Events

This program has been developed in partnership with HRPA.

As business and work environments change, the lines between different functions continue to blur. To remain a strong asset to your business, it is important to cultivate a broad range of value-added transferable skills. Today, the most coveted business leaders are those with an agile base of cross-disciplinary knowledge and abilities.

CPAs and finance and accounting professionals can boost their career trajectory by cultivating their abilities to look beyond the numbers. Taking a big-picture approach and gaining a deeper understanding of the “people” side of the business is an invaluable asset in the current business climate. Participants will leverage critical knowledge of the HR function to increase collaboration and cross-functionality within their organizations and lead their businesses (and careers) to new heights.

This program has been developed in partnership with HRPA.

As business and work environments change, the lines between different functions continue to blur. To remain a strong asset to your business, it is important to cultivate a broad range of value-added transferable skills. Today, the most coveted business leaders are those with an agile base of cross-disciplinary knowledge and abilities.

CPAs and finance and accounting professionals can boost their career trajectory by cultivating their abilities to look beyond the numbers. Taking a big-picture approach and gaining a deeper understanding of the “people” side of the business is an invaluable asset in the current business climate. Participants will leverage critical knowledge of the HR function to increase collaboration and cross-functionality within their organizations and lead their businesses (and careers) to new heights.

This newly revised course has shifted online into 3 full day + 1 half day, live, instructor-led sessions.

This course is designed to provide controllers and senior financial managers with a refresher on the practical skills they need to stay up to date, heighten their performance and improve their organizations. Participants will review leading-edge developments in finance, risk management and control and explore how to become more efficient, stronger financial leaders. During this fast-paced course, participants will work through case studies and engage in group work to gain fresh insights into many aspects of a modern finance department.

Performance Transformation is the first part of the CFO Certificate Program which is designed for aspiring, new and experienced CFOs.

During these times of unprecedented change in digital technologies and globalization of businesses, it is all the more important for organizations to operate at peak levels of performance to succeed. Participants will explore the technical, ethical and interpersonal skills they need to master and sustain change, and help their organizations stay agile and more easily adapt to change.

This program fosters a high energy, interactive learning environment. Activities consist of a combination of cases, exercises, tool kits, lively discussions, as well as networking and sharing experiences. Your active participation will be required throughout the program. Come prepared for a unique experience that will move you towards realizing your full CFO potential. Allow us to guide you on your journey.

The Visionary Leader is the second part of the CFO Certificate Program which Is designed for aspiring, new and experienced CFOs.

Visionary leaders successfully inspire their teams to achieve common, overarching goals. They leverage their teams’ capabilities to deliver innovative insights, while keeping their organizations’ long-term sustainability in mind. To tackle their organizations’ toughest challenges, today’s CFOs must be forward-thinking, flexible, and adaptive to change. This program will help aspiring, new, and experienced CFOs develop a practical set of skills for driving strategy and nurturing creativity and innovation among their team members. Participants will become more pro-active members of their executive teams, further contributing to their organizations’ performance.

Are you questioning whether your investment advisor is doing a good job for you? Maybe you’ve started to look at the new disclosures on your investment statements and have discovered your rate of return isn’t as high as you’d hoped, and oh my goodness, the fees you’re being charged!

This course will start out by explaining the basic types of investments including guaranteed investment certificates (GICs), stocks, mutual funds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs). It will then expose why mutual funds don’t work including how to calculate the management expense ratio (MER), how the punitive fees hurt you and finally how to get out of them. It will then show you the much better alternatives to using mutual funds and the people who sell them:

This course is based on David Trahair’s national bestselling book Enough Bull: How to Retire Well Without the Stock Market, Mutual Funds or Even an Investment Advisor.

In this course you’ll discover The Antidote: A simple six-point plan for financial freedom. It will include a detailed analysis of why the stock market is a very risky place to be. You’ll discover how well the stock market has done versus the risk-free benchmark of GICs going back 50 years in Canada and 30 years in the US. Find out who wins … and by how much.

In a nutshell it will give you all the tools, information and confidence to take back control of your investments and finally start making some serious money.

