Continuing Professional Education (CPE) for CPAs

Analyzing Whether to Add New Locations

Credits: 6.0 Hours

A new location is a major commitment of time and money with the potential to expand a company’s business and increase profits.

New locations also come with risks. Sales may be lower than expected while costs are higher. The new location may pull more resources from existing operations and strategy than anticipated.

I'll give you step-by-step guidance on how to decide whether a new location will likely increase profits or destroy value.

"Great course. A lot of very useful and insightful information and tips for analysis. Much different than most accounting CPE courses." - Course Review

Behavioral Finance

Credits: 5.0 Hours

It’s time to stop yourself from making quick, emotional decisions by allowing yourself to think clearly to reach a better decision. Overcome your destructive financial impulses by understanding common thinking mistakes.

With my Behavioral Finance course, you can avoid costly financial decision-making mistakes. The course will help you to learn science-backed ideas to make better financial decisions.

"Wow...a masterful overview of behavioral economics condensed down to 5 hours" - Course Review

"This is the best Behavioral Finance Course I've taken. The instructor was clear, concise, funny and used real world applications." - Course Review

Better Budgeting

Credits: 10.0 Hours (Text Version). The video version is broken into three courses: The Master Budget and Sub-Budgets, The Budgeting Process, and Budgeting Alternatives

Are you tired of the drama and dysfunction in the business budgeting process? Budgeting consumes a massive amount of time and resources. It's a stressful and busy time.

Are there ways to improve the effectiveness of the investment we make in the budget process? Can we make better budgeting decisions that lead to higher performance?

There are options within and beyond traditional budgeting. Every company should consider these options to discover which could improve their budgeting process.

"Amazing course that will assist anyone who goes through the budgeting process each year. Great step-by-step ideas for each aspect of an annual budget." - Course Review

"This might be the most comprehensive and educational webinar on budgeting. Well organized, thoroughly researched, and full of actionable insight. Outstanding and kudos to the author, thanks for doing this." - Course Review

Better Forecasting by Projecting Ranges of Outcomes

Credits: 1 Hour

This course provides a practical framework for incorporating probability analysis into your financial projections, equipping you with the tools and techniques to make more informed and robust financial forecasts. By incorporating probability analysis into your financial projections, you can better understand and manage risk to make more informed decisions.

Projections that provide ranges of outcomes and probabilities of those outcomes give us a much more complete picture of an uncertain and risky future. This is a very high-level overview of probabilistic analysis. I'll focus more on concepts than calculations.

Business Banking

Credits: 2.5 Hours

Find ways you can reduce risk, reduce costs, and increase income. Companies look to banks to provide critical payment services, precious loan funds, and income on liquid cash. They are a key partner for cash management and capital expenditure funding.

This course first looks at common business deposit and loan products, as well as services banks provide to companies. We'll explore deposit protection, payment risk management, and loan risk management. You'll get tips on how to reduce bank fees and increase interest income, as well as how to get the best loan pricing you can.

"Fast-paced, informative, and interesting." - Course Review

Business Environmental Analysis

Credits: 2.5 Hours

Business environmental monitoring gathers internal and external data that could affect a company. Business leaders and financial analysts can examine that data to identify implications for their company and develop strategies for those implications. These strategies often mitigate threats or capture opportunities. Companies that better understand their business environment can anticipate and plan for changes, build more accurate financial projections, and allocate resources more effectively.

This course focuses on Finance's role in environmental analysis. You'll learn the types of data that should be monitored by Finance. The course then explains popular models for analyzing that data.

Business Loan Basics

Credits: 2 Hours

Business loans are a vital source of funding for cash flow management. The course begins with ratio analysis and cash flow projections to determine whether loan funding is needed. I then explain how leverage (the use of borrowed funds) magnifies returns but increases risk.

We then explore key loan components like different ways interest is calculated, types of fees, and the multiple terms that can be structured into a loan.

You’ll discover tips that might reduce the interest rate on your loan. I give an overview of the application process. Key documents that are signed at loan closing are described, and the importance of each is explained. I’ll point out important clauses included in these documents.

"I found this course to be extremely informative. The instructor shared a lot of valuable information about banking basics. I enjoyed the course thoroughly and would highly recommend it to others." - Course Review

Credits: 1.5

Common-size analysis is a powerful tool for financial analysis and decision-making. It's useful for comparing the financial performance and position of different companies, especially those of different sizes. It also helps to identify trends and patterns over time within a company and across entities. This is very useful for business environmental analysis, peer benchmarking, and building financial projections.

You may already do some forms of common-size analysis, but may not know all the ways it can provide insights and improve projections.

Credits: 1.0

Expected value analysis is a powerful way to distill a massive array of possibilities into a few numbers, which helps clarify the most profitable course of action. This short course goes from the basics to important insights for business financial management.

You'll also learn about decision trees, which is a powerful tool to simplify decisions to better communicate, comprehend, consider and calculate
decision options.

