Cybersecurity

About the Cybersecurity Certificate

Breaking news stories about malware attacks, phishing scams, system hacks and identity theft have become commonplace in today’s headlines. Cybersecurity threats are escalating, unnerving the boards of directors, managers, investors and other stakeholders of public and private organizations of all size. These organizations are under increasing pressure to demonstrate that they are managing threats, and that they have effective processes and controls in place to detect, respond to, mitigate and recover from security incidences that:

  • could disrupt their businesses,
  • result in financial losses,
  • and destroy their reputations.

Why earn a Cybersecurity Certificate?

Earning a cybersecurity certificate provides finance and accounting professionals with the knowledge needed to be a strategic business partner within their organization and with clients. You will:

  • develop fluency in cybersecurity,
  • learn to help clients navigate threats and
  • use the AICPA’s new cybersecurity risk management reporting framework.

Cybersecurity Fundamentals for Finance and Accounting Professional Certificate

This certificate program will cover several cybersecurity topics to help you gain an understanding of the importance and impact of cybersecurity risks on your organization or client, including an introduction to AICPA’s cybersecurity risk management reporting framework.

More than ever, organizations are under pressure to demonstrate that they are managing threats, and that they have effective processes and controls in place to prevent, detect, respond to, mitigate and recover from cybersecurity events.

Through this program you will be able to:

  • Speak intelligently on the subject internally and externally.
  • Learn the terminology and key considerations related to cybersecurity to collaborate with others in your organization or client.
  • Apply a security mindset to your daily work.
  • Obtain an understanding of the potential risks and opportunities for your organization or client as they develop or evaluate their cybersecurity risk management program.

Courses include:

  • The Importance of Cybersecurity
  • Cybersecurity and Digital Transformation
  • Cyberattacks, Data Breaches, and Privacy
  • Cybersecurity Frameworks and Regulations
  • Cybersecurity Risk Management
  • The Business of Cybersecurity

Who Will Benefit?

The need for cybersecurity knowledge is no longer the sole responsibility of IT professionals. Global finance and accounting professionals in business and industry and public practice all have unique and vital roles.

  • Public accounting professionals are the trusted business advisors to organizations of all sizes, educating clients on an array of risks and also providing advisory and attestation services.
  • Management and public accountants can advocate the need for effective cybersecurity risk management within their own organizations; and play key role in adopting policies and controls to prepare, manage, and recover from a cyber-attack.

What should attend?

  • Finance professionals, CFOs and business managers, Controllers and internal auditors and Management and public accountants

Mode of delivery?

  • Online Webinar/Self-study

Duration & Credits?

  • 3, 6 or 12 months/.5 CPE Credits

Certificates & Digital Badge?

  • Internationally recognized certificates in digital form will be issued to participants who have successfully completed the course and passed the exam at the end of the course.
  • Participants will also receive a digital badge that can be easily shared with your professional network.
DATA Analytics

About the Data Analytics Certificate Programs

As organizations become more tech-driven and collect an increasing amount of data, data analysis skills are going to play an increasingly important role in business, making the role of a Data Analyst one of the most important positions in any business structure. Data Analysts help leaders make informed, data-driven decisions to drive the company forward, improve efficiency, increase profits, and achieve organizational goals.

Why is Data Analysis important?

Data analysis is the cornerstone of the accounting industry. As technology evolves and our ability to process large quantities of raw data improves, you must develop the skills to:

  1. Find meaning in that data.
  2. Take action from your findings to drive positive results for your client, team, or organization.

Whether you work directly with sophisticated data analytics platforms or translate reporting into a “story” for other stakeholders, enhancing your ability to think critically and synthesize information will make you an indispensable member of the workforce.

Data Analytics Core Concepts

An essential guide for accounting and finance professionals. Learn core concepts in data analytics and how to conduct and apply data analytics to projects in your organization.

