges in today’s work environment.

Unfortunately, it occurs every day, in a variety of forms.

Diverse teams are more innovative, and innovative teams are more diverse. Fewer minorities appear to be bypassed these days by white colleagues with less technical competence or experience. More positive and rewarding mentoring relationships are occurring now than in past years. Assimilation into corporate culture is also becoming less of a problem.

These signs all speak to the potential for more diversity, innovation, and harmony moving forward.

JOIN THE CONVERSATION & THE COMMUNITY If you’re passionate about helping move the diversity and inclusion needle in Maryland, or even just interested in learning more, join the conversation and the community that we’re starting. For more information, contact MACPA Chief Operating Officer Jackie Brown at jackie@macpa.org.

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Conversation is key Two voices on diversity and inclusion

In many ways, corporate America’s push for diversity and inclusion is as much about shared experiences and understanding as it is about remaking the face of our workforce.

Laura Conconnan and Jina Etienne understand that more than most.

The MACPA members connected recently in an effort to gain a deeper understanding not just about how they differ, but about what they have in common and how those commonalities can drive our profession forward.

Each of them spent some time writing about their experiences and what they’ve learned. Here are their thoughts.

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STATEMENT

Keys to bridging the gap: Understanding, listening, communicating B Y L A U R A CON CA N N ON , CPA

I find myself wondering frequently these days about the divide in our country.

I am a 56-year-old Irish Catholic female who grew up in a white, middle-class neighborhood. My parents lived paycheck to paycheck. My father was a Baltimore City police officer and my mother stayed home.

I got my start at an “old-school” CPA firm, at a time when silos were common practice in public practice. Since then, we’ve learned that silos are not best practices; sharing knowledge is a best practice. In our profession, understanding, listening, and communicating are key to success. They are the tools we use to help our clients and businesses succeed.

The firms where I have worked in the past were run by white men. Since then, our profession has made progress in hiring more women, but not people of color. I only just recently learned that fewer than 1 percent of CPAs in the United States are black.

Diversity and inclusion are buzzwords today. Have we, as a profession, actually tried to understand what those words mean and how they happen?

I have started to apply my focus in a more intentional way. I’ve tried to expand my choice of seminars, the books I read, who I follow on social media. I’ve tried to find multiple viewpoints with very different experiences and learn our country’s history — the parts that were conveniently left out of my history books. I’m a better person for it. I try to have open conversations, to actually listen, and to understand from another person’s perspective.

The anger, the defensiveness … it’s exhausting. Aren’t you sick and tired of being sick and tired? Take a breath and take a step into a different neighborhood. I believe change comes from action. Our profession touches many. Envision the potential impact we can have if we make some of these changes.

The more I try to understand, the more I realize there is so much I don’t understand.

If you listen to the “screamers” — those on both the far right and the far left — you start to realize they have the loudest voices.

We have given them too much power. We have let them get under our skin and make us angry. Many years ago, I learned that I am in control of my emotions, that I am the only one who can let myself become angry. We, the majority who are silent, need to speak up and step out.

A friend introduced me to the acronym FEAR — False Evidence Appearing Real. Think about that. You’ve heard the term “systemic racism?” At its most basic level, the white neighborhood founded the system, and it’s still running the system. Maybe we need to open our minds to the fact that oppression still exists in many forms … but that doesn’t mean you, as an individual, caused it.

My dad taught me one of the most important lessons I have learned in life: “Never take what people say or do personally,” he said. “You never know what they have been through that day.” He also said, “Never be in a hurry when driving. The person who just passed you will be sitting next to you at the red light.” Nine times out of 10, I find that to be true.

I recently reached out to Jina Etienne, CPA, a black woman and a leader in our profession, for conversation.

I am thriving on this journey. Jina and I are continuing our conversation, and I have a new friend.

Some may say being white has become a negative; I believe many white people feel that way, anyway. The neighborhood where I grew up is sometimes spoken of as racist. Here’s what I believe: My generation, the men and women I grew up with, have been doing what they were taught were the “right things” — work hard, stay out of trouble, take care of your family. We did not typically venture far from our own neighborhoods. We thrived. The world was small back then. With social media and technology, we now live in a much larger universe. I often hear others say, “I worked hard for what I have. Nobody gave me anything. They just need to work hard, too.” When we use the term “they,” who are we talking about?

We should all be that fortunate.

I hear others say I’m not racist, that I treat everyone the same.

If you never interact with individuals in different neighborhoods, how do you know how you would treat them? Is ignoring others treating them the same? Unfortunately, many people don’t know how to enter other neighborhoods. They are too busy to go there, or they are tired and have given up, hoping it just goes away.

OCTOBER 2018

Laura Concannon, CPA, is a tax principal and co-founder of Baltimorebased Vardavas & Concannon, PA, and a member of the MACPA.

READ JINA ETIENNE’S THOUGHTS ON PAGE 14

WANT TO SEE OUR PROFESSION BECOME MORE DIVERSE AND INCLUSIVE? HELP US OUT If you’re passionate about helping the MACPA move our profession’s diversity-and-inclusion needle in Maryland, or if you’re even just interested in learning more, join the conversation and community we’re starting. For more information, contact: MACPA Chief Operating Officer Jackie Brown at jackie@macpa.org or (443) 632-2300.

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How a few questions about race started a friendship B Y J I NA E TIE N N E , CPA

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 13

Someone reached out to me on LinkedIn recently to see if they could ask me a question about diversity and race. The message ended with, “Thanks for listening.” I immediately knew this was someone I wanted to talk to.

That message has morphed into a budding friendship, and we’ve continued to talk about much more than diversity and race. We’ve shared experiences as we’ve learned more about each other.

Her name is Laura Concannon, and we couldn’t be more different.

She describes herself as a 56-year-old white Irish Catholic.

I’m a 50-year-old “other” — half-Filipino, half-black, a Gen Xer who married a Boomer. We have two Millennial boys, ages 20 and 22.

My mother and husband (along with a lot of my extended family) are naturalized citizens, while I am a natural-born American. My mother was raised Catholic, my father as African Methodist Episcopal. They joined the Bahá’í faith (Bahai.org) shortly after they married, and I was raised a Bahá’í. We lived in Columbia, Md., a city described in Wikipedia as a place that “began with the idea that a city could enhance its residents’ quality of life. Creator and developer James W. Rouse saw the new community in terms of human values, rather than merely economics and engineering.” I’m grateful to have been raised with what feels like truly unique perspective.

Which brings me back to Laura’s questions about diversity and race.

I was struck by her openness. Laura was curious, thoughtful, and clearly had been thinking for quite a while about how, if, and why her background may have left her with blind spots when it came to issues of race. She felt I was someone she could safely talk with, for which I was deeply humbled and grateful. When we spoke, I acknowledged her feelings, thanked her for being so open, and told her that I “get it” as she spoke of about a generation trying to do the “right” thing by working hard, staying out of trouble and taking care of family. She even acknowledged that the systems that define “right” were created by a white majority — or, as she put it, “The white neighborhood founded the system and is still running the system.”

I don’t believe most white Americans are racist. I do believe all of us — myself included — are prejudiced in some way. It’s wired into our DNA. However, I don’t believe our lack of progress is due simply to racism or prejudice. Like Laura, I don’t think it’s fair to label someone because of something their parents did, or blame someone because of their upbringing. By the same token, if your parents were racist or you did benefit from programs and opportunities not available to blacks and other minorities, either overtly or unintentionally, shouldn’t there be some acknowledgement of that, too?

I believe the solution lies in empathy and acknowledgement.

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Empathy is understanding someone’s feelings, thoughts, or attitudes. Empathy goes beyond sympathy because it focuses on understanding someone’s feelings even if or when you don’t necessarily have or share those same feelings. This is a critical difference when discussing race, because a white person cannot have or share the feelings of being a racial minority. At best, he or she can understand and empathize.

Acknowledgement, meanwhile, is defined as “accepting the truth or existence of something.”

When you pair empathy with acknowledgement, the result is a powerful form of validation! When you are the “only (blank)” in a group of people, validation helps you feel like you belong. It doesn’t matter how you fill in that blank – woman, black person, American, skateboarder. We all have a strong need to belong. Validation means I can be my authentic “different” self and still be part of the group.

Public accounting has a long-standing culture based on attributes that are male, white, conservative, generally Republican, and usually affluent. That culture influences everything from dress code and sense of humor to music and social interactions. We say we are diverse, but the overarching personality of our profession suggests otherwise. Those who don’t naturally fit within these defined norms spend a lot of time covering or holding back rather than rocking the boat or braving the possibility of being ostracized. While our intentions are good, we still have some work to do to create truly inclusive environments – not just at one firm, but across the profession.

Although organizations are hiring more minorities, most have not seen meaningful change in company culture, pace of innovation, or levels of growth. The data are clear: Diverse teams are more innovative, and innovative teams are more diverse. Devising and implementing D&I strategies and initiatives is challenging work because it inevitably involves change. Large, organization-wide change often fails to take hold over the long-term because, in my experience, many initiatives fail at the most basic level: the individual.

That is why my professional focus has shifted to this core issue: incorporating D&I into a firm’s entire ecosystem – identity, core values, beliefs, and infrastructure. Innovative teams are diverse because they allow everyone to voice their opinions, fully engage, and be part of the process.

In public accounting terms, this means incorporating a little bit of everyone into the personality of the profession.

Jina Etienne, CPA, is director of diversity and inclusion at Grant Thornton, LLP, and a member of the Maryland Association of CPAs. STATEMENT

OCTOBER 2018

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PUBLIC PRACTICE How to avoid common peer review deficiencies B Y D. DE A N B E DDOW, CPA Editor’s note: The following article originally appeared in the July / August 2018 issue of New Jersey CPA magazine, a publication of the New Jersey Society of CPAs. It is reprinted here with permission.

Remedying deficiencies identified by peer reviewers and enhancing a firm’s quality control system to address those deficiencies is essential to improving accounting and audit quality. Modifying a system of quality control to address deficiencies should be considered by all firms to maintain an effective system of quality control.

Peer review is the evaluation of a firm’s system of quality control and the engage­ ments performed and issued by a firm.

The American Institute of CPAs’ peer review program has two types of re­views: system reviews required for firms performing and issuing audit and account­ ing reports, and engagement reviews for firms performing and issuing only

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accounting reports. The ultimate goal of a peer review is to enhance the quality of the firm’s system of quality control or the procedures performed supporting the reports issued by the firm.

While most firms accomplish this goal by receiving a pass rating (the highest rating for a peer review), approximately 19 percent of firms receive either a pass with deficiencies or fail. Firms receiving these ratings have room for improvement, and even firms receiving a pass rating can enhance their system, as they may receive findings or other challenges to their systems.

The first line of defense for providing a firm with reasonable assurance of executing engagements in accordance

with professional standards is a welldesigned system of quality controls.

The firm’s system of quality control contains six functional areas: • Leadership responsibilities (tone at the top) • Relevant ethical requirements • Acceptance and continuation of client relationships and specific engagements • Human resources • Engagement performance • Monitoring Peer reviewers have identified matters in several functional areas of a firm’s system of quality control for its accounting and auditing practice and the engagements performed by those firms.

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PUBLIC PRACTICE 1. INSUFFICIENT COMMUNICATIONS Firm leadership is responsible for the design and implementation of the system; however, peer reviewers have noted on multiple occasions that leadership has failed to communicate quality control policies and procedures to all accounting and audit personnel. Firm leadership must set the right tone, especially as it relates to audit and accounting quality.

Frequent communications may be as simple as communicating the firm’s strategy, emphasizing audit quality over other considerations, and linking audit quality to individual goals during performance evaluations.

2. INSUFFICIENT EXPERTISE Another matter frequently seen by peer reviewers is related to acceptance and continuance of clients. Far too often reviewers see firms accepting or continuing with clients without the requisite knowl­ edge of current professional standards or specialized industry knowledge. Firms should critically determine whether they have the expertise to accept these engagements, especially in complex industries such as ERISA and governmental entities. Frequently, peer reviewers note the firm did not have expertise in a specific industry to complete the engagement in accordance with professional standards.

Firms should critically examine whether they have the skill, knowledge or expertise, which may be obtained in many ways through CPE or discussion with experts inside or outside the firm, to complete the engagement before accepting or continuing with a client. Peer reviewers also regularly see firms fail to design quality control policies that require accounting and auditing personnel to participate in relevant CPE.

3. OUT-OF-DATE PRACTICE AID LIBRARY A common theme for the engagement performance functional area is failure to complete or utilize purchased practice aids during engagements. Repeatedly, peer reviewers draft comments related to firm’s failure to update their libraries or not understand the questions/prompts from their purchased practice aids.

In the current environment, we have seen significant changes in professional standards, including auditing, accounting and generally accepted accounting principles. The AICPA issued SSARSs 21, 22 and 23, revising the standards and reports issued by CPAs. The Financial Accounting Standards Board recently issued new revenue and leasing standards, which have several volumes of guidance being issued almost monthly on the accounting implementation and auditing of these two new standards.

In short, when using either purchased practice aids or internally developed practice aids, firms must keep these current whether by purchase or frequent updates.

Otherwise, they risk missing new or revised changes in professional standards.

4. INCOMPLETE DOCUMENTATION Another topic falling within the engage­ ment performance functional area is a lack of documentation. The AICPA peer review program has made it a significant focus to improve documentation/evidence of procedures performed. According to the AICPA, “one in four engagements selected for enhanced oversight was materially nonconforming due to a lack of adequate documentation.” Firms should carefully review the documentation within their files to ensure their documentation complies with professional standards.

First is AU-C, specifically paragraph 19, requiring auditors to “obtain sufficient appropriate audit evidence to reduce audit risk to an acceptably low level and thereby enable the auditor to draw reasonable conclusions on which to base the auditor’s opinion.”

OCTOBER 2018

The second is AU-C 230, specifically paragraph 8, requiring an experienced auditor having no previous experience with the engage­ ment to understand a) the nature, timing and extent of the audit procedures; b) the results of the audit procedures performed and the audit evidence obtained; and c) the significant findings/issues, conclusions and significant professional judgments made in reaching those conclusions. Peer reviewers will be critically evaluating the audit documentation / evidence to determine if it complies with both of these professional standards. Too often peer reviewers hear firms say, “I did the procedures but did not document them” or the evidence only contains a portion of the requirements.