Entrepreneurial Finance: Small Business Financial Management Basics

Credits: 6.0

This class provides a financial overview of the entrepreneurial journey from startup to operational decisions to exit planning. You’ll hear from a business banker guest speaker who explains what lenders look at when deciding whether to make a loan to a small business.

You’ll learn:

"Outstanding course - I really enjoyed the general layout. Great mix of going in-depth on the more vital parts of financial management of a start-up" - Course Review

Financial Management in a Recession

Credits: 1.5

Companies get into trouble in the good times. However, that doesn't mean that they fail during good economic times. Rather, they make decisions that cause them financial stress when a recession hits. This course gives you financial management ideas for what to do before and during a recession. You'll learn:

Inflation: Key Concepts and Business Financial Management Ideas

Credits: 3.0

After decades of low inflation, prices spiked in the 2020s. Inflation was back, but a generation of managers had little experience with it. That lack of experience caused companies to make mistakes when inflation started its fast ascent. Financial leaders need to relearn the skills and insights that guided companies through the high inflation of the 1970s and 1980s.

This course is broken into two sections. The first section will cover some key concepts about inflation. The second section builds on these concepts to provide implications for company financial management.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and KPI Dashboards

Credits: 2.5

KPIs are more than metrics. They’re the foundation of your most important decisions. KPIs define success and measure your progress toward achieving that success. This course explains:

"This course covers reasons for KPIs, a clear pathway for implementation, and thoughtful consideration of their best presentation" - Course Review

"I really liked this course. It provides a great way to step back and think about your KPIs and how to drive interest and adoption among staff. Highly recommend." - Course Review

Managing Cash Flow

Credits: 3 Hours

This course shows you how to assess current and future cash flows. You'll learn techniques that can increase cash flow and reduce dips in cash flow. I'll list critical sources of cash for businesses, along with the pros and cons of major sources.

I'll explain how to prepare a cash flow projection. You'll discover a company’s sustainable growth rate and how to increase it. I'll show you how leverage can increase growth, profit, and cash. Leverage also comes with risks, and I'll explain how to manage those risks.

"Absolutely fantastic course! Makes me want to delve into this more. Thank you!!!" - Course Review

"I was very impressed with this course. It gave a great overview of what cash management is, what metrics are useful, and what strategies are best for different situations. Highly recommend!" - Course Review

Marginal Profitability Analysis

Credits: 1.5 Hours

Marginal Profitability Analysis provides relevant decision information for setting prices, product design and product profitability. 

The course starts by defining marginal costs and marginal profits and then explains how to calculate marginal profitability. You will learn how to create cost-volume-profit (CVP) analyses and breakeven analysis. 

The course provides practical examples of making decisions with marginal profitability analysis. Examples include determining optimal production amounts, which products to promote, and how to calculate the profit impact of a price change. A worksheet template is provided for this analysis.

"Great representation of daily decision making in real business scenarios." - Course Review

"Love Rob's presentations. Very pertinent info and does a great job getting the information across." - Course Review

Credits: 3.0

Serving on a nonprofit board is a wonderful way to improve our world and can provide some benefits to you. As a financial professional, you have so much to offer not-for-profit companies. This course is for those new to not-for-profit boards and provides insights to those with nonprofit board experience.

This course will cover the duties of a financial professional as a board member. Learn the key questions to ask and the documents to review before joining a board. I'll explain the risks of being on a board and how to mitigate them.

Credits: 3.0

What performance secret can you learn from Google, Intel, and Intuit?
Objectives and Key Results, also known as OKRs, have become very popular as a way to improve company performance. They have powered success at companies like Google, Intel, and Intuit.

OKRs can improve focus, engagement, innovation, and performance. I'll walk you step-by-step through how to implement OKRs at your company.

"Great ways to measure and score key initiatives that a company wants to achieve. Every company would be better off using Objectives and Key Results." - Course Review

Credits: 6.0 Hours (Text Version). The video version is broken into three courses: Pricing Profitability Analysis and Processes, Pricing Profitably for your Product's Value, and Pricing Profitably in the Face of Competition

Will your price change increase - or destroy - profit? I'll walk you through how to see price changes from your customers' eyes and measure potential profit outcomes from a price change. 

"What an awesome course. Super informative in running our own business, advising our clients on pricing theory, and being aware as a consumer and company of the tactics of our vendors." - Course Review

Credits: 2.5

Move beyond outdated budgets by quickly building driver-based forecasts that give your company a clearer view of the future.

Annual budgets quickly lose their accuracy and relevance as the fiscal year progresses. A rolling forecast is a tool many companies have implemented to maintain an accurate financial picture of the future and to continuously promote strategic thinking. Some companies replace traditional budgets with rolling forecasts and other processes.

Credits: 1.5

Discover how sensitivity analysis and scenario planning can improve your company's decisions. You'll also learn tools to obtain and communicate the insights from this analysis.

Sensitivity analysis improves decision efficiency and effectiveness. You also get a clear picture of the company's full range of potential outcomes.

Learn how to explore scenarios of opportunities for which the company wants to prepare or risks for which the company should take mitigation steps.