Application of Data Analysis Essentials Certificate

The Application of Data Analysis Essentials Certificate provides the core concepts and definitions of data analytics, which explain the anatomy of data as a medium, and provides fundamental statistical analysis techniques for beginning to glean useful information from data.

Data Analytics Modeling Certificate

The Data Analytics Modeling Certificate will expand your ability to work with structured and unstructured data to drive a successful analytics practice. To start, you will learn to define clear business outcomes for your analytics practice to ensure your efforts align with your organization’s strategic direction and create value. Next, you will learn data profiling and data cleansing techniques to maintain data quality throughout the data life cycle. You’ll practice ETL (extract, transform, load) techniques and work with different data models and analytics tools. Finally, you will learn how to institute sophisticated tools for managing an ongoing enterprise data practice, including tools for data warehousing, managing the data life cycle, and working with structured and unstructured data.

Forecasting and Predictive Analytics Certificate

The Forecasting and Predictive Analytics Certificate will teach you fundamental techniques used for predictive analytics: regression, classification, clustering, optimization, and simulation. Beginning with basic models for revealing and establishing relationships, you will learn to apply increasingly sophisticated modeling techniques for practical data analysis, as well as commonly encountered problems so you can determine the fit and usefulness for prediction of your models, and apply them to typical business problems.

Data Visualization Certificate

The Data Visualization Certificate will guide you through every major facet of one of the most important areas of your data practice — data visualization. Building from underlying technology, architecture, and analysis considerations, you will learn how to translate data into meaningful information, visualize the information, and communicate findings and lessons.

Blockchain

Blockchain Fundamentals Certificate for Accounting and Finance Professionals Certificate

Learn the characteristics of blockchain and crypto assets; identify opportunities and risks for application within your own organization, and much more.

Product Details

Lay the foundation for your future as a strategic business partner within your organization and with your clients.

With real-world literacy on blockchain and digital assets, you will be equipped with the foundational constructs behind blockchain and crypto assets, structure, and functionality, as you consider the value in implementing this technology into your own organization.

Who Will Benefit

  • CPAs
  • Public accounting leaders
  • Managers and staff
  • CFOs
  • Controllers
  • Finance leaders
  • Management accountants
  • Non-IT finance professionals.

Product Details

  • Recognize the basic concepts of blockchain technology.
  • Compare a range of cases for using and securing crypto/digital assets.
  • Identify the various opportunities, benefits, risks and challenges associated with blockchain technology.
  • Identify the elements, benefits, and risks of permissioned ledgers.
  • Indicate the impact of the various controls associated with blockchain.
  • Estimate the potential impact of recent blockchain trends on the accounting and finance profession.

About the Blockchain Fundamentals for Accounting and Finance Professionals Program

This certificate will provide you the opportunity to build a foundation toward becoming a strategic business partner within your organization and with your clients. This approximately 15-hour course will expose you to the concepts related to real-world literacy on blockchain and crypto assets technology, structure and functionality, the knowledge needed to anticipate potential benefits and risks, and how to translate into relevant business application and value.

You will learn how to:

  • Recall the foundational constructs behind blockchain technology and crypto assets, structure and functionality
  • Recognize the benefits, values and opportunities of blockchain for your organization
  • Recognize blockchain risks and challenges as you consider implementing this technology within your organization
  • Recognize regulatory concerns and governance related to blockchain implementations
  • Recall practical applications and use cases by looking into ledgers, transactions and smart contracts

You have the flexibility to earn the certificate using a format that best matches your learning style. Select one of the options below to learn more.

What should attend?

  • CPAs, Public accounting leaders, Managers and staff, CFOs, Controllers, Finance leaders, Management accountants and non-IT finance professionals

Mode of delivery?

  • Online Webinar/Self-study

Duration & Credits?

  • 3, 6 or 12 months/.5 CPE Credits

Certificates & Digital Badge?