Firms should strengthen their quality control policies and procedures to perform cold reads. Have another person in the firm not associated with the engagement review the documentation or critically review their own evidence to take credit for all the procedures performed, as the peer reviewer will be drafting findings even if the firm represents the work was completed, just not documented.

NEXT STEPS Monitoring is key. Monitoring the matters noted above and self-evaluating deficiencies identified by the firm will go a long way to improving accounting and audit quality. During the years between peer reviews, firms have the opportunity to identify deficiencies on accounting and auditing engagements and react to those deficiencies through revisions to their quality controls policies and procedures.

Having a well-designed and effective system of quality control should improve audit quality and increase a firm’s chances of maintaining a pass rating or moving up from a pass with deficiencies or a fail on their next peer review.

D. Dean Beddow, CPA, is the managing director of audit risk management at Grant Thornton. He recently completed a threeyear term as the chairperson of the NJCPA Peer Review Executive Committee. Dean can be reached at dean.beddow@us.gt.com.

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TAX CORNER The Wayfair decision: Here’s how to mitigate your risk B Y B I L L S H E R IDA N How fair is Wayfair?

It depends on who you ask.

To some, the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to strike down a 1992 ruling that established a physical presence threshold for when states could tax remote sales is a way of leveling the sales-tax playing field for retailers.

Others see it as a threat to small businesses.

Still others see implications that reach far beyond the sales tax realm.

One thing is certain: CPAs must be vigilant — sometimes cautious, sometimes less so — in how they provide tax services and advise clients.

That’s according to the folks at Aon, which partners with the AICPA to provide insurance to meet the personal and business needs of today’s CPAs. Aon has released a new report that warns CPAs to “understand the professional liability implications of this decision” — and there are many. I’m quoting here from the Aon report: “Physical presence is no longer the nexus standard when evaluating whether or not a client should collect and remit sales tax to a specific state, and clients should understand this important concept.

CPAs must be vigilant — sometimes cautious, sometimes less so — in how they provide tax services and advise clients.

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“A client who is not timely informed of the change in nexus standard may assert that they did not have sufficient time to understand and prepare for additional filing and reporting responsibilities in a cost-effective manner. This may result in claims against the CPA firm, seeking to recover the additional costs incurred by the client to quickly implement the required changes.

“If a CPA fails to inform a client about its responsibility to collect and remit sales tax in a particular state and this is uncovered by the state, the client may contend that the CPA firm failed to advise them of the change, and should be responsible for not only the penalties and interest assessed by the state, but also for the uncollected taxes. Notably, taxes are not typically part of recoverable damages in a professional liability claim.

“From an income tax perspective, clients who fail to file tax returns in economic nexus states may claim that their CPAs failed to advise them of their filing obligations or failed to update them regarding the impact of the Wayfair decision, seeking to recover their costs for penalties and interest. If the client is subject to double taxation due to the inability to amend returns in their home state, they may also seek recovery of the additional taxes.”

SO WHAT SHOULD CPAs DO? According to Aon, to mitigate the risk of a claim related to the Wayfair decision, CPA firms should: • “Review the U.S. Supreme Court decision and guidance issued by the AICPA and others to determine how the ruling affects a CPA firm’s clients.”

• “Research the nexus standards for sales, use and income tax laws in other states and its application to the CPA firm’s clients.”

• “Review engagement letter templates.

Templates should include (a) a detailed scope of service; and (b) a provision stating that tax services

do not include tax planning or tax consulting, but those services can be provided by the firm pursuant to a separate engagement letter.

• “Proactively inform all clients about the change in nexus standards for sales, use and income tax purposes.”

• “If the CPA believes that the Wayfair decision may apply to a specific client’s tax situation, contact the client directly to share these thoughts and advise the client to engage your CPA firm or another qualified professional for further evaluation.”

• “The Wayfair decision may require clients to register, collect and remit sales tax in additional states, or to modify their notifications to online purchasers regarding use tax reporting obligations. Some clients may have computer software applications that can be updated to comply with these obligations, but most will need to use third parties to modify their online sales platform, and may seek recommendations from their CPA. However, vicarious liability may arise for the CPA firm should the third party referral make an error.”

• “Review client files to identify potential state income tax filing obligations.

If it appears that the client should file in additional jurisdictions, recommend in a written communication that the client do so for the upcoming tax year. If the client refuses, consider the additional risks in rendering services to a client that disregards its filing obligations.”

• “Some CPA firms may not have the experience to consult about sales and use tax filing obligations.

If so, consider referring the client to a tax attorney or another CPA firm to provide assistance. Follow the same guidelines for referrals as outlined above.”

Read Aon’s report in its entirety at bit.ly/ WayfairRisk.

Bill Sheridan is the Maryland Association of CPAs’ chief communication officer.

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STATEMENT

DELMARVA POWER ENERGY SAVINGS FOR BUSINESS PROGRAM

TAX CORNER Tax reform: What does it mean for your clients?

Understanding the new tax laws for 2018 B Y SU SA N C . A LLE N , CPA , CITP, C GMA The recent tax law changes are a hot topic in media coverage. Your clients may be paying attention to the news and scratching their heads, asking: “What does this mean for me?” For some, the tax changes may be relatively small. For others, the changes could be substantial.

Here’s the scoop on what your clients need to know.

Tax rates are changing; many individuals and businesses will pay less.

Though there are still seven tax brackets for individual taxpayers, many will find that they are in a lower tax bracket under the new system.

• The new individual rates are 10 percent, 12 percent, 22 percent, 24 percent, 32 percent, 35 percent, and 37 percent (effective Jan. 1, 2018 through Dec. 31, 2025).

• The individual tax rates under the prior law were 10 percent, 15 percent, 25 percent, 28 percent, 33 percent, 35 percent, and 39.6 percent.

Plus, the income limits changed, resulting in many taxpayers being pushed to a lower bracket than before.

Though not everyone will pay less in taxes under the new rules, here are a few examples of individual taxpayers who will pay less in federal taxes in 2018: • A married couple who filed a joint return with taxable income of $150,000 in 2017 was in the 25-percent tax bracket; for 2018, this couple will be in the 22-percent tax bracket. If you do the math, this couple will save approximately $4,000 in taxes in 2018.

• A single taxpayer with taxable income of $60,000 in 2017 was in the 25 percent bracket; for 2018, this taxpayer is in the 22 percent tax bracket — if you do the math, this taxpayer will save approximately $1,600 in taxes in 2018.

OCTOBER 2018

There are also changes to the corporate tax rates and a new deduction for individuals who have “qualified business income,” or QBI, from a partnership, S corporation, or sole proprietorship.

• The new corporate tax rate is a flat 21 percent (prior-law graduated corporate rates were 15 percent, 25 percent, 34 percent, and 35 percent). This rate isn’t set to expire.

• There is a deduction of up to 20 percent for QBI (this deduction is set to expire Dec. 31, 2025).

Many individual returns will be easier to complete.

One of the many goals associated with tax reform is to make it easier for taxpayers to complete and file accurate returns.

The new law increased the standard deduction through 2025 and did away with personal exemptions. What does this mean?

For many individual taxpayers, it may mean fewer forms and calculations to complete. More taxpayers will use the standard deduction and avoid the need to itemize their expenses (while avoiding the requirement to file a Schedule A and keeping detailed records of those expenses). Several studies have estimated that of the roughly 45 million taxpayers who itemized their expenses on their 2017 returns, only between 5 and 8 million will itemize in 2018.

Good news for people who have young children.

The child tax credit may be claimed for qualifying children under the age of 17.

Starting in 2018, more people will qualify for this credit, and it’s even bigger — double actually. For 2018, the child tax credit is doubled from $1,000 to $2,000 per qualifying child. Plus, the threshold at which the credit begins to phase out is increased to $400,000 for married taxpayers filing a joint return and $200,000 for other taxpayers.

No penalty imposed on individuals who do not have health insurance.

The new law reduces the individual shared responsibility penalty to zero for tax years starting Jan. 1, 2019. However, note that the penalty is still in effect for the 2018 calendar year, and even when the penalty goes away, other aspects of the Affordable Care Act are still in place.

Even when there is no penalty associated with not having health insurance, you should consider the financial implications of being uninsured.

Other noteworthy tax changes.

• Individuals may still be subject to alternative minimum tax (AMT); however, the AMT exemption amount was increased (so fewer people will be hit with this tax). Corporate AMT is repealed.

• 529 plans can now be used to pay for public, private or religious elementary and secondary schools. This can be a nice tax benefit for families who choose to put their children in private schools.

• The new law suspends all previous miscellaneous itemized deductions for individual taxpayers (that were subject to the 2% of adjusted gross income limitation).

• There is an overall deduction limit of $10,000 for property and state and local income taxes for individual taxpayers. Plus, with the increased standard deduction, many taxpayers will no longer itemize their expenses (on Schedule A). Therefore, many taxpayers will not receive any benefit for certain expenses, such as state and local taxes.

Other provisions in tax reform will have varying levels of effects on taxpayers. Plus, many provisions are set to expire in a few years, and there is uncertainty about what will happen at that time.

Susan C. Allen, CPA, CITP, CGMA is senior manager of tax practice and ethics with the AICPA.

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FINANCIAL PLANNING Beyond estate documents: Converting chaos to clarity and closure B Y C H A R L E S R . W OLP OFF, CFP, J D, LL.M, AIF, C HF EBC the client must address these matters with proper planning, clear documentation, and proactive communication.

For example, take even just the first, very sad and extremely difficult tasks after a family member’s death: planning and implementing the funeral and memorial service. Under duress, the family must address questions such as: Did the loved one want to be buried or cremated?

Where do they want their remains interred?

What kind of service would they have wanted? Should the survivors focus on their preferences rather than the deceased’s?

What should be included in the obituary?

When an advisor encourages a client to resolve these questions as part of their estate planning, the client often responds with a dismissive, “Who cares?”

“After all,” they continue, “I’ll be gone, and my family can decide all that for themselves.”

If you don’t make it home alive today, would your family be okay? Would your spouse and children know what to do, where the important records are located, and how to access essential information?

Even if you have prepared an up-to-date will, would your loved ones be totally lost and mired in confusion?

Truly holistic “estate planning” is not limited to drafting documents, throwing them in a folder, and walking away. It is also about pre-empting — through planning, organization, and communication — the chaos that would otherwise engulf our family upon our death. It is about preparing our heirs financially and emotionally, helping to assure our wishes are implemented without rancor or confusion, and leaving a spiritual legacy — a record of who we are and our dreams and values.

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Unfortunately, it is challenging enough just to persuade clients — and ourselves — to prepare and keep up to date the standard trio of estate items: last will and testament, financial power of attorney, and advance medical directives. We must also help our clients understand that these documents, while necessary, are not sufficient to help their families address the myriad of financial, practical, and emotional issues that result from a family member’s death. These include everything from mundane, albeit important, matters such as locating bank and investment accounts and identifying life insurance policies, to practical issues such as how to access digital assets, to emotionally laden topics that were never resolved during the deceased’s lifetime.

To prevent a post mortem atmosphere of chaos, recriminations, and disharmony,

But this reaction misses the essential point and ignores the troubling dynamics that can tear a family apart during the grieving process. Each survivor — the spouse, the children, other close family members — may have their own opinions mixed with complex emotions. Disagreements, uncertainties, and feelings of guilt can overwhelm the discussions. Latent issues can boil to the surface and poison future family relationships. Such friction can be prevented, and the healing process enhanced, by clear documentation and thoughtful communication during the client’s lifetime.

So it goes with other issues. Take that “junk drawer” we all have. You know what that is. It may actually be a drawer, but it could be a cabinet, or the corner of a closet, or disparate locations throughout the house. Wherever and whatever it is, it includes mysterious odds and ends we

STATEMENT

FINANCIAL PLANNING leave behind, the essential buried among the trivial. By spending time organizing this literal or metaphorical junk drawer and communicating to family members the significance of its contents, the client commits an act of love.

Then there are the intangible and spiritual topics, including those important discussions that too often never take place, the heart-to-heart talks the client wants to have with his spouse and children but never gets around to. By working with family members to create a family mission statement, the client can help cement family cohesion. And by drafting an ethical will, the client memorializes thoughts, memories, and feelings that can provide family members with a degree of clarity and emotional closure they will always treasure.

As our clients’ trusted advisors, we should be helping our clients prepare for the inevitable with a helping, caring, experienced hand.

In our office, we encourage our clients to use the Family Love Letter, a workbook that serves as a guide to preparing one’s family in the event of incapacity or death by facilitating clarity, reducing stress, and enhancing family harmony. There is nothing magical about the Family Love Letter; you can create your own means for helping your clients implement a holistic estate plan.

What is important is that our clients are encouraged to follow a process for such planning and understand that this is a lifelong project — a project that is never too early to begin and never ends until one’s final day.

Charles R. Wolpoff is director of financial planning and research at The Kelly Group, a Bel Air, Md.-based financial services firm focusing on capital management, retirement planning, and estate and elder care planning. He can be reached at cwolpoff@ kellygrouponline.com.

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FINANCIAL PLANNING The estate administration checklist B Y M A U R I C E L . OFFIT Everyone prepares lists — grocery lists, to-do lists, and the lists that most spouses dread, the “honey do” list. But the one list no one seems to make is the estate administration list.

The estate administration checklist sets forth the steps that must be taken to ensure that an estate is administered in a professional and efficient manner. It’s a list that spouses and descendants of a decedent have a hard time reviewing, as they’re struggling with the loss of a loved one and need time to grieve. But advisors find the list to be indispensable as it carefully sets forth each item that needs to be addressed in the course of administering the client’s estate.

Most estate administration checklists divide the administration of the estate into the following categories: Locating the original of the decedent’s will. The original of the will must be filed with the court at the time that the estate is opened. Clients are, therefore, advised to place their wills in a safe place (i.e., a safety deposit box, a fireproof cabinet, or the courthouse safe). Nonetheless, from time to time, the original will can’t be located.

If this occurs, a photocopy of the will can be filed with the court. But the photocopy of the will won’t be admitted to probate until there has been a hearing before the court and the court is persuaded that the photocopy of the will is a true and correct copy of the original.

Explaining the terms of the decedent’s will to the beneficiaries of the decedent’s estate. Wills can be long and complicated, especially if the wills establish trusts.

Practitioners, therefore, rarely “read” the will to the beneficiaries. Rather, they typically provide the beneficiaries with (a) a copy of the will, and (b) charts which illustrate how the estate will be distributed.

