Convention Session Descriptions

Carla McCall, CPA, CGMA is the 2023-2024 Vice Chair of the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA). Throughout her career, McCall has served in several volunteer roles with the AICPA. She was named one of the Most Powerful Women in the Accounting Profession (2020-2021 and 2022) by the AICPA and CPA Practice Advisor Magazine and appeared on the National Managing Partner Elite List by Accounting Today (2020).

She is the Managing Partner at AAFCPAs, a 300-person CPA and consulting firm based in New England. In this role, she is responsible for firm vision and strategy and has been instrumental in driving the expansion of services for clients beyond the core audit and tax, such as client accounting service, wealth management, robotic process automation, IT & cyber security, system selection & implementation, and data analytics. Throughout her almost three decades at AAFCPAs, McCall launched multiple professional growth and inclusion initiatives including.

McCall also commits a great deal of her personal time to mentoring young professionals and women. She has dedicated countless hours to community service serving on nonprofit boards, including SheGives | Boston, The Jordan Porco Foundation, and Strong Women, Strong Girls.

Trends and forecasts for the US domestic economy – The titles change constantly as does the content. This is a very current assessment of the US economy at the time of the presentation and a forward looking analysis of trends to watch.  

Through this program, Harriet introduces participants to the skills and attitudes that can help your teams or organizations cultivate a healthy & productive culture.

Participants will learn these key aspects of healthy, productive, and successful cultures:

• Healthy & Intentional conflict resolution
• Crucial communication techniques
• Understanding body language
• Active listening skills
• Emotional Management
• Successful Problem Solving

How should an auditor consider the general IT controls environment and how does it impact the nature and extent of substantive procedures?  What about testing application controls as you consider your internal control testing? And what about cyber security considerations?  We’ll discuss how the auditor should plan and test information technology controls in a government audit.

The IRS has made some game-changing modifications on the tax forms to the reporting of basis. Both Partnership Tax Basis Capital Accounts and S Corporation Stock and Loan Basis can be expected to get increased scrutiny in upcoming audits.  

Microsoft 365 subscriptions offer file sharing and collaboration solutions using Teams, SharePoint Online, and OneDrive. However, when and how do you use each of these applications? In this session, you will learn the difference between Microsoft Teams, Microsoft SharePoint Online, and Microsoft OneDrive. Knowing the strengths of each solution will put you in a better position to know which one to use and when to use it.

This dynamic leadership program combines humor with a thought-provoking message to inspire and energize participants towards key goals that are critical for successful people.

Participants will learn these key aspects of success:

• The confidence to believe in their talents and skills
• The importance of character development for themselves and their teams
• How to balance both professional & personal lives
• How to find and build up their level of resilience

A discussion of the 2023 updated OMB Compliance Supplement, with a focus on the alternative compliance engagements over ARPA funds.  Also, a discussion of how to make your single audits more efficient and effective, including a discussion on how to best test the operating effectiveness of internal control over compliance.

As Section 168(k) phases out after over 5 years, old fashioned tax depreciation will become more and more important.  Let's rediscover the Elective De Minimus rule for materials and supplies, Section 179 Expensing and yes, good old-fashioned MACRS depreciation.

The world of work changed radically and became much more virtual after the pandemic’s onset in 2020. Over two years into the “new normal,” our team has compiled a list of the top technology productivity tips, tricks, and traps. In this session, you will learn about shortcuts and hacks to help you accomplish more in Excel, Teams, Outlook, virtual meetings, and many other applications you use every day. Attend this session and learn the best tips to help you and your team accomplish more in less time.

Through this program, Harriet teaches participants the game-changing habits necessary to excel in the workplace, boost performance, and become a trusted teammate.

Participants will learn:

• Strategic Planning
• Goal-setting for success
• How to replace apathy with energy and drive
• How to overcome and lead through workplace adversity
• Healthy team building

We are not as ethical as we think we are. All evidence points to the fact that our society is not getting any better ethically. The number and variety of recent scandals proves our culture has changed in the last half century to one with a greater emphasis on self: “The Big Me.”

I truly believe most people desire to become more ethics, but the first steps in changing any behavior is self-awareness and a greater understanding of the problem. In this session, we will explore the role of “The Ethical Rationalizer” and why we tend to consciously or unconsciously rationalize away our unethical behavior. Then we will shift our focus to “The Everyday Ethicist™,” and learn how to adopt values and behaviors that will improve our society’s ethical culture, one person at a time.

A discussion of current GASB standards to be implemented and an overview of future projects on the GASB agenda.

This program will address recent legislation, rulings and developments affecting individual taxpayers, including 1099-Ks, Cryptocurrency reporting and new IRA Green tax credits.  Get ready for your year-end tax planning and the upcoming tax season.