This course is based on David Trahair’s national bestselling book Enough Bull: How to Retire Well Without the Stock Market, Mutual Funds or Even an Investment Advisor.

In this course you’ll discover The Antidote: A simple six-point plan for financial freedom. It will include a detailed analysis of why the stock market is a very risky place to be. You’ll discover how well the stock market has done versus the risk-free benchmark of GICs going back 50 years in Canada and 30 years in the US. Find out who wins … and by how much.

In a nutshell it will give you all the tools, information and confidence to take back control of your investments and finally start making some serious money.

A common challenge in business is the perception that the financial close process is lengthy, inefficient and cumbersome. Finding additional time saving at month-, quarter- and year-end is critical during these challenging times of increasing complexity in financial reporting, and accelerated reporting and regulatory obligations.

Participants in this seminar will gain a practical understanding of best practices in the financial close processes and learn how to accelerate the financial close process and enhance controls. You will focus on Spreadsheet Controls, which make the whole process of using spreadsheets more effective and efficient and show how to redesign and enhance spreadsheets to reduce the likelihood of error and facilitate the use of spreadsheets as analytical tools.

When learning on-the-job, Excel users understandably develop familiarity with those features that impact their output and jobs. This condensed High-intensity workshop is designed to give such users a good grounding in a broad range of features and techniques that includes productivity techniques in data management, getting familiar with the various aspects of data analysis and formula building, troubleshooting data errors, conditionality and lookups, tapping into the power tools like Pivot Tables and other productivity tools. Participants will work hands-on along with the facilitator on a practice data-file with supplied examples.

Learn database skills to help organize, customize, and interpret your data. This CPA Ontario course includes eight, beginner-level, mini courses that cover the basic structure and key elements of Access 2019. This course will enable you to save time by learning how to find and use the information you need most within Access, the database application in the Microsoft Office 2019 suite. Learn how to format and analyze your data, and create useful reports for your business needs.

Learn how to buy or sell an accounting practice.

This CPA Ontario course is for CPAs who are looking to buy or sell an accounting practice. The seminar is designed to guide participants through the entire process of practice transition. Buyers will learn key markers of a successful practice, concerns of the seller and how to smoothly transition into the new role. Sellers will learn about developing transition plans, pitching their practice and purchase agreements.

Learn how to buy or sell an accounting practice.

This CPA Ontario course is for CPAs who are looking to buy or sell an accounting practice. The seminar is designed to guide participants through the entire process of practice transition. Buyers will learn key markers of a successful practice, concerns of the seller and how to smoothly transition into the new role. Sellers will learn about developing transition plans, pitching their practice and purchase agreements.

In a changing business environment, managers have to face a lot of new responsibilities. Coaching as a management style has shown itself to be an effective way of enhancing the performance of all those who are exposed to it (managers, teams and individual staff members). Coaching makes it possible to create a less stressful environment for teams, to foster effective teamwork and to support change. But how do you reconcile coaching and management? What skills do you need to acquire in order to build coaching into your management methods?

SCHEDULE

This course will explore key topical issues in organizational governance in depth, including shareholder accountability; the governance of risk; the strategic role of boards; the governance of executive pay; cybersecurity and social media governance; CEO and board succession planning; conduct and ethical governance; and regulatory developments impacting boards of directors and professional accountants.

WHO WILL BENEFIT

This is an ideal course for aspiring or veteran directors of non-profits, public or private companies, or crown corporations, or professional accountants who report to boards or wish to serve on boards in the future.

SCHEDULE

This course has shifted online into two, half-day sessions.

Ready to take your Excel skills to the next level?

This seminar starts by clarifying some key Excel misunderstandings that affect typical Excel workbooks and shows you how advanced Excel functions will improve your calculating skills. Need to bring data into Excel from an outside source? The seminar will cover this in depth. You will learn how to use Excel’s data analysis tools, including advanced lookups. Then the course dives into array formulas, a powerful tool that very few Excel users understand. Finally, you will be exposed to the Excel Data Model and PowerPivot, a tool first introduced in Excel 2010 that enables you to work with large amounts of data from multiple data sources.