For the most part, beneficiaries aren’t very interested in the details of the will. Rather, each beneficiary wants only two questions to be answered: “How much will I inherit?” and “When will the inheritance be paid?”

Obtaining a list of the assets that the decedent owned at time of death. Clients should ideally make a list of the assets that they own, how the assets are titled, and what the assets are worth. Unfortunately, this rarely occurs. As a result, practitioners are often required to examine documents (like the decedent’s income tax return) in an effort to discover the assets that a decedent owned. Furthermore, they review the mail the decedent receives after the date of

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death and pay particular attention to bank statements, brokerage statements, life insurance premium notices, and real estate tax bills. Furthermore, if the decedent’s user ID and passwords are known, access is obtained to the decedent’s electronic files.

excess of the federal estate tax exclusion amount. In contrast, state estate taxes are only paid by the estates of decedents who reside in a jurisdiction that has an estate tax.

Currently, 33 states have no estate tax or inheritance tax.

Determining the value of the decedent’s assets as of the date of death. Certain assets (like bank accounts and marketable securities) are easy to value as of the date of the decedent’s death. But other assets (i.e., real estate, business interests, etc.) need to be professionally appraised. A number of issues arise when the decedent’s assets are professionally appraised as practitioners are called upon to give advice on the following: (a) Who should be engaged to prepare the appraisal; (b) should more than one appraisal be obtained; and (c) should discounts (for a minority interest and / or lack of marketability) be taken into account in valuing the decedent’s interest in the asset being appraised?

Distributing the estate in accordance with the terms of the decedent’s will.

If the decedent’s assets consist of cash only, no issues arise in the distribution of the estate. But a host of issues arise if the estate consists of real estate, marketable securities, tangible personal property, business interests, etc., and practitioners are often called upon to make recommendations to resolve disputes that relate to the manner in which the decedent’s estate will be distributed.

Determining if the estate has enough liquidity to pay the decedent’s liabilities, expenses of administration, and estate taxes. Liquidity is a key component to an estate being smoothly and efficiently administered. If the estate lacks sufficient liquidity to pay administration expenses, debts, and taxes, arrangements often have to be made to borrow money to pay the obligations of the estate as they come due.

Paying any taxes that may be due as a result of the decedent’s death. Estate taxes are due to be paid nine months after the decedent’s death, but an automatic six-month extension can be obtained. Federal estate taxes come into play if the value of the decedent’s assets, as of date of death, is in

Maurice L. Offit is principal with Offit Kurman, Attorneys At Law. For further information, visit OffitKurman.com.

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PERSONAL FINANCIAL PLANNING CO N F EREN CE LEARN MORE AT THE 2019 PFP CONFERENCE Maurice Offit will examine “The Estate Administration Checklist” in detail during a session at the 33rd annual Personal Financial Planning Conference, scheduled for Oct. 23 at the Sheraton Baltimore North in Towson. For details and to register, visit MACPA.org/PFP.

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BUSINESS & INDUSTRY The power of storytelling in business B Y J A C K I E F I TZ GE RA LD, FCM A , C GMA Editor’s note: This article first appeared in Financial Management magazine. For more articles, sign up for the daily email update CGMA Advantage at http://bit.ly/2svn2AY.

When giving a presentation or pitch, weave a narrative around the numbers to keep listeners engaged A storytelling approach helps your audience grasp and retain your key point or message, but it can also help demonstrate the ways finance can support other teams’ activities and ultimately foster collaboration in a previously siloed organization.

We make sense of the world by turning what happens into stories. Stories help us manage the chaos and turn it into something we can understand and follow.

We love stories from an early age, and we often want to hear the same tales over and over. Even though we’ve heard the story many times before, we laugh at the same funny bits, shudder at the same scary scene, and relish the heroine’s triumph when it all works out OK in the end.

Think about your own favorite story. As you replay it in your mind, your brain works hard to trigger the old, familiar emotional responses while releasing the requisite hormones: cortisol for the tense or scary bits, oxytocin when something cute or affectionate happens, and dopamine at the happy ending. Neurologically, emotionally, and physically, we relive our stories when we retell them. Our brains are wired to create a narrative.

OCTOBER 2018

WHY DOES THIS MATTER IN BUSINESS? Good storytelling can help people better understand what you’re saying and remember the information more clearly.

It is also more likely to lead to a favorable response, which is particularly desirable if you’re pitching for investment or looking for business case approval. Stories also reach the parts facts and analysis don’t: our hearts. That’s why they can inspire and motivate us so much. In short, your pitch, presentation, or report is far more likely to succeed if you can trigger the right emotional response in your audience at the right time.

Back in the 1990s, I led the finance team in a division responsible for building submarine cable systems and designing communication satellites. Most staff members were very intelligent engineers who seemed not to care much about money. To be honest, they didn’t appear to care much about anything except what they were working on, their pet projects.

Every quarter I had to stand up and talk to them about how the division was doing financially, encouraging them to spend less or sell more of their services. I thought that,

since they were engineers, they would like loads of detail, so my first presentation was basically columns of numbers with explanations alongside in a tiny font nobody could read. People actually fell asleep. My boss was not happy.

The next time, I had one slide with a few key numbers on it. I talked about those numbers, telling the story of how we hit or missed our targets, name-checking the people involved, and highlighting their contributions and achievements. I also told the story of what our performance so far was going to mean for the rest of the year and what impact it would have on the division as a whole and the team as individuals. Who isn’t interested in what their bonus will be? This time people were engaged and motivated. They asked questions and made good suggestions for improving the numbers.

Engaging people through this type of storytelling approach opened up the lines of communication, and staff members began to contribute ideas about saving the company money, improving sales, and improving performance. Realizing that finance staff weren’t there just to CONTINUED ON PAGE 28

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CONTINUED FROM PAGE 27

say “no” to requests, colleagues began to seek my help in crafting a narrative around their technical business cases and began to understand that involving finance right from the beginning increased the likelihood their case would be approved.

Here are my tips for telling a good business story: • Set the scene. State what your aim is, or what you’re asking for, at the beginning of the story. That establishes the context for everything that follows.

• Ditch the detail. You have to do the work, and that supporting data has to be available. But don’t drone through pages of facts and figures. Your audience can check out all the background later or ask for clarification if they need it. Include only the really important details, and get to the point quickly.

• Focus on the benefits. Everyone listening is wondering, “What’s in it for me?” So be clear about the good things in your report, proposal, or business case. Draw their attention to the positive impact your presentation will have on the company, division, people, and stakeholders involved.

• Talk about the problems. A story without difficulties is just plain boring; we like to hear how our heroes overcome adversity. It’s also unrealistic of course. So, talk about the challenges, too, but make sure you can say how they can be mitigated or overcome.

• Get to the why. In a 2009 TED Talk, author Simon Sinek explained why purpose, that inner drive to do something that benefits the wider world, matters so much. A company’s aim is usually to make money, of course, but for those who prioritize being authentic and ethical businesses, their “why” is often around making life better in some way. Including these softer benefits in your story will make it more interesting and engaging.

Jackie Fitzgerald (jackie@ alchemybusinesscoaching.biz) is a UK-based coach who specializes in helping professionals fulfil their potential. To comment on this article or to suggest an idea for another article, contact Samantha White, an FMmagazine senior editor, at Samantha.White@aicpa-cima.com.

FINDING YOUR STORY

By Samantha White For Ben Roberts, FCMA, CGMA, head of finance transformation at Bolton NHS Foundation Trust and a network lead on the Future Focused Finance program, inspiration often strikes during his 40-mile commute. But a story that gets your message across doesn’t always need to be conjured out of thin air.

Roberts tries to give his audience some sort of context they can relate to.

“Something that’s in the public eye or popular culture always works. People connect with these ideas,” he explained.

“When training, I tend to use abstract storytelling to make a point and then create a bridge to the reality we are facing and the message you want to get across.”

Roberts starts with the end point — in the context of training, this is the behavior he wants the audience to adopt — considers how he can help people understand that, and tailors the story accordingly.

For example, Roberts asked his audience to compare adapting to major organizational change to competing in a popular TV program. “Think of yourself as a contestant going through “The Great British Bake Off.” At first it feels really scary, but if you get into it and get used to the pace, by the end of the journey you realize it’s never as hard as you initially thought it would be, and you grow in confidence.”

The example of tennis star Andy Murray has helped Roberts convey the importance of avoiding unforced errors. Similarly, a former director of finance asked people to imagine what Olympic athlete Mo Farah feels like when he wins gold after endless hours of training, which helped encourage the team to visualize how good they will feel when they have achieved a particular goal.

“We try to tell our story through pictures because that tends to be a better way for people to take these things on board. If you take them through a conceptual idea and then apply it to reality, the idea that it’s achievable seems so much more plausible.”

A journey of learning — such as the implementation of a new costing system — where skills and know-how need to be built up on an incremental basis, is like when you first start playing with toy building bricks, Roberts said. “At first all you’ve got is enough bricks to build a little house, and then as your collection grows, all of a sudden you’ve got a town, and before you know it you’re building a city. You’ve got to give yourself time to get to grips with the material, how to build it, and once you’ve done that, you can expand quite quickly.”

In more formal contexts, such as reporting to the board, Roberts suggested keeping the concept of a golden thread in mind. “The golden thread provides signposts throughout the report for the reader to follow, signalling to them what we want them to understand as the organization’s biggest risks, pressures, or issues, for example.”

It is important to ensure that all of the elements of the report — graphs, numbers, and text — convey a consistent story to the reader, Roberts added.

Understanding the audience and how they react is the first step to crafting your story, Roberts said. “When we developed our board report, our deputy director of finance, Andrea Bennett, ACMA, CGMA, met with every member of the board to try to understand what they needed and wanted from it. If you invest time in understanding the audience, you almost find the story will produce itself.

“A mark of success is how few questions of understanding we get after we’ve told our story.”

Samantha White is an FMmagazine senior editor. She can be reached at Samantha.White@aicpa-cima.com. © 2018 Association of International Certified Professional Accountants. All rights reserved.

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FROM OUR PARTNERS Strategic finance leadership: How technology is enabling agility B Y M I K E SA B BATIS Data analytics and convergence / disruption are the top two trends impacting CFOs’ longer-term business strategy, according to Deloitte CFO Signals™ Q4 2017 Report.

And, “agility” is the word Pascal Corcos, Partner, PwC Consulting, Finance heard the most in the new edition of this year’s “Chief Financial Officers – Priorities in 2018” survey.

Across the board, studies are showing that the finance leadership role has changed over the last five years. Even as finance leaders are asked to do more with less, they are expected to deliver strategic insight to the leadership team across rapidly changing priorities.

Business planning and strategic forecasting are skills that are increasingly getting more scrutiny, though they may be a newer expectation for traditional finance professionals.

At the core of FP&A, strategic-thinking CEOs and CFOs expect more than traditional accounting and reporting.

If a finance leader, for example, is being asked to save the business 25 percent in operations costs while delivering the same results, that leader has to demonstrate great agility in finding new ways to manage the workload — while still offering datadriven insight that helps grow the business.

ACHIEVING FLEXIBILITY TODAY In this landscape of increased responsibility and changing priorities, success is dependent on (1) accurate, realtime data that is easily accessible, and (2) business process excellence, embedded in technology that enables leadership to change direction as quickly as needed.

While a data-driven starting point will feel familiar to the finance function, the scope of data required for decision-making has dramatically expanded.

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For example, to establish a meaningful baseline, finance leaders not only need complete visibility to last year’s performance, but they might also need visibility to industry and market trends, forecasts, and more.

While FP&A has always looked at financial performance, high-performing organizations also look at productivity analytics that relate to people, business processes, and more to identify ways to increase the capacity and engagement of their workforces.

For the agile finance leader, this is one area where technology investment may come into play. There is technology available today that can deliver that first success dependency via a centralized, real-time view to key data points across an organization.

That same technology can address the second success point by delivering visibility and functionality that empowers an organization to keep up with rapidly changing priorities.

PRODUCTIVITY, SIMPLY ENABLED® In many ways, large companies have an advantage, and not just due to economies of scale. Larger companies are leading the charge by automating non-value added tasks and shifting towards extensive use of data to identify potential opportunity, optimize ROI, and mitigate risks.

But company size can be an obstacle when it comes to agility — especially when it comes to rapidly changing priorities.

Though it may in some ways be easier for mid-size and smaller companies to change direction as new priorities emerge, they still have the challenge of breaking old habits to remain agile and competitive.

More than ever, finance leaders are having to adapt in order to reduce time spent on low-value activities, and provide more relevant analysis to the leadership team.

To accomplish this, finance leaders across businesses of all sizes are challenging current practices. They are looking to technology that will facilitate their access to high volumes of current and relevant data, as well as simplify their reporting and analysis, all while empowering them to adjust direction as needed to keep up with changing priorities.

XCM® works with organizations to enable full transparency — so nothing falls through the cracks. Year over year and month over month, XCM offers dynamic, on-demand visibility across the business.

Unlike other solutions that can’t be restructured after implementation, XCM allows businesses to configure business processes to the way their finance teams work.

It also delivers robust reporting, using realtime data, which enables finance leaders to make informed, instant decisions on the business.

FINANCE LEADERS OF TOMORROW The finance leaders of tomorrow will use technology to harvest and aggregate data, leaving them more time for analysis and strategic planning.

Changing priorities are here to stay, but the finance leaders of tomorrow are prepared.

They are establishing flexible business processes today, which are supported by technology and will prevent any detail from slipping through the cracks.

Technology like XCMworkflow and XCManalytics as a Service can help businesses achieve this visibility and flexibility.

Join the conversation at XCMSolutions. com and learn how XCM’s productivity enablement technology can lay the foundation for your finance team of tomorrow.

Mike Sabbatis is the CEO of XCM®.

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FROM OUR PARTNERS Bill for the forest, don’t charge for the trees B Y L I Z M A S O N & JOSHU A RIV LIN experience and knowledge that our clients can’t just query with a search engine.

So how do you actually go about pricing?

Understanding your client base is most important. Are you specialized in a specific industry? Do you serve a specific size client? It is as important to develop inclusive pricing for a diverse client type as it is to provide inclusive compensation packages to encourage a diverse team.

After analyzing the client base, determine all of the service offerings your market needs. Really consider where energy is spent and value is perceived. These services are different for differently sized clients and different niches. Those five-minute calls count as a service!

What do you do for a living?