We’re all familiar with the headlines describing how criminals use new and creative approaches to commit crimes. But what you may not know is that these same criminal elements also target accounting professionals. Unfortunately, accountants are one of the most targeted groups on the Internet! In this session, you will learn how high-profile failures occurred due to control malfunctions. In turn, hackers gained full reign over entire networks that contained sensitive information, such as financial data stored online. Attend this session to be more effective at preventing theft, malware, ransomware, phishing, and hacking.

This training will teach the Tiny Habits Method for automating habits in your life quickly and easily.  Once you know this method you can explore quick and easy ways to develop stress reduction skills to increase your work/life balance.

1. Learn the Tiny Habits Method for Automating Habits Quickly
2. Understand a Logical Definition of Stress
3.   Learn the Tiny Habits Method for Creating Work/Life Balance and Stress Reduction

A discussion of the proposed changes to the GAO Yellow Book in their 2023 update.  Also, a discussion of common areas of concern in Yellow Book audit quality control reviews from federal inspectors general.

This program will address the important provisions, rules and concepts related to business tax returns. The IRS is working hard to implement recent tax changes and changing the game on their own initiative in the forms and instructions. This session will try to prepare you for the challenges of the upcoming filing season.

The speed of technology continues to accelerate. But unfortunately, sometimes we don’t keep up and don’t know what to do about it. This visionary session provides insights, choices, and recommendations to help you decide how rapidly to move, which technologies will affect your business, and how to separate sales pitches from innovative ideas. This session will explore emerging and evolving technologies important to accounting professionals. We will cover the benefits and risks of adopting new technologies in various areas, including software applications to hardware devices. You’ll also learn how to develop a balanced technology strategy that includes current, emerging, and future technology choices for your firm or business.

This training will provide a perspective of how we can get a handle on stress and our work/life balance by exploring the balance that comes from the text Whole Brain Living: The Anatomy of Choice and the Four Characters That Drive Our Life by Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor. 

1. Learn the Four Characters of Whole Brain Living: The Anatomy of Choice

2. Identify the Language of their Four Characters as it Relates to their Work/Life Balance

3. Learn and experience the “Brain Huddle” Individually and as a Team or Family System

4. Identify 3 Tiny Habits to Implement for Work/Life Balance Post-Conference

A robust discussion of hot and emerging topics in government auditing, including conducting an effective risk assessment, alignment of testing with the results of risk assessment, conducting effective analytical procedures, and other topics.

Dive into recent changes impacting real estate owners and investors, including the revised Section 179D Deduction, EV Charging station credits, and Section 179 for nonresidential property.

Collaboration is a key to productivity and success. But remote work can make collaboration more challenging, including collaborating on spreadsheets. Fortunately, tools like portals with check-in/check-out capabilities, version control, comment tracking, and co-authoring can enable online spreadsheet collaboration. Further, Excel’s Inquire tool can facilitate spreadsheet collaboration in offline environments. Don’t let remote work hamper your spreadsheet collaboration needs! Participate in this session to learn how to collaborate on spreadsheets effectively from anywhere using tools you own or license.

To complement and drive well architected strategies, team building requires people who are engaged, recognized, motivated and inspired; people who can challenge, transform, and be accountable.  Explore the complex role of group interaction and individual behavior in order to guide and optimize strong leadership skills and a strategic mindset.  This interactive session will help you understand the origins of behavior; manage change, while maintaining focus on the goal, and make you think—creatively & critically so that you can motivate and inspire those around you to get on the bus that’s headed toward your organization’s vision and mission.  

Learning Objectives:

• Identify the difference between motivation, manipulation, and inspiration and how they can be used to build teams that will affect change toward fulfillment of organizational initiatives,
• Understand and recognize cognitive bias and how it influences behavior & decision-making, and
• Identify the five main drives of human behavior and how to leverage those in communication. 

Everything changes. Not everything evolves. Every organization needs leaders who can lead the evolution.

Change is inevitable; evolving is not. Evolving means becoming a better version of ourselves, our organizations, our world by focusing on the things we have influence over.

Overcoming the adverse reaction to chaos and embracing the struggles that strengthen allow  leaders to help their organizations to evolve. The world is moving faster and faster, requiring a constantly evolving mentality. Never rest on laurels or past accomplishments instead seeking to grow, stretch, and evolve. Learn from those that came before and refused to evolve and gain insight into how you can lead your evolution.

Complete with "The Evolution of Dance" this keynote ensures that everyone recognizes that everything changes - not everything evolves.

Takeaways:

• Overcoming adversity in order to help your organizations to evolve.
• Learn how to evolve and embrace chaos in a healthy way.
• Discover how to let go of things out of your control and focus your energy on things you can change.