The business environment is complex and evolving more rapidly than ever. A world-wide pandemic has required us to work differently, accelerated our adoption of technology by years and injected new risks and opportunities into the system. In order to position ourselves for success, we must understand prevailing environmental trends, how they impact what we do as assurance providers, and the opportunities they present.

The CPA profession played a critical role in helping small businesses acquire funding during the pandemic. This role naturally led to CPAs providing their clients with business advice. In turn, the opportunity for deeper client advisory services through business financing was revealed. In this session, leading voices will share how practitioners are expanding their client advisory services by providing financing assistance. You'll hear exactly what steps firms are taking to feature finance and FinTech as part of their CAS offering.

The AICPA Chief Auditor and the Immediate Past Chair of the Accounting and Review Services Committee (ARSC) will discuss recently issued standards for audits and attestation engagements and recent activities of the ARSC for reviews, compilations and financial statement preparation engagements performed in accordance with Statements on Standards for Accounting and Review Services (SSARSs). The discussion will also include the Auditing Standards Board and ARSC's active agendas including ongoing efforts to modernize auditing and attestation standards, enhance outreach to stakeholders regarding proposed standards and post-implementation reviews of issued standards. This session will feature a discussion of the current status of the projects to: Revise the quality control standards and make narrow revisions to auditor/accountant communications regarding NOCLAR.

Risk assessment is at the core of every audit and recently issued SAS 145 introduces new and enhanced requirements related to the identification and assessment of the risks of material misstatement. Join three of the profession’s leading voices, Tom Groskopf, the technical director for the AICPA’s Center for Plain English Accounting and Director at Barnes Dennig, Chuck Landes, retired AICPA V.P. of Auditing Standards and author of the new AICPA’s Risk Assessment Guide, and Liz Gantnier, Partner at DHG Audit Innovation & Methodology, as they provide practical advice on scaling the new risk assessment requirements to smaller firms. Also, the presenters will preview what to expect in the new Guide, which the CPEA is advising on. Come learn what’s new about SAS 145 and get all your implementation questions answered by these experts.

In 2021, AICPA & CIMA formed a Future of Finance Group. They were charged with how to transform the profession in its broadest context and re-imagine the finance function of the future. In this candid panel discussion with members of our Future of Finance Leadership Advisory Group we will discuss the key findings from our recent Future of Finance Summits and what the panel are doing to take advantage of these issues and opportunities. Also, in conjunction with Wharton Business Consulting we have been investigating whether the pandemic has changed the skills, capabilities and mindsets the successful finance leaders need. With 80% of businesses and firms facing a leadership talent shortage, building an internal pipeline of leaders has never been more critical. Working closely with finance leaders we identified four key traits. Which set of underpinning skills and mindsets do finance leaders need to play a key role in influencing the future of their organizations?

This course is designed to obtain an understanding of the proper accounting, audit and tax implications for businesses receiving COVID related government assistance program funding.

The elements that build trust don't change when we shift to hybrid work, but the actions that build trust do. This talk will cover both the elements and their corresponding actions. You'll leave this session equipped with a tool that supports diagnosing trust breaches as well as a plan for action in building trust intentionally.

The accountants view of Graphic Packaging's ESG Story. The role of accounting, risk, and audit in ESG

This will include security, applications, equipment, challenges with contract employees vs. full time team members, etc. The focused will be on the challenges in this space felt by all sized firms from sole practitioners to large regional firms. Attendees will walk away with not only the perfect technology stack for dealing with a remote workforce, but also the "must have" security practices to have in place.