If you are a CPA, your answer has changed substantially since you sat for your credential exam – even if you are newly minted!

Whether you are in attest, tax, accounting, or systems, the “what” of your service offering is a moving target.

So, how do you bill for what you do? If your answer is tied to time, your revenue driver is not keeping up with what you provide.

Historically, CPA firms have billed by the hour. It was easy: An hour was worked, a bill went out. Then, the internet happened.

And e-mail. And smartphones. Suddenly, we were expected to be accessible to our clients at all times. What used to be a relatively straightforward and somewhat logical regulatory environment has since become a kudzu of moving parts that don’t always mesh well. And yet we are expected to know how to navigate this dizzying world and guide our clients through it.

Preparing basic compliance has become a small part of what we do. Bookkeeping, payroll, accounting – with new apps, these functions have become more automated. The largest piece of our day is focused on answering questions. We have become our clients’ personal business Google search. Just as Google and “click and mortar” companies have displaced “brick and mortar” companies with a new business model, something also needs to displace the billable hour.

Recurring subscription billing has become the new standard.

Whether we’re talking about value-billing or fixed-fees, both equate to a consistent bill. The new model ensures we get paid for a service that we have been giving away for free for years. It can be hard to track time when you get a five-minute call here or a 15-minute e-mail there, yet clients value that punctuality. Plus, we spend a minimum of 80 hours every two years – many of us exceed this – keeping our skills sharp. We spend countless hours reading trade articles, scouring tax court cases, and talking with other practitioners. We have spent a lifetime building a store of

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After you create a list, start assigning a price range. The two most common methods are the perceived value of the service and the cost to perform the service. Never price a service low because it only takes you five minutes. Nothing ever really takes five minutes, and that particular five minutes might save your client thousands of dollars. Remember, your knowledge base costs money to develop, and you have a high value!

Starting with a service list will help you identify scope for each client. It is extremely important to define very specific service scope for each client subscription package. Many firms have specific packages that are the same across clients. Other firms develop individual packages for each client. Both methods can work well provided your time spent isn’t in the equation.

There are some pitfalls to avoid when moving to a subscription model. Most firms end up underbilling for their first few years.

It is hard to increase bills right after you set the price, so always build in an annual or quarterly review of packages so clients are reminded of the value you bring and understand the fees will change as that value changes. Communicate with clients often to avoid difficult conversations in the future. Firms may be tempted to convert from hourly billing to a subscription model to just divide their clients’ annual bills by 12. This is a terrible idea and generally leads to underbilling and overworking.

Our clients have questions. We have answers – and a fiduciary duty to provide good information. This is what they are paying for — not for putting numbers on a government-published form or minutes onto a timesheet.

It’s time to charge for what the client is receiving, not for routines that have become commoditized. Remember your value, define your scope, and communicate with your clients frequently.

Josh Rivlin is a wealth manager and partner with The Rivlin Group.

Liz Mason is co-founder and CEO of High Rock Accounting.

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FROM OUR PARTNERS The why, what and how of CAS B Y H I T E NDR A PATIL Editor’s Note: This article originally appeared on AccountingToday.com. It is reprinted with permission.

If you are an accounting firm owner or partner, you do not want to miss the emerging, growing, and profitable opportunities in client accounting services.

Before we get to why, to ensure that we are on the same page, let us agree to a description of what CAS is.

The types of services offered under CAS can vary. For the purposes of this article, let us agree that there are three main categories of CAS offering: • After-the-fact financial statement preparation. Also called “write-up,” in which the client has already written their checks, issued invoices, and taken cash receipts. A member of the accounting firm’s staff enters the data into a general ledger to produce a financial statement.

• Transaction processing. This is where the accounting firm issues invoices for a client, processes accounts payable and cuts checks (or processes electronic payments), processes payroll, pays employees, pays payroll taxes, and more.

• Outsourced CFO and / or controller services. This work entails a higher-level CPA / accountant (often a partner) meeting with the client’s management on a regular basis to review financial performance and provide input to strategies to improve business. It includes regular, frequent interactions with the client to support financial and business decision-making, in near-real-time with after-the-fact, but certainly not just or only after-the-fact.

THE WHY BEFORE THE WHY Before we get to why firms can’t miss out on CAS, we need to know why business owners buy accounting software, even when their core business is not accounting.

In the years prior to the Internet, accounting software was only desktop software. Businesses used it to run their business processes to issue checks, to record income, and for some other processes. Business owners predominantly did transactions processing, leaving the financial accounting and compliance to professional accountants. More likely than not, business owners had no option but to get the transaction processing done themselves or by their staff, many times by those who had no accounting education. It’s no wonder, then, that business owners often sent “messy books” to accountants.

Business owners had accountants come to their offices and do the “real” accounting. Or they gave “accountant’s copy” of the software to their accountants – for “cleaning up” and “making adjustments.”

It was not possible for business owners, their staff, and the outside accountants to work together collaboratively in real time, or even in near real time, on the same accounting database, unless all of them were at the same office / premises.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 36

OCTOBER 2018

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FROM OUR PARTNERS CONTINUED FROM PAGE 35

The result was inefficient, expensive, inaccurate, outdated accounting information, used mainly for compliance purposes, and only rarely for any timely business decision-making — and invariably, messy books. More important, business owners perceived that they can do what accountants do – and that perception commoditized the pricing / fees for accounting services.

Fortunately, the birth of the Internet planted the seeds for the birth of cloud.

That’s the cloud-enabled accounting software that can be shared by business owners, their staff, and their outside accountants, at the same time, anytime, from anywhere.

Yet business owners and their staff mostly continue to use accounting software to run their business — to issue checks, to record income, and so on — even when it is possible for professional accountants to do everything that desktop software forced and constrained business owners to do.

The cloud makes it possible — no, it makes it inevitable — for the smart business owners to focus on their core businesses and let professional accountants take care of accounting, including transactional work (to be done accurately).

This new possibility gives rise to CAS opportunities for accountants to work in collaboration with business owners, in real time.

CAS is one of the fastest-growing new revenue segments for many Top 100 Firms, but the CAS opportunity is actually more relevant and more available to smaller accounting firms.

WHY IS CAS A GREAT NEW OPPORTUNITY? Here are some of the key factors that make CAS a greater opportunity for accountants, and for their clients, too: • As accountants process transactions in real time, in collaboration with business owners, the sheer increase in interactions – and the new ability of accountants to help business owners make timely and better business decisions – means CAS is a much more “sticky” service. It is not easy for business owners to replace or recreate the value that CAS delivers.

• As more and more “advice” is given, more frequently than before, accountants become top of mind, and that helps elevate them as their clients’ “most trusted advisors.”

• Previously, outsourced accounting, which was essentially afterthe-fact work, was considered an expense. Therefore, business owners wanted to reduce the cost of it. Now, as CAS delivers more decision-support intelligence, the value that business owners receive from their accounting information makes it a win-win. Increasingly, clients will not perceive accounting purely as a cost.

HOW TO ROLL OUT A CAS PRACTICE There are a number of steps you’ll want to take to get started in CAS: • Adjust your technology stack: This is the foundational requirement for you and your firm to ride the CAS wave. It cannot be done overnight, but you need to start making assessments and evaluations of the technologies available and, more important, how the nature of businesses of your

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existing clients can benefit from these newer technologies. In the “app economy,” your total cost of technology can become higher, so you’ll want to examine how comprehensive your main accounting software is.

• Look for integration and automation possibilities: No single accounting software will have all the features that make sense for each of your clients. You will need to examine the use of other add-on solutions that can integrate with your main accounting software, giving you the efficiency gains of possible automation. You might even need to use more than one main accounting software solution depending upon your clients’ businesses.

• Create your CAS packages and decide on pricing: Your CAS offering must be seen and understood by clients as something more than the transactional services you currently offer. Make sure you show the contrast between them. CAS is essentially relevant to growing businesses, not very small ones. To cater to a spectrum of businesses of varying sizes, create packages ranging from basic CAS to comprehensive CAS, and price them accordingly.

• Plan your staffing / re-skilling of current staff: For CAS, you do not necessarily need more staff, certainly not as much as you may fear. Your new technology stack will release significant efficiency in your processes. It is possible to manage 100 percent more clients with your current staff. Imagine the impact on your firm’s bottom line.

• Educate your clients on new possibilities, including cost benefits and professional real-time collaborative accounting benefits. Help them see and understand the “before and after” difference.

• Client service / collaboration / communications: A successful CAS practice requires increased interactions with clients. You must leverage new technology tools to reach out, communicate with, and collaborate with clients more frequently. Some accounting software can help you automate client notifications based on customized triggers set up in the software.

Each accounting practice is as unique as the firm owner’s experience, expertise, belief system, and thoughts. The one thing they have in common is that every accountant has a genuine desire to make their clients more successful. CAS is the opportunity, the platform, the means to help accountants turn that desire into a tangible service.

Start small. Move a few chosen, progressive-minded, existing clients onto CAS. To identify clients that fit, you can look for those who have a significant number of sale invoices and bills, those who provide goods or services on credit terms to their customers, those who have plenty of inventory items, those who do some processing to convert inventory into products, and so on.

Learn from the experience. Adjust your processes, reports, and communications based on the initial experiences. Then roll out CAS to more clients and offer CAS upfront to all your leads and prospects.

Hitendra Patil is the director of practice development at AccountantsWorld and the author of “Accountaneur.”

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WE’RE HIRING TOP TALENT! Grossberg is a unique environment where talented and highly sophisticated professionals excel. Our staff and partners are some of the best and brightest in their field, operating at the highest level of professionalism and technical expertise.

Here, you find a culture of people who enjoy the challenge of untangling today’s highly complex web of business, transactional, financial and tax issues, while enjoying the benefits of working at one of the area’s premier firms.

Our mentorship program ensures that everyone has access to one-on-one training by industry experts who encourage their professional development. In addition, the boutique nature of our firm allows us to interact regularly and learn from one another in more casual ways. This provides us with the ability to offer skilled professionals tremendous opportunities for growth and job satisfaction, as well as a great work environment.

Our culture is defined by our people. We pride ourselves on fostering an environment of collegiality and camaraderie; we truly care about each other and work together to meet the 10 Things

Professionals Want Most 1. Purpose 2. Goals 3. Responsibility 4. Autonomy 5. Flexibility

demands of our elite group of clients. It is only through this teamwork that we are able to meet our professional demands, advance our business and technical skills, and still support each other to maintain a healthy work/family life balance.

This is an integral part of who we are, why we are successful, and how we have maintained our reputation as one of the best firms in the country.

Growth in our business has created new opportunities for

experienced CPAs. If you are seeking to move to the next level in your career, consider joining the Grossberg team!

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Become the Practice of Now Accounting is a challenging and changing profession. Its continual modernization has directly tracked the accelerating growth of technology.

Clients are expecting more from accountants. This is forcing accountants to free up time to provide additional services and advice. To accommodate this change, accountants are considering the benefits that Artificial Intelligence (AI) can bring to a modern practice, with many turning to AI for automation. Fewer repetitive tasks and fewer mistakes makes for better interactions with clients and improved service offerings.

To become the Practice of Now, today’s accountants are turning to technology to drive improvements to their practices, and to create the space to become time-efficient business partners for their clients.

3,000 Cloud adoption “Always-on“ view of client data Improve client experience Unlock new opportunities Increase revenue

67%

BELIEVE THAT CLOUD TECHNOLOGY ENABLES CLIENT COLLABORATION AND IMPROVES SERVICE OFFERINGS

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

66%

WOULD INVEST IN AI

“

”

83%

SAY THEIR CLIENTS EXPECT MORE NOW THAN FIVE YEARS AGO

”

Future gazing

55% PLAN TO USE AI IN THE NEXT THREE YEARS

– Jennifer Warawa, EVP of Partners, Accountants and Alliances, Sage

38

“

Accountants who invest in AI will increase over the next two to three years as they start to see its true value. For example, accountants will use AI to review millions of transactions that would have traditionally taken hours to do manually.

– Kriti Sharma, VP of Bots and AI, Sage

Client expectations Accountants were originally concerned that technology was going to take away from their core service offerings, but what it’s actually done is free them up to do more higher value client services. They’re now doing what clients always wanted them to do.

ACCOUNTANTS SURVEYED ACROSS THE GLOBE

For more insights, download the free Practice of Now report at sage.com/us/practice-of-now.

With AI and other technology advances, accountants are being freed from the administrative burden of data entry and entering a world where such tasks are becoming invisible. More time means focusing on the one thing a practice should always prioritize: serving its client base.

STATEMENT

MEMBER NOTES Michele B. Amato, CPA, has been named partner-in-charge of the Professional Standards Group at Marks Paneth LLP.

Ryan Barnoski, CPA, has been named a partner at Lanigan, Ryan, Malcolm & Doyle, P.C. Tricia Bush, CPA, has been promoted to tax manager at Squire, Lemkin + Company, LLP. Kim Fitzgerald, PAFM, director at Squire, Lemkin + Company, LLP, has been awarded the 2018 Achievement, Commitment, Excellence (ACE) Award from the CPA Firm Management Association. The award was presented at the association’s annual conference on June 13 in Las Vegas.

Art Flach, CPA, past chair of the MACPA’s Board of Directors, has been named Adjunct Faculty of the Year at the Merrick School of Business at the University of Baltimore.

Steven Glasbrenner has joined Squire, Lemkin + Company, LLP Certified Public Accountants as a staff accountant.

Alex Grizzard has been named an in-charge accountant at Lanigan, Ryan, Malcolm & Doyle, P.C. Leah B. Hahn, CPA, has been promoted to manager with Davis, Josey, Keating, & Ranes, LLC.

Robert Kase, CPA, CITP, CGMA, has been promoted to partner with Rosen, Sapperstein & Friedlander, LLC.

Kate Vasiliev, MS, CPA, has been named partner with Berman Goldman & Ribakow LLP. Sean Way, CPA, has been promoted to in-charge accountant at Squire, Lemkin + Company, LLP. MACPA Past Chair M. Kathryn Burkey and her husband John were honored on Sept. 19 as the 2018 Humanitarians of the Year by the Community Trust Foundation in Cumberland. Kathy has a long record of service to the profession and community, serving as chair of the Western Maryland Health System for a decade and as a member of the board of First United Corp. and its subsidiary, First United Bank & Trust. She also has served on numerous other community boards and shared her expertise in serving on the FSU College of Business, the Western Maryland Economic Development Strategies Group, and the Judicial Nominations Committee. John is equally active in many foundations and is one of the few people in the state to receive top honors from both the Lions and Rotary Clubs. Together, John and Kathy have also been recognized as the Allegany County Chamber of Commerce Individuals of the Year.