This seminar is aimed at exposing participants to advanced techniques in building spreadsheets to be used in the planning and accounting process. Participants will work hands-on along with the facilitator on a practice data-file with supplied examples and learn techniques in managing and consolidating data, and in constructing powerful formulas including tier-based lookups. Participants will also work on examples that bring out the power of Pivot Tables in managing data and reports, examine techniques for representing accounting data effectively, discover tips and tricks to link data and build formulas spanning multiple sheets quickly, and many other tips and tricks to enhance output and increase productivity.

Learn advanced formulas, functions and financial analysis to be an Excel power user. This course is designed for proficient spreadsheet users looking to take their skills to the next level.

You will set up a template to structure an intelligent design for financial analysis. By using advanced functions, you will build financial statements and perform analysis. Once complete, you’ll create data tables and pivot tables to display information and charts and graphs to show results. To speed up analysis, you’ll record macros, and create additional user interfaces.

Level up your financial modelling skills with a case study on how to value Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN).

In this course, you will learn how to build a detailed financial model for a public company. Video-based lessons include all the formulas and functions to calculate the detailed mechanics of Amazon’s financial model. This course also covers topics such as segmented revenue, marketable securities, accrued expenses, unearned revenue, additional paid-in capital, stock-based compensation, and more.

This bundle includes two online courses:

1. Advanced Excel Formulas (6.5 hours)

Learn to set up a template with advanced formulas, functions to structure an intelligent design for financial analysis. Create data tables and pivot tables to display information in charts and graphs to show results. To speed up analysis, you’ll record macros, and create additional user interfaces.

2. Advanced Financial Modelling and Valuation (13 hours)

Level up your financial modelling skills with a case study on how to value Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN). Using video-based lessons, learn how to build a detailed financial model for a public company. You will learn all the formulas and functions necessary to calculate the detailed mechanics of Amazon’s financial model.

Analyzing financial statements is no easy task. This seminar focuses on how to analyze financial statements, in particular the lesser known techniques which are becoming more and more important in a world with multiple reporting standards including International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) and Accounting Standards for Private Enterprises (ASPE).

Participants will review the proper situations in which to use straightforward financial ratio analysis. They will also learn about adjustments that must be made to statements prior to the use of ratios so financial analysis techniques can be applied effectively, and other measures which must be taken into account, to arrive at a detailed assessment of a company’s financial health.

Managers who can foster high levels of performance within their organization will have a better chance of success in today’s highly competitive business landscape.

This five-part course outlines techniques managers can use keep top performers motivated and fulfilled and develop their skills and knowledge to maintain a competitive edge. This path introduces the concept of talent management at the manager level and details how managers can effectively meet the needs of experts in their talent pool. The course also addresses information and tips on how to develop a good mentoring program.

Successful Scrum implementation begins with effective backlog development and tailoring the framework to your environment. Executing a Scrum sprint may be challenging but there are ways to mitigate your risk. In this three-part course you will learn how to use the agile process framework to prioritize tasks and respond to change more accurately. With the power of Scrum, transform complex project management with improved communication and effective collaboration for faster results.

This advanced course explores approaches to building and implementing visualizations, after you have an understanding of your data. Learn plotting and graphing using Python libraries like Matplotlib, ggplot, bokeh, and Pygal, and discover how to build advanced charts using Python and Jupyter Notebook. The also course covers the visualization capabilities of R and ggplot2 and how to build charts and graphs with the software.

The rise of new technologies like blockchain, data science, virtual reality, as well as cloud, mobile and connected devices has led to the creation of new digital ecosystems. Today’s leaders are finding it increasingly challenging to lead through disruption while remaining agile, innovative and adaptable to change. The courses in this bundle will help you adopt design thinking skills when dealing with complex issues and attempting to implement the best-suited solutions. In addition to honing key leadership skills, you will learn how to create a more positive atmosphere and deal with team members who are feeling unhappy or burned out due to constant change, lack of direction or overwhelming demands.