FIRM NOTES HeimLantz CPAs and Advisors has been named one of Accounting Today’s 2018 Best Accounting Firms to Work For. Lanigan, Ryan, Malcolm & Doyle, P.C., has been named one of Accounting Today’s 2018 Best Accounting Firms to Work For. Smith Elliott Kearns & Company, LLC, has been named a

David Nazari has been promoted to in-charge accountant at Squire, Lemkin + Company, LLP. Kevin Reitzel has been named an in-charge accountant at Lanigan, Ryan, Malcolm & Doyle, P.C. Daniel Russell, CPA, ABV, CFF, CVA, CFE, MSA, has been promoted to senior manager with HeimLantz.

national leader in “The IPA 200,” INSIDE Public Accounting’s 28th annual ranking of the largest accounting firms in the nation.

IN MEMORIAM Edward L. Waddell, CPA, a director with Dembo Jones,

Shane Sarbieski has joined Squire, Lemkin + Company, LLP Certified Public Accountants as a staff accountant.

P.C., and an MACPA member since 1975, died on March 9.

He was 68.

Eric Smith, CPA, has been promoted to senior tax manager at Squire, Lemkin + Company, LLP. OCTOBER 2018

39

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WITH CONFIDENCE

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Apply online today at cpai.com/grow or call 800.221.3023

*CPA NetProtect® is offered for an additional premium as part of the AICPA Professional Liability Insurance Program.

Endorsed by: Underwritten by: Brought to you by: Aon Insurance Services is the brand name for the brokerage and program administration operations of Affinity Insurance Services, Inc. (TX 13695), (AR 100106022); in CA and MN, AIS Affinity Insurance Agency, Inc. (CA 0795465); in OK, AIS Affinity Insurance Services Inc.; in CA, Aon Affinity Insurance Services, Inc. (CA 0G94493), Aon Direct Insurance Administrator and Berkely Insurance Agency; and in NY, AIS Affinity Insurance Agency.

One or more of the CNA companies provide the products and/or services described. The information is intended to present a general overview for illustrative purposes only. It is not intended to constitute a binding contract. Please remember that only the relevant insurance policy can provide the actual terms, coverages, amounts, conditions and exclusions for an insured. All products and services may not be available in all states and may be subject to change without notice. “CNA” is a registered trademark of CNA Financial Corporation. Certain CNA Financial Corporation subsidiaries use the “CNA” STATEMENT trademark in connection with insurance underwriting and claims activities. Copyright © 2018 CNA. All rights reserved.

E-12399-418 MD

40

CLASSIFIEDS mergers & acquisitions MARYLAND PRACTICES FOR SALE:

gross revenues shown: NE Baltimore Co. Tax Practice - $177K, cloudbased practice allows buyer operational flexibility; Annapolis CPA Practice - $125K, strong cash flow over 70%; S. Calvert Co. Tax Practice - $140K, minimal overhead, cash flow over 50%; Glen Burnie Tax Practice - $290K, solid fee structure, cash flow over 60%. For more information please call (800) 397-0249.

See nationwide listings and register for free email updates at www.APS.net.

THINKING OF SELLING YOUR PRACTICE?

Accounting Practice Sales is the leading marketer of tax and accounting practices in North America. We have a large pool of buyers, both individuals and firms, looking for practices to purchase. We also have the experience to help you find the right fit for your firm, negotiate the best price and terms and get the deal done. We welcome the opportunity to talk to you about our risk-free and confidential services. For more information please call Bradley Holmes with the APS Holmes Group at 1-800-397-0249 or email Bradley@APS.net.

TOWSON OFFICE FOR LEASE.

Furnished office at 606 Baltimore in the heart of Towson. Ideal for 2 professionals. $800/mo. includes 1 parking space and electric. Very convenient location for clients and staff with plenty of nearby parking and restaurants. Call Jim at 410-961-4433 for details.

services DO YOUR CLIENTS NEED HELP WITH PAPER MANAGEMENT/ORGANIZING?

-S pecializing in working with Seniors, Independent Business Owners, Individuals with vision impairments - Checkbook Balancing, Bill paying, Tax preparation - Medical Claims and Bills Management - Filing, Decluttering, Processing Mail -A ssessing bank statements, utility bills, credit cards for accuracy & possible errors or fraud ****Over 30 years in the Baltimore area ****Honest, Reliable, Caring and Patient ****Bonded and Insured CONTACT INFO: THE ORGANIZER Bonnie Blas Kashnow orgnizr18@cs.com 410-358-9290 www.baltimoreorganizer.com

DON’T MISS THE FULL LIST OF UPCOMING CPE COURSES IN-PERSON EVENTS AND COURSES: Page 46

ONLINE EVENTS AND COURSES: Page 56

OCTOBER 2018

41

Tax Season Cessation Program Experiencing: • Stress?

• Lack of Sleep?

• IRS induced Nausea?

We have helped thousands sell... and WE CAN HELP YOU!

Delivering Results -One Practice At a time Bradley Holmes Bradley@APS.net

800-397-0249 www.APS.net

Your Preferred Local Qualified Intermediary for 1031 Exchanges Contact us for free information and consultations

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CLASSIFIEDS job openings ACCOUNTANT – FOR OUR DC CPA FIRM Two Blocks from Farragut North – on the Red Line

Position Description We are seeking a bright self-starter who is able to work independently and handle a variety of challenging tax, audit and accounting work. Exceptional opportunity in high tech, expanding, high quality CPA firm. Offering you challenging work, rapid professional growth, reasonable hours & very competitive salary in a highly advanced computerized environment. We need a CPA or CPA candidate with a minimum of 3+ years of experience working for a certified public accounting firm.

Responsibilities include both tax as well as audit and accounting work. All facets of this position involve using the most current technology available in a fun PC environment.

Location We are conveniently located two blocks from the Farragut North metro station at 1899 L Street in Northwest Washington DC. Reply in confidence to Personnel Director, Denburg & Low, CPAs at jobs@denburg.com.

Company Description Our firm, Denburg & Low, PA, is a certified public accounting firm specialized in providing tax, accounting, auditing, tax and business and computer consulting services. We focus our staffing by hiring only highly experienced professionals, carefully plan and design our systems which we rely on to provide our services and invest our resources in state of the art technology.

The results are superior service to our clients which go beyond the normal scope of services typically provided by many CPA firms. We have offices in Washington, DC and Baltimore, Maryland. Our organization of highly skilled professionals is large enough to meet our clients’ needs, yet small enough to deliver the responsive service they expect. We offer our clients and prospective clients the best of two worlds--the experience and expertise of a regional firm combined with the personalized attention and focus of a dedicated local firm.

Please visit our website at www.denburg.com.

ANTICIPATORY ACCELERATOR

SMALL CPA FIRM IN

Rockville/Gaithersburg, MD area is seeking a CPA or CPA candidate with at least two years public accounting experience. Primary duties will include reviewing 1040s, preparing business and NFP tax returns, and providing accounting oversight for businesses across a variety of industries. Experience with compilations and reviews a plus. Full or part-time is negotiable. Salary commensurate with experience. Benefits offered. Please send cover letter and resume to Melanie@cpaconnie.com.

ALBERT J. BARTLINSKI & ASSOCIATES, LLC,

located in Glen Burnie, MD, is seeking tax preparer with at least three tax seasons experience and availability for 16 to 24 hours per week from 2/01/19 to 4/30/19; Potential for intermittent year-round work. The position is primarily individual and corporate tax return preparation with some general ledger work.

Pro Series and Quick Books experience is a plus. Send resume to Debbie@albartlinski.com.

TAX PROFESSIONALS FOR BUSY SEASON.

Kenneally & Company, a mid-size Towson CPA firm of highly motivated professionals, seeks like-minded individuals experienced with individual and business income tax return preparation. Familiarity with ProSystem fx is a plus. Flexible hours and a pleasant working environment. Forward your resume via e-mail to mlindemon@jlkcpas.com or via fax, (410) 321-9809.

HOW TO SUBMIT A CLASSIFIED AD To submit a classified ad, contact Krislyn Suljak at krislyn@macpa.org, or 443-632-2307.

REPLIES TO ADS WITH FILE NUMBER: Email krislyn@macpa.org, or reply via mail: Krislyn Suljak MACPA | Classified Ads 901 Dulaney Valley Road, Suite 800, Towson, MD 21204

A two-day workshop to accelerate your firm’s success in predicting the future and identifying game-changing opportunities.

November 5-6, 2018

Accounting Innovation Center | Kansas City, MO OCTOBER 2018

REGISTER NOW

accountinginnovationcenter.com

43

DATE

COURSE TITLE

CPE

QuickBooks Online Accountant

TIME

MEMBER

NON-MEM. LOCATION

Save time and help your clients succeed!

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1. 50% off the then-current MSRP for QuickBooks Online Essentials or Plus for the life of the subscription when you sign up for wholesale pricing. Full terms and conditions available in QuickBooks Online Accountant. © 2017 Intuit Inc. All rights reserved. Intuit, the Intuit logo, QuickBooks and QuickBooks ProAdvisor are registered or unregistered trademarks of Intuit Inc. in the United States and other countries. Other parties’ trademarks or service marks are the property of their respective owners and should be treated as such. Intuit Inc., Customer Communications, 2800 E. Commerce Center Place, Tucson, AZ 85706

AlwaysGfree for accountants. roup discounts are available. Sign up today at quickbooks.com/QBOA

44

STATEMENT

DATE

COURSE TITLE

CPE

TIME

MEMBER

NON-MEM EVENT ID

LOCATION

MACPA COULDN’T DO EVERYTHING THAT WE DO FOR OUR MEMBERS WITHOUT OUR PREFERRED PROVIDERS

For information about sponsoring MACPA programs or to learn more about advertising with the MACPA please contact Amy Puente at 443.632.2323 or amyp@macpa.org.

OCTOBER 2018

45

DATE

COURSE TITLE

CPE

TIME

MEMBER

NON-MEM. LOCATION

BLI LEADERSHIP (IN-PERSON)

Upcoming IN-PERSON Events & Courses DATE

COURSE TITLE

WEBCAST Events & Courses: page 56 CPE

TIME

MEMBER

NON-MEM. LOCATION

AC CO U N TIN G & AUDITIN G (IN -PE R SON) 10/5/18

Fall Town Hall 2018: CPA 4.0 How to Survive and Thrive in the Fourth Industrial Age

4

8:30 AM – 12 PM

$0

$250

Columbia

10/17/18

Professional Issues Update - Special Young Professional Edition Fall 2018

4

1 PM – 5 PM

$0

$250

Gaithersburg

10/19/18

Fraud Update: Detecting and Preventing the Top Ten Fraud Schemes

8

8 AM – 3:30 PM

$310

$410

Timonium

10/23/18

A&A Update: Highlights of the Latest Accounting and Auditing Issues

8

8 AM – 3:30 PM

$310

$410

Timonium

10/24/18

A&A Update for Small-or Mid-Size Private Companies

8

8 AM – 3:30 PM

$310

$410

Frederick

10/25/18

2018 PRACTITIONERS CONFERENCE

8

8 AM – 4 PM

$210

$310

Baltimore

10/29/18

Revenue Recognition: Mastering the New FASB Requirements

8

8 AM – 3:30 PM

$270

$370

Timonium

10/30/18

Accounting and Auditing Update for Small Businesses

8

8 AM – 3:30 PM

$270

$370

Rockville

10/31/18

Forensic Accounting Investigative Practices

8

8 AM – 3:30 PM

$270

$370

Timonium

11/2/18

Annual Update for Preparation, Compilation, and Review Engagements

8

8 AM – 3:30 PM

$270

$370

Columbia

11/5/18

Hot Topics in Accounting and Auditing

4

12 PM – 3:30 PM

$140

$190

Timonium

11/6/18

Real-World Fraud in Governments and Not-for-Profits

8

8 AM – 3:30 PM

$270

$370

Timonium

11/15/18

Four For Fall: Interpreting the New Revenue Recognition Standard: What All CPAs Need to Know

4

8 AM – 11:30 AM

$140

$190

Columbia

11/15/18

Four For Fall: Accounting and Auditing Update

4

12 PM – 3:30 PM

$140

$190

Columbia

11/15/18

Four For Fall: Annual Update for Governments and Not-For-Profits

4

8 AM – 11:30 AM

$140

$190

Columbia

11/15/18

Four For Fall: Real-World Frauds Found in Not-for-Profits

4

12 PM – 3:30 PM

$140

$190

Columbia

11/16/18

Four For Fall: Cybersecurity Risk Management Program: What You Need to Know

4

8 AM – 11:30 AM

$140

$190

Columbia

11/16/18

Four For Fall: Data Breaches & Other Cyber Frauds: A 21st Century Risk to Your Organization

4

12 PM – 3:30 PM

$140

$190

Columbia

11/16/18

Four For Fall: Lean Accounting and Management: Saving Money by Streamlining Operations

4

12 PM – 3:30 PM

$140

$190

Columbia

11/26/18

Fall Town Hall 2018: CPA 4.0 How to Survive and Thrive in the Fourth Industrial Age

4

1 PM – 5 PM

$0

$250

Anne Arundel

46

Group discounts are available.

STATEMENT

DATE

COURSE TITLE

CPE

TIME

MEMBER

NON-MEM. LOCATION

ACCOUNTING & AUDITING (IN-PERSON), CONTINUED 11/27/18

Identity Theft: Preventing, Detecting, and Investigating

8

8 AM – 3:30 PM

$270

$370

Columbia

11/27/18

Implementing FASB’s Rev Rec Standard and Preparing for the Lease Accounting Revolution

8

8 AM – 3:30 PM

$270

$370

Frederick

11/27/18

Business & Industry Fall Town Hall 2018: CPA 4.0 How to Survive and Thrive in the Fourth Industrial Age

4

8:30 AM – 12 PM

$0

$250

Rockville + Online

11/28/18

Fall Town Hall 2018: CPA 4.0 How to Survive and Thrive in the Fourth Industrial Age

4

8:30 AM – 12 PM

$0

$250

Salisbury

11/28/18

A&A Update for Nonprofits: Practical Insights into the Latest Accounting and Auditing Issues Relevant to Nonprofit Entities

8

8 AM – 3:30 PM

$270

$370

Timonium

11/29/18

A&A Update: Highlights of the Latest Accounting and Auditing Issues

8

8 AM – 3:30 PM

$270

$370

Columbia

12/3/18

Real World Fraud in Today’s Small-to Medium-Sized Entities

8

8 AM – 3:30 PM

$270

$370

Timonium

12/4/18

Accounting and Reporting for Not-for-Profit Organizations

8

8 AM – 3:30 PM

$270

$370

Timonium

12/5/18

2018 AI IN ACCOUNTING AND AUDITING CONFERENCE

4

1 PM – 5 PM

$100

$200

Towson + Online

12/6/18

2018 CPA SUMMIT

8

8 AM – 4 PM

$225

$325

Towson + Online

12/10/18

Accounting and Auditing Current Developments (Accounting Update)

8

8 AM – 3:30 PM

$215

$315

Timonium

12/11/18

Hot Topics in Accounting and Auditing

4

12 PM – 3:30 PM

$140

$190

Frederick

12/12/18

Fall Town Hall 2018: CPA 4.0 How to Survive and Thrive in the Fourth Industrial Age

4

9 AM – 12:30 PM

$0

$250

Frederick

12/19/18

Fall Town Hall 2018: CPA 4.0 How to Survive and Thrive in the Fourth Industrial Age

4

8:30 AM – 12 PM

$0

$250

Towson + Online

A TOWN HALL WITH

TOM HOOD, CEO, MACPA

The insider update on professional trends, regulations, associationmembership, and learning

THE FUTURE READY CPA 4.0 UPCOMING TOWN HALLS OCTOBER 17 | Gaithersburg Young Professional & Happy Hour

NOVEMBER 26 | Arnold

NOVEMBER 27 | Rockville + Business & Industry

NOVEMBER 28 | Salisbury DECEMBER 12 | Frederick

DECEMBER 19 | Towson + STRATEGIC LEARNING POWERED BY

BUSINESS LEARNING OCTOBER 2018 INSTITUTE

47

DATE

COURSE TITLE

CPE

TIME

MEMBER

NON-MEM. LOCATION

BLI LEADERSHIP (IN-PERSON)

B LI LE A D E R S H IP (IN-PE R S ON ) 10/24/18

Listening for Leaders: Ask the Question, Discover the Need, Win the Trust

4

8 AM – 11:30 AM

$180

$280

Columbia

10/24/18

A&A Update for Small-or Mid-Size Private Companies

8

8 AM – 3:30 PM

$310

$410

Frederick

11/27/18

Quarterly Financial Leaders Series - At the Helm in the Storm: Seven Survival Strategies for Leaders in Turbulent Times

4

8 AM – 12 PM

$180

$230

Columbia

12/5/18

2018 AI IN ACCOUNTING AND AUDITING CONFERENCE

4

1 PM – 5 PM

$100

$200

Towson + Online

3/21/19

Quarterly Financial Leaders Series - Essential Strategic Skills for the Financial Executive

4

8 AM – 12 PM

$180

$230

Columbia

5/22/19

Quarterly Financial Leaders Series - Leading the Shift: Leadership for Financial Professionals in the 21st Century

4

8 AM – 12 PM

$180

$230

Columbia

B U S I N E S S & IN D US TRY (IN -PE R SON ) 10/1/18

Implementing FASB’s New Lease Standard: ASU 2016-02 Accounting for Leases - Examples and Practical Approaches

4

12 PM – 3:30 PM

$160

$210

Columbia

10/23/18

A&A Update: Highlights of the Latest Accounting and Auditing Issues

8

8 AM – 3:30 PM

$310

$410

Timonium

10/24/18

Listening for Leaders: Ask the Question, Discover the Need, Win the Trust

4

8 AM – 11:30 AM

$180

$280

Columbia

10/24/18

Excel Advanced Features, Functions, Pivot Tables and the Macro Recorder

8

8 AM – 3:30 PM

$345

$445

Columbia

10/29/18

Revenue Recognition: Mastering the New FASB Requirements

8

8 AM – 3:30 PM

$270

$370

Timonium

11/7/18

Excel Super-User - Automation with Macros beyond the basics with VBA code

8

8 AM – 3:30 PM

$295

$395

Columbia

11/27/18

Quarterly Financial Leaders Series - At the Helm in the Storm: Seven Survival Strategies for Leaders in Turbulent Times

4

8 AM – 12 PM

$180

$230

Columbia

11/27/18

Implementing FASB’s Rev Rec Standard and Preparing for the Lease Accounting Revolution

8

8 AM – 3:30 PM

$270

$370

Frederick

11/27/18

Business & Industry Fall Town Hall 2018: CPA 4.0 - How to Survive and Thrive in the Fourth Industrial Age

4

8:30 AM – 12 PM

$0

$250

Rockville + Online

12/6/18

2018 CPA SUMMIT

8

8 AM – 4 PM

$225

$325

Towson + Online

12/18/18

Excel Pivot Tables in-depth, PowerPivot, and Data Analysis Functions and Tips

8

8 AM – 3:30 PM

$295

$395

Columbia

3/21/19

Quarterly Financial Leaders Series - Essential Strategic Skills for the Financial Executive

4

8 AM – 12 PM

$180

$230

Columbia

5/22/19

Quarterly Financial Leaders Series - Leading the Shift: Leadership for Financial Professionals in the 21st Century

4

8 AM – 12 PM

$180

$230

Columbia

ET HI CS ( IN - PE R S ON ) 10/1/18

A Practical Ethics Update for CPAs

4

8 AM – 11:30 AM

$160

$210

Columbia

11/5/18

A Practical Ethics Update for CPAs

4

8 AM – 11:30 AM

$140

$190

Timonium

11/16/18

Four For Fall: Ethics and Professional Conduct: Updates and Practical Applications

4

8 AM – 11:30 AM

$140

$190

Columbia

12/3/18

Ethics: Here We Go Again

4

8 AM – 11:30 AM

$140

$190

Columbia

12/6/18

Ethics: Caesar’s Wife: Tipping the Delicate Balance of Leadership and Ethics

4

1 PM – 4:45 PM

$175

$225

Baltimore

12/11/18

A Practical Ethics Update for CPAs

4

8 AM – 11:30 AM

$140

$190

Frederick

48

Group discounts are available.

STATEMENT

DATE

COURSE TITLE

YOUR

CPE

TIME

MEMBER

EXPERTISE

NON-MEM. LOCATION

IS YOUR CLIENTS’ PEACE OF MIND. 33RD ANNUAL

PERSONAL FINANCIAL PLANNING CONFERENCE OCTOBER 23, 2018 | TOWSON | CPE: 8 SIMULCAST AVAILABLE FEATURING

Toby Groves Keynote Speaker, Researcher, Writer Cognitive Science

MACPA.ORG/PFP

OCTOBER 2018

The Personal Financial Planning Conference is for CPAs who are financial planners or business consultants advising clients in retirement and financial planning issues.

Receive training in topics including retirement planning, investments, estate planning, risk management, health care, economic update and more. Increase your personal knowledge to use in your work practice or personal life.

STRATEGIC LEARNING POWERED BY

49

BUSINESS LEARNING INSTITUTE

DATE

COURSE TITLE

CPE

TIME

MEMBER

NON-MEM. LOCATION

GOVERNMENT (IN-PERSON)

GOV E R N M E N T (IN-PE R S ON ) 9/27/18

2018 GOVERNMENT CONTRACTORS’ CONFERENCE

8

8 AM – 4:10 PM

$265

$365

Greenbelt + Online

11/2/18

GVC: Government Contractors’ Indirect Rates Roundtable

4

8:30 AM – 12 PM

$50

$60

Columbia

11/5/18

Governmental and Not-for-Profit Annual Update

8

8 AM – 3:30 PM

$270

$370

Rockville

11/6/18

Real-World Fraud in Governments and Not-for-Profits

8

8 AM – 3:30 PM

$270

$370

Timonium

11/15/18

Four For Fall: Annual Update for Governments and Not-For-Profits

4

8 AM – 11:30 AM

$140

$190

Columbia

11/16/18

Four For Fall: Data Breaches & Other Cyber Frauds: A 21st Century Risk to Your Organization

4

12 PM – 3:30 PM

$140

$190

Columbia

12/4/18

Accounting and Reporting for Not-for-Profit Organizations

8

8 AM – 3:30 PM

$270

$370

Timonium

4/25/19

2019 GOVERNMENT AND NOT-FOR-PROFIT CONFERENCE

8

8 AM – 5 PM

$275

$350

College Park

LEG I S LAT IV E & RE G ULATORY (IN-PE RSON) 10/5/18

Fall Town Hall 2018: CPA 4.0 How to Survive and Thrive in the Fourth Industrial Age

4

8:30 AM – 12 PM

$0

$250

Columbia

11/26/18

Fall Town Hall 2018: CPA 4.0 How to Survive and Thrive in the Fourth Industrial Age

4

1 PM – 5 PM

$0

$250

Anne Arundel

11/27/18

Business & Industry Fall Town Hall 2018: CPA 4.0 How to Survive and Thrive in the Fourth Industrial Age

4

8:30 AM – 12 PM

$0

$250

Rockville + Online

11/28/18

Fall Town Hall 2018: CPA 4.0 How to Survive and Thrive in the Fourth Industrial Age

4

8:30 AM – 12 PM

$0

$250

Salisbury

12/12/18

Fall Town Hall 2018: CPA 4.0 How to Survive and Thrive in the Fourth Industrial Age

4

9 AM – 12:30 PM

$0

$250

Frederick

12/19/18

Fall Town Hall 2018: CPA 4.0 How to Survive and Thrive in the Fourth Industrial Age

4

8:30 AM – 12 PM

$0

$250

Towson + Online

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STATEMENT

BUILDING THE SKILLS CLIENTS CAN TRUST.

PRACTITIONERS C

O

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F

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The Practitioners Conference is designed to help CPAs maintain their status as trusted advisors by equipping them to serve their clients better. The conference features topics including technology, overviews of financial products, healthcare updates, and more.

October 25, 2018 Martin’s West

•

Baltimore

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CPE: 8

MACPA.ORG/PRAC

STRATEGIC LEARNING POWERED BY

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2018

A dvanc e d Tax I n st i t u t e M ast e r i n g c o m p l e x ta x l aw

fo r yo u r cl ients

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The Advanced Tax Institute is for high-performing lawyers and CPAs who want to bring the best advice to their clients and their firms. ATI offers in-depth updates on new tax laws and regulations in a multitude of specific focus areas.

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STRATEGIC LEARNING POWERED BY

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HOSTED BY

DATE

COURSE TITLE

CPE

TIME

MEMBER

NON-MEM. LOCATION

NONPROFIT / NOT-FOR-PROFIT (IN-PERSON)

NON P R O F IT / N OT-FOR -PR OF IT (IN -P ERSON) 11/5/18

Governmental and Not-for-Profit Annual Update

8

8 AM – 3:30 PM

$270

$370

Rockville

4/25/19

2019 GOVERNMENT AND NOT-FOR-PROFIT CONFERENCE

8

8 AM – 5 PM

$275

$350

College Park

PE R S O N A L F IN A NCIAL PLANNING (IN- P ERSO N) 9/28/18

A Practical Guide to Trusts

8

8 AM – 3:30 PM

$310

$410

Timonium

10/23/18

33rd ANNUAL 2018 PERSONAL FINANCIAL PLANNING CONFERENCE

8

8 AM – 4:10 PM

$320

$420

Towson + Online

10/25/18

Applying Integrated Estate, Financial, and Asset Protection Planning Techniques

8

8 AM – 3:30 PM

$310

$410

Columbia

10/26/18

Integrated Estate, Financial, and Asset Protection Planning A Breakthrough Approach

8

8 AM – 3:30 PM

$270

$370

Columbia

11/13/18

ADVANCED TAX INSTITUTE - DAY 2 - ESTATE PLANNING ISSUES

8

8:30 AM – 4:40 PM

$240

$240

Baltimore

11/26/18

Estate Planning for 2018 and Beyond

8

8 AM – 3:30 PM

$270

$370

Columbia

11/29/18

Employee Benefit and Retirement Planning: Pension and Deferred Compensation Tools

8

8 AM – 3:30 PM

$270

$370

Timonium

PR A CT I TIO N E R S (IN -PE R SON ) 10/25/18

2018 PRACTITIONERS CONFERENCE

8

8 AM – 4 PM

$210

$310

Baltimore

11/13/18

QuickBooks For Accounting Professionals

8

8 AM – 3:30 PM

$295

$395

Columbia

11/16/18

Four For Fall: Lean Accounting and Management: Saving Money by Streamlining Operations

4

12 PM – 3:30 PM

$140

$190

Columbia

12/5/18

2018 AI IN ACCOUNTING AND AUDITING CONFERENCE

4

1 PM – 5 PM

$100

$200

Towson + Online

12/6/18

2018 CPA SUMMIT

8

8 AM – 4 PM

$225

$325

Towson + Online

12/13 12/14/18

MACPA’s 1040 Fast Track

16

8:30 AM – 4:30 PM

$350

$450

Columbia + Online

12/17/18

The Complete Guide to the Preparation of Form 1041

8

8 AM – 3:30 PM

$270

$370

Columbia

1/9/19

The Complete Guide to the Preparation of Form 1041

8

8 AM – 3:30 PM

$270

$370

Timonium

1/10 1/11/19

MACPA’s 1040 Fast Track

16

8 AM – 4 PM

$350

$450

Timonium + Online

SPE CI AL IZ E D K N OWLE D GE & APPLICAT IONS (IN- P ERSON) 11/16/18

Four For Fall: Data Breaches & Other Cyber Frauds: A 21st Century Risk to Your Organization

4

12 PM – 3:30 PM

$140

$190

Columbia

12/5/18

2018 AI IN ACCOUNTING AND AUDITING CONFERENCE

4

1 PM – 5 PM

$100

$200

Towson + Online

12/6/18

2018 CPA SUMMIT

8

8 AM – 4 PM

$225

$325

Towson + Online

1/24/19

CPA DAY 2019 - Members Only

2

7:30 AM – 1:30 PM

$0

$-

Annapolis

8

8 AM – 3:30 PM

$310

$410

Timonium

TA X ( I N - P E R S O N) 9/28/18

A Practical Guide to Trusts

OCTOBER 2018

53

DATE

COURSE TITLE

CPE

TIME

MEMBER

NON-MEM. LOCATION

TAX (IN-PERSON), CONTINUED 10/23/18

33rd ANNUAL 2018 PERSONAL FINANCIAL PLANNING CONFERENCE

8

8 AM – 4:10 PM

$320

$420

Towson + Online

10/25/18

2018 PRACTITIONERS CONFERENCE

8

8 AM – 4 PM

$210

$310

Baltimore

10/25/18

Applying Integrated Estate, Financial, and Asset Protection Planning Techniques

8

8 AM – 3:30 PM

$310

$410

Columbia

10/26/18

Integrated Estate, Financial, and Asset Protection Planning A Breakthrough Approach

8

8 AM – 3:30 PM

$270

$370

Columbia

11/1/18

Cut Your Client’s Tax Bill: Individual Tax Planning Tips and Strategies

8

8 AM – 3:30 PM

$270

$370

Timonium

11/8/18

Don Farmer’s 2018 Individual Income Tax Workshop

8

8 AM – 4 PM

$270

$370

Baltimore + Online

11/9/18

Don Farmer’s 2018 Corporate Income Tax Workshop

8

8 AM – 4 PM

$270

$370

Baltimore + Online

11/12/18

ADVANCED TAX INSTITUTE - DAY 1 - CURRENT TAX ISSUES AND BUSINESS TAX UPDATE

8

8:30 AM – 4:45 PM

$240

$240

Baltimore

11/13/18

ADVANCED TAX INSTITUTE - DAY 2 - ESTATE PLANNING ISSUES

8

8:30 AM – 4:40 PM

$240

$240

Baltimore

11/14/18

ADVANCED TAX INSTITUTE - DAY 3 - REAL ESTATE AND PARTNERSHIPS

8

8:30 AM – 4:40 PM

$240

$240

Baltimore

11/15/18

ADVANCED TAX INSTITUTE - DAY 4 - STATE AND LOCAL TAX ISSUES

8

8:30 AM – 4:45 PM

$240

$240

Baltimore

11/26/18

Estate Planning for 2018 and Beyond

8

8 AM – 3:30 PM

$270

$370

Columbia

11/29/18

Employee Benefit and Retirement Planning: Pension and Deferred Compensation Tools

8

8 AM – 3:30 PM

$270

$370

Timonium

11/30/18

Don Farmer’s 2018 Federal Tax Update

8

8 AM – 4 PM

$270

$370

Baltimore + Online

12/5/18

2018 AI IN ACCOUNTING AND AUDITING CONFERENCE

4

1 PM – 5 PM

$100

$200

Towson + Online

12/13 12/14/18

MACPA’s 1040 Fast Track

16

8:30 AM – 4:30 PM

$350

$450

Columbia + Online

12/17/18

The Complete Guide to the Preparation of Form 1041

8

8 AM – 3:30 PM

$270

$370

Columbia

1/9/19

The Complete Guide to the Preparation of Form 1041

8

8 AM – 3:30 PM

$270

$370

Timonium

1/10 1/11/19

MACPA’s 1040 Fast Track

16

8 AM – 4 PM

$350

$450

Timonium + Online

1/16/19

Annual Tax Update: Corporations and Pass-Through Entities

8

8 AM – 3:30 PM

$270

$370

Frederick

1/24/19

Postmortem Estate Planning

8

8 AM – 3:30 PM

$270

$370

Columbia

TE CHNO L O G Y (IN-PE R S ON ) 10/24/18

Excel Advanced Features, Functions, Pivot Tables and the Macro Recorder

8

8 AM – 3:30 PM

$345

$445

Columbia

11/7/18

Excel Super-User - Automation with Macros beyond the basics with VBA code

8

8 AM – 3:30 PM

$295

$395

Columbia

11/13/18

QuickBooks For Accounting Professionals

8

8 AM – 3:30 PM

$295

$395

Columbia

11/16/18

Four For Fall: Cybersecurity Risk Management Program: What You Need to Know

4

8 AM – 11:30 AM

$140

$190

Columbia

12/6/18

2018 CPA SUMMIT

8

8 AM – 4 PM

$225

$325

Towson + Online

12/7/18

Privacy & Security Considerations - Microsoft Office files, PDFs, Cyber- Security Tips for CPAs

4

8 AM – 11:30 AM

$150

$200

Columbia

12/7/18

Adobe Acrobat Best Features, Security, Forms and Tips for CPAs

4

12 PM – 3:30 PM

$150

$200

Columbia

12/18/18

Excel Pivot Tables in-depth, PowerPivot, and Data Analysis Functions and Tips

8

8 AM – 3:30 PM

$295

$395

Columbia

1/15/19

Microsoft Power BI and Excel Data Visualization - Create Dynamic Charts, Graphs and Diagrams based on your data

8

8 AM – 3:30 PM

$545

$645

Columbia

54

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DATE

COURSE TITLE

CPE

TIME

MEMBER

NON-MEM. LOCATION

CPE

TIME

MEMBER

NON-MEM. LOCATION

Upcoming ONLINE Events & Courses DATE

COURSE TITLE

AC CO U N TIN G & AUD ITIN G (ONLINE) 10/5/18

The Most Common Financial Statement and Asset Fraud Schemes: How to Detect and Prevent Them

4

9 AM – 1 PM

$159

$199

Online

10/9/18

Accounting and Auditing Update

4

9 AM – 1 PM

$159

$199

Online

10/19/18

Interpreting the New Revenue Recognition Standard: What All CPAs Need to Know

4

9 AM – 1 PM

$159

$199

Online

10/22/18

Financial Reporting for Not-for-Profit Entities

4

10:30 AM – 2:30 PM

$159

$199

Online

10/22/18

Leases: Mastering the New FASB Requirements

8

9 AM – 5 PM

$249

$319

Online

10/26/18

Implementing FASB’s New Lease Standard: ASU 2016-02 Accounting for Leases- Examples and Practical Approaches

4

8 AM – 12 PM

$110

$140

Online

10/30/18

Annual Update for Accountants and Auditors

8

9 AM – 5 PM

$249

$319

Online

11/9/18

Revenue Recognition: Mastering the New FASB Requirements

8

9 AM – 5 PM

$249

$319

Online

11/12/18

Accounting and Auditing Update

4

10:30 AM – 2:30 PM

$159

$199

Online

11/19/18

How to Identify, Explain, and Present Pertinent Financial Information to Non-Accountants

2

11 AM – 1 PM

$75

$90

Online

11/21/18

Analyzing a Company’s Financial Statement

4

9 AM – 1 PM

$159

$199

Online

11/27/18

Business & Industry Fall Town Hall 2018: CPA 4.0 How to Survive and Thrive in the Fourth Industrial Age

4

8:30 AM – 12 PM

$0

$250

Rockville + Online

12/3/18

Forensic Accounting: Uncovering Schemes and Scams

4

9 AM – 1 PM

$159

$199

Online

12/4/18

Integrating Audit Data Analytics into the Audit Process

8

9 AM – 5 PM

$249

$319

Online

12/5/18

2018 AI IN ACCOUNTING AND AUDITING CONFERENCE

4

1 PM – 5 PM

$100

$200

Towson + Online

12/6/18

2018 CPA SUMMIT

8

8 AM – 4 PM

$225

$325

Towson + Online

12/14/18

Documenting Your EBP Audit: What You Need to Know

8

9 AM – 5 PM

$249

$319

Online

12/19/18

Fall Town Hall 2018: CPA 4.0 How to Survive and Thrive in the Fourth Industrial Age

4

8:30 AM – 12 PM

$0

$250

Towson + Online

12/27/18

Data Breaches & Other Cyber Frauds: A 21st Century Risk to Your Organization

4

1 PM – 5 PM

$159

$199

Online

1/28/19

Grow Your Business from Within: How to Deliver Maximum Value to Clients on Every Engagement

2

11 AM – 1 PM

$75

$90

Online

56

Group discounts are available.

STATEMENT

DATE

COURSE TITLE

CPE

TIME

MEMBER

NON-MEM. LOCATION

BLI LEADERSHIP (ONLINE)

B LI LE A D E R S H IP (ON LIN E ) 10/11/18

Anticipate Greatness: Building a Productive, Resilient Workforce

1

3 PM – 4 PM

$35

$45

Online

10/19/18

Anticipate Change: Avoiding Ulcers in the “New Abnormal World”

1

3 PM – 4 PM

$35

$45

Online

10/30/18

Writing for Results - Email

2

12 PM – 2 PM

$110

$125

Online

11/29/18

Writing for Results - Email

2

10 AM – 12 PM

$110

$125

Online

1/14/19

Productivity Enablement: Simplifying the Most Challenging Parts of Your Job and Becoming Future-Ready (FREE FOR MEMBERS)

1

12 PM – 1 PM

$0

$45

Online

B U S I N E S S & IN D US TRY (ONLINE ) 9/28/18

Controller’s Update: Today’s Latest Trends

4

9 AM – 1 PM

$159

$199

Online

10/4/18

Conflict and Communication - You vs. Me vs. Them

2

10 AM – 12 PM

$75

$90

Online

10/5/18

The Changing Role of the Controller: Advancing from Tactical to Strategic

4

1 PM – 5 PM

$159

$199

Online

10/8/18

CFO/Controller Series: Retirement and Succession Planning

1

4 PM – 5 PM

$35

$45

Online

10/9/18

Conflict and Difficult People

2

1 PM – 3 PM

$99

$129

Online

10/11/18

Anticipate Greatness: Building a Productive, Resilient Workforce

1

3 PM – 4 PM

$35

$45

Online

10/17/18

Employment Law Update: Reducing Employer Liability

4

9 AM – 1 PM

$159

$199

Online

10/17/18

Controller’s Update: Today’s Latest Trends

4

1 PM – 5 PM

$159

$199

Online

10/17/18

CFO/Controller Series: Leadership and the Tone at the Top

1

11 AM – 12 PM

$35

$45

Online

10/19/18

Anticipate Change: Avoiding Ulcers in the “New Abnormal World”

1

3 PM – 4 PM

$35

$45

Online

10/23/18

KPI Dashboards - The New Financial Reporting Model

2

1 PM – 3 PM

$99

$129

Online

10/25/18

CFO/Controller Series: Enterprise Risk Management

1

1 PM – 2 PM

$35

$45

Online

10/29/18

CFO/Controller Series: Human Resource Effectiveness

1

2 PM – 3 PM

$35

$45

Online

11/5/18

Time to Get Serious About Information Security

2

10 AM – 12 PM

$99

$129

Online

11/5/18

Anticipate Client Needs: Beyond Best Practices in Client and Customer Service

1

4 PM – 5 PM

$35

$45

Online

11/9/18

Get Ready for the Fast Future - The Anticipatory CPA (FREE FOR MEMBERS)

1

12 PM – 1 PM

$0

$45

Online

11/12/18

Identity Theft: Preventing, Detecting, and Investigating

8

10:30 AM – 6:30 PM

$249

$319

Online

11/12/18

Get Out of the Casket and Up to the Podium

2

1 PM – 3 PM

$75

$90

Online

11/16/18

The Changing Role of the Controller: Advancing from Tactical to Strategic

4

9 AM – 1 PM

$159

$199

Online

11/16/18

CFO/Controller Series: Debt and Equity Mix

1

2 PM – 3 PM

$35

$45

Online

11/19/18

How to Identify, Explain, and Present Pertinent Financial Information to Non-Accountants

2

11 AM – 1 PM

$75

$90

Online

OCTOBER 2018

57

DATE

COURSE TITLE

CPE

TIME

MEMBER

NON-MEM. LOCATION

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DATE

COURSE TITLE

CPE

TIME

MEMBER

NON-MEM. LOCATION

BUSINESS & INDUSTRY (ONLINE), CONTINU ED 11/20/18

Best Practices for Payroll Taxes and 1099 Issues

8

9 AM – 5 PM

$249

$319

Online

11/20/18

CFO/Controller Series: National Infrastructure

1

1 PM – 2 PM

$35

$45

Online

11/27/18

Anticipate Engagement: Motivating the Next Workforce

1

1 PM – 2 PM

$35

$45

Online

11/27/18

Business & Industry Fall Town Hall 2018: CPA 4.0 How to Survive and Thrive in the Fourth Industrial Age

4

8:30 AM – 12 PM

$0

$250

Rockville + Online

12/3/18

Forensic Accounting: Uncovering Schemes and Scams

4

9 AM – 1 PM

$159

$199

Online

12/6/18

2018 CPA SUMMIT

8

8 AM – 4 PM

$225

$325

Towson + Online

12/10/18

Anticipate Development: Moving From Employee to Manager to Leader

1

3 PM – 4 PM

$35

$45

Online

12/11/18

CFO/Controller Series: Competing Globally

1

11 AM – 12 PM

$35

$45

Online

1/3/19

Get Out of the Casket and Up to the Podium

2

12 PM – 2 PM

$75

$90

Online

1/24/19

CFO/Controller Series: Human Resource Effectiveness

1

11 AM – 12 PM

$35

$45

Online

1/25/19

Financial Storytelling: The Key in Growing Your Organization to The Next Level

2

10 AM – 12 PM

$75

$90

Online

1/29/19

CFO/Controller Series: Effective Communication and Negotiations

1

11 AM – 12 PM

$35

$45

Online

1/30/19

Anticipate Client Needs: Beyond Best Practices in Client and Customer Service

1

2 PM – 3 PM

$35

$45

Online

1/30/19

The Finance and Accounting Organization as Partner and Strategist to the Business

2

11 AM – 1 PM

$35

$45

Online

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59

DATE

COURSE TITLE

CPE

TIME

MEMBER

NON-MEM. LOCATION

ETHICS (ONLINE)

ET HI CS ( O N L IN E) 10/9/18

Ethics and Professional Conduct: Updates and Practical Applications

4

9 AM – 1 PM

$159

$199

Online

10/16/18

Respect, Safety and Ethics - The Next Step in Harassment Avoidance Executive Briefing

2

1 PM – 3 PM

$75

$90

Online

10/18/18

Ethics: Critical Thinking, Case Studies, and Fraud

4

10 AM – 2 PM

$110

$140

Online

11/1/18

Accountants Liability - Positioning Your Firm for Success (Tax Focus)

4

1 PM – 5 PM

$159

$199

Online

11/6/18

Ethics: Critical Thinking, Case Studies, and Fraud

4

11:30 AM – 3:30 PM

$110

$140

Online

11/15/18

Accountants Liability - Positioning Your Firm for Success (Audit and Attest Services Focus)

4

1 PM – 5 PM

$159

$199

Online

11/26/18

Avoiding the Slippery Slope of Ethical Pressures

4

12 PM – 4 PM

$110

$140

Online

11/28/18

Accountants Liability - Positioning Your Firm for Success (Tax Focus)

4

1 PM – 5 PM

$159

$199

Online

12/6/18

The Ethics of Change - Keeping Your Balance in Risky Times

2

12 PM – 2 PM

$75

$90

Online

12/14/18

Respect, Safety and Ethics - The Next Step in Harassment Avoidance Executive Briefing

2

3 PM – 5 PM

$75

$90

Online

12/19/18

Ethics: Critical Thinking, Case Studies, and Fraud

4

9 AM – 1 PM

$110

$140

Online

1/8/19

Avoiding the Slippery Slope of Ethical Pressures

4

11 AM – 3 PM

$110

$140

Online

1/25/19

Respect, Safety and Ethics - The Next Step in Harassment Avoidance Executive Briefing

2

2 PM – 4 PM

$75

$90

Online

1/31/19

Ethics: Critical Thinking, Case Studies, and Fraud

4

12 PM – 4 PM

$110

$140

Online

GOV E R N M E N T (ON LIN E ) 9/27/18

2018 GOVERNMENT CONTRACTORS’ CONFERENCE

8

8 AM – 4:10 PM

$265

$365

Greenbelt + Online

10/3/18

Yellow Book Financial Audits

4

9 AM – 1 PM

$159

$199

Online

LEG I S LAT IV E & RE G ULATORY (ON LINE) 11/27/18

Business & Industry Fall Town Hall 2018: CPA 4.0 How to Survive and Thrive in the Fourth Industrial Age

4

8:30 AM – 12 PM

$0

$250

Rockville + Online

12/19/18

Fall Town Hall 2018: CPA 4.0 How to Survive and Thrive in the Fourth Industrial Age

4

8:30 AM – 12 PM

$0

$250

Towson + Online

8

8 AM – 4:10 PM

$320

$420

Towson + Online

PE R S O N A L F IN A NCIAL PLANNING (O NLINE) 10/23/18

33rd ANNUAL 2018 PERSONAL FINANCIAL PLANNING CONFERENCE

PR A CT I TIO N E R S (ONLINE ) 11/28/18

Individual Tax Fundamentals

8

9 AM – 5 PM

$249

$319

Online

12/6/18

2018 CPA SUMMIT

8

8 AM – 4 PM

$225

$325

Towson + Online

12/12/18

Individual Tax Fundamentals

8

9 AM – 5 PM

$249

$319

Online

12/12/18

Intermediate Individual Taxation

8

9 AM – 5 PM

$249

$319

Online

60

Group discounts are available.

STATEMENT

DATE

COURSE TITLE

CPE

TIME

MEMBER

NON-MEM. LOCATION

PRACTITIONERS (ONLINE), CONTINUED 12/13 12/14/18

MACPA’s 1040 Fast Track

16

8:30 AM – 4:30 PM

$350

$450

Columbia + Online

1/10 1/11/19

MACPA’s 1040 Fast Track

16

8 AM – 4 PM

$350

$450

Timonium + Online

SPE CI AL IZ E D K N OWLE D GE & APPLICAT IONS (ONLINE) 9/26/18

How to Build a Virtual Accounting Services Practice

3

9 AM – 12 PM

$139

$179

Online

9/28/18

Data Breaches & Other Cyber Frauds: A 21st Century Risk to Your Organization

4

9 AM – 1 PM

$159

$199

Online

10/8/18

Introduction to Blockchain

5

11 AM – 4 PM

$199

$249

Online

10/10/18

The Potential of Blockchain

4.5

11 AM – 3:30 PM

$199

$249

Online

10/12/18

Blockchain Application

5.5

11 AM – 4:30 PM

$199

$249

Online

10/22/18

Excel for Accounting Professionals Session 1: Tables and Named References

2

11 AM – 1 PM

$99

$129

Online

10/22/18

Excel for Accounting Professionals Session 2: Data Validation and Conditional Formatting

2

2 PM – 4 PM

$99

$129

Online

10/23/18

Excel for Accounting Professionals Session 3: Workbook Design Principles and Organization

2

11 AM – 1 PM

$99

$129

Online

10/23/18

Excel for Accounting Professionals Session 4: Conditional Summing and Lookups

2

2 PM – 4 PM

$99

$129

Online

10/23/18

KPI Dashboards - The New Financial Reporting Model

2

1 PM – 3 PM

$99

$129

Online

10/24/18

Excel for Accounting Professionals Session 5: Error Trapping and Improving Lookups

2

11 AM – 1 PM

$99

$129

Online

10/24/18

Excel for Accounting Professionals Session 6: List Comparisons and Indenting

2

2 PM – 4 PM

$99

$129

Online

10/25/18

Excel for Accounting Professionals Session 7: Date Driven Workbooks and Concatenation

2

11 AM – 1 PM

$99

$129

Online

10/25/18

Excel for Accounting Professionals Session 8: Dynamic Headers, Mapping Tables and Error Check

2

2 PM – 4 PM

$99

$129

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12/6/18

2018 CPA SUMMIT

8

8 AM – 4 PM

$225

$325

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12/27/18

Data Breaches & Other Cyber Frauds: A 21st Century Risk to Your Organization

4

1 PM – 5 PM

$159

$199

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TA X ( ON L IN E ) 9/26/18

Tax Reform Update - Corporations and Pass-Through Entities

4

9 AM – 1 PM

$189

$239

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9/27/18

Tax Reform: Overview of Section 199A

2

1 PM – 3 PM

$99

$129

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9/27/18

Tax Reform Update - Individuals and Sole Proprietors

4

9 AM – 1 PM

$189

$239

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9/28/18

Tax Reform: A Case Study Approach to Section 199A

2

1 PM – 3 PM

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$129

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10/8/18

Tax Reform Update - Corporations and Pass-Through Entities

4

1 PM – 5 PM

$189

$239

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10/9/18

Tax Reform Update - Individuals and Sole Proprietors

4

1 PM – 5 PM

$189

$239

Online

10/15/18

Tax Reform Update - Corporations and Pass-Through Entities

4

9 AM – 1 PM

$189

$239

Online

10/16/18

Tax Reform Update - Individuals and Sole Proprietors

4

9 AM – 1 PM

$189

$239

Online

OCTOBER 2018

61

DATE

COURSE TITLE

CPE

TIME

MEMBER

NON-MEM. LOCATION

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STATEMENT

DATE

COURSE TITLE

CPE

TIME

MEMBER

NON-MEM. LOCATION

TAX (ONLINE), CONTINUED 10/17/18

Tax Reform Update - Corporations and Pass-Through Entities

4

9 AM – 1 PM

$189

$239

Online

10/18/18

Tax Reform Update - Individuals and Sole Proprietors

4

9 AM – 1 PM

$189

$239

Online

10/22/18

Tax Reform Update - Corporations and Pass-Through Entities

4

1 PM – 5 PM

$189

$239

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10/23/18

33rd ANNUAL 2018 PERSONAL FINANCIAL PLANNING CONFERENCE

8

8 AM – 4:10 PM

$320

$420

Towson + Online

10/24/18

Social Security and Medicare: Maximizing Retirement Benefits

4

1 PM – 5 PM

$159

$199

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10/25/18

Annual Tax Update: Individuals and Sole Proprietors

8

9 AM – 5 PM

$249

$319

Online

10/26/18

Tax Reform Update - Individuals and Sole Proprietors

4

1 PM – 5 PM

$189

$239

Online

11/8/18

Don Farmer’s 2018 Individual Income Tax Workshop

8

8 AM – 4 PM

$270

$370

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11/8/18

Tax Reform Update - Corporations and Pass-Through Entities

4

1 PM – 5 PM

$189

$239

Online

11/9/18

Don Farmer’s 2018 Corporate Income Tax Workshop

8

8 AM – 4 PM

$270

$370

Baltimore + Online

11/9/18

Tax Reform Update - Individuals and Sole Proprietors

4

1 PM – 5 PM

$189

$239

Online

11/14/18

Tax Reform Update - Corporations and Pass-Through Entities

4

9 AM – 1 PM

$189

$239

Online

11/16/18

Tax Reform Update - Individuals and Sole Proprietors

4

9 AM – 1 PM

$189

$239

Online

11/19/18

Tax Reform Update - Corporations and Pass-Through Entities

4

9 AM – 1 PM

$189

$239

Online

11/20/18

Best Practices for Payroll Taxes and 1099 Issues

8

9 AM – 5 PM

$249

$319

Online

11/20/18

Tax Reform Update - Individuals and Sole Proprietors

4

9 AM – 1 PM

$189

$239

Online

11/21/18

Advanced Tax Planning S Corporations

8

9 AM – 5 PM

$249

$319

Online

11/26/18

Tax Reform Update - Corporations and Pass-Through Entities

4

1 PM – 5 PM

$189

$239

Online

11/27/18

Tax Reform Update - Individuals and Sole Proprietors

4

1 PM – 5 PM

$189

$239

Online

11/28/18

Individual Tax Fundamentals

8

9 AM – 5 PM

$249

$319

Online

11/30/18

Don Farmer’s 2018 Federal Tax Update

8

8 AM – 4 PM

$270

$370

Baltimore + Online

12/6/18

Tax Reform Update - Corporations and Pass-Through Entities

4

1 PM – 5 PM

$189

$239

Online

12/7/18

Tax Reform Update - Individuals and Sole Proprietors

4

1 PM – 5 PM

$189

$239

Online

12/10/18

IRS Audits

4

1 PM – 5 PM

$159

$199

Online

12/12/18

Individual Tax Fundamentals

8

9 AM – 5 PM

$249

$319

Online

12/12/18

Intermediate Individual Taxation

8

9 AM – 5 PM

$249

$319

Online

12/13 12/14/18

MACPA’s 1040 Fast Track

16

8:30 AM – 4:30 PM

$350

$450

Columbia + Online

OCTOBER 2018

63

DATE

COURSE TITLE

CPE

TIME

MEMBER

NON-MEM. LOCATION

TAX (ONLINE), CONTINUED 12/13/18

Tax Reform Update - Corporations and Pass-Through Entities

4

9 AM – 1 PM

$189

$239

Online

12/14/18

Tax Reform Update - Individuals and Sole Proprietors

4

9 AM – 1 PM

$189

$239

Online

12/26/18

Tax Reform Update - Corporations and Pass-Through Entities

4

1 PM – 5 PM

$189

$239

Online

12/27/18

Tax Reform Update - Corporations and Pass-Through Entities

4

1 PM – 5 PM

$189

$239

Online

12/27/18

Tax Reform Update - Individuals and Sole Proprietors

4

1 PM – 5 PM

$189

$239

Online

12/28/18

Tax Reform Update - Individuals and Sole Proprietors

4

1 PM – 5 PM

$189

$239

Online

1/10 1/11/19

MACPA’s 1040 Fast Track

16

8 AM – 4 PM

$350

$450

Timonium + Online

TE CHN O L O G Y (ONLINE ) 10/5/18

Social Learning Bootcamp

1

12:30 PM – 1:30 PM

$0

$45

Online

10/16/18

MS PowerPoint - Create Presentations that Engage Your Audience

2

11 AM – 1 PM

$99

$129

Online

10/22/18

Excel for Accounting Professionals Session 1: Tables and Named References

2

11 AM – 1 PM

$99

$129

Online

10/22/18

Excel for Accounting Professionals Session 2: Data Validation and Conditional Formatting

2

2 PM – 4 PM

$99

$129

Online

10/23/18

Excel for Accounting Professionals Session 3: Workbook Design Principles and Organization

2

11 AM – 1 PM

$99

$129

Online

10/23/18

Excel for Accounting Professionals Session 4: Conditional Summing and Lookups

2

2 PM – 4 PM

$99

$129

Online

10/23/18

Time to Get Serious About Information Security

2

9 AM – 11 AM

$99

$129

Online

10/24/18

Excel for Accounting Professionals Session 5: Error Trapping and Improving Lookups

2

11 AM – 1 PM

$99

$129

Online

10/24/18

Excel for Accounting Professionals Session 6: List Comparisons and Indenting

2

2 PM – 4 PM

$99

$129

Online

10/25/18

Excel for Accounting Professionals Session 7: Date Driven Workbooks and Concatenation

2

11 AM – 1 PM

$99

$129

Online

10/25/18

Excel for Accounting Professionals Session 8: Dynamic Headers, Mapping Tables and Error Check

2

2 PM – 4 PM

$99

$129

Online

11/6/18

Microsoft Outlook and Word 2010: Productivity Tips and Tricks

2

10 AM – 12 PM

$75

$90

Online

11/28/18

Mastering Data Preparation and Analysis in Excel

2

10 AM – 12 PM

$99

$129

Online

12/3/18

Adobe Acrobat Best Practices and Productivity Features

2

12 PM – 2 PM

$75

$90

Online

12/6/18

2018 CPA SUMMIT

8

8 AM – 4 PM

$225

$325

Towson + Online

64

Group discounts are available.

STATEMENT

DATE

COURSE TITLE

CPE

Annapolis CPE: 2 Governor Calvert House

TIME

MEMBER

NON-MEM. LOCATION

COMPLIMENTARY CPE FOR MEMBERS

JANUARY 24, Promoting and protecting CPAs in Maryland Once a year, CPAs gather in Annapolis to make their professional interests known to Maryland legislators. The Maryland Association of CPAs engages in ongoing legislative and lobbying efforts, and CPA Day is the best time for CPAs to show their support and advocate for our profession. A one hour CPE session is included for participants.

MACPA.ORG/CPADAY

NOVEMBER 27 At the Helm in the Storm: Seven Survival Strategies for Leaders in Turbulent Times with Greg Conderacci

‘18-19’

A meeting of the minds that lead firms and organizations

MARCH 21 Essential Strategic Skills for the Financial Executive with Frank Ryan

MAY 22 Leading the Shift: Leadership for Financial Professionals in the 21st Century with Jeff Nischwitz

COLUMBIA | CPE: 4

MACPA.ORG/QFLS

OCTOBER 2018

STRATEGIC LEARNING POWERED BY

BUSINESS LEARNING INSTITUTE

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