  • Internationally recognized certificates in digital form will be issued to participants who have successfully completed the course and passed the exam at the end of the course.
  • Participants will also receive a digital badge that can be easily shared with your professional network.
COSO Essentials For Financial Managers, Accountant And Auditors

COSO Essentials for Financial Managers, Accountants and Auditors

Learn the basic tools used to document processes and controls and identify departmental policies and procedures that function as the primary controls against errors and fraud.

Who Will Benefit

  • Financial statement auditors and entity management involved in financial statement audits

The basic tools you need

Are you able to identify departmental policies and procedures that function as the primary controls against errors and fraud?

Starting with an overview of the COSO guidance on the components and principles of internal control, this CPE self-study course will introduce you to basic tools used to document processes and controls. The course covers:

  • The responsibilities of management versus those of the auditor;
  • Identification of risks of errors and fraud and consideration of the presence (or absence) of related controls; and,
  • How to interpret and evaluate management’s documentation of accounting processes and controls for auditors performing field work.

Course Description:

Help shape the adoption of blockchain accounting and finance. Lay the foundation for your future as a strategic business partner within your organization and with your clients. With real-world literacy on blockchain and digital assets, you will be equipped with the foundational constructs behind blockchain and crypto assets, structure, and functionality, as you consider the value in implementing this technology into your own organization.

Learning Objectives:

  1. Recognize the basic concepts of blockchain technology.
  2. Compare a arrange of cases for using and securing crypto/digital assets.
  3. identify the various opportunities, benefits, risks and challenges associated with blockchain technology.
  4. identify the elements, benefits, and risks of permission ledgers.
  5. Indicate the impact of the various controls associated with blockchain.
  6. Estimate the potential impact of recent blockchain trends on the accounting and finance profession.

Key Topics

  • Components and principles of internal control
  • Concepts associated with the COSO framework
  • Management responsibilities versus auditor responsibilities
  • Common significant accounting processes
  • Tools and techniques used for internal control documentation

Learning Outcomes

  • Recall factors that an auditor should consider when obtaining an understanding of the entity and its environment, including internal control.
  • Identify keys to success in designing a control environment with strong internal controls.
  • Recall internal control objectives, components, and principles.
  • Identify tools that can assist in the documentation of internal control.
  • Identify ways to obtain efficiencies and effectiveness in internal control in various types of smaller entities.
COSO Enterprise Risk Management Certificate Program

COSO Enterprise Risk Management Certificate Program

This project was commissioned by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (COSO), which is dedicated to providing thought leadership through the development of comprehensive frameworks and guidance on internal control, enterprise risk management, and fraud deterrence designed to improve organi-zational performance and oversight and to reduce the extent of fraud in organizations. COSO is a private sector initiative, jointly sponsored and funded by:

• American Accounting Association

• American Institute of Certified Public Accountants

• Financial Executives International

• Institute of Management Accountants

• The Institute of Internal Auditors

The complexity of enterprise risk has changed, new risks have emerged, and managing it has become everyone’s responsibility.

The only COSO-authorized certificate program on the 2017 COSO ERM framework, this new certificate program offers you the unique opportunity to learn the concepts and principles of the updated ERM framework and be prepared to integrate it into your organization’s strategy-setting process to drive business performance. Plus, you’ll earn up to 13.5 hours of CPE.

Seven self-paced modules provide you with the knowledge necessary to understand and apply COSO’s Enterprise Risk Management – Integrating with Strategy and Performance. The ERM Framework assists management and boards of directors with their respective duties for managing risk. It does so by explaining five easy-to-understand components that accommodate different viewpoints and operating structures, and enhance strategies and decision-making. The certificate program includes:

Online Modules:

  • An Overview of Enterprise Risk Management – Integrating with Strategy and Performance
  • The Governance and Culture Component
  • The Strategy and Objective-Setting Component
  • The Performance Component
  • The Review and Revision Component
  • The Information, Communication, and Reporting Component
  • Case Application – ERM Improvement Observations

Course Description:

This certificate will focus on robotic process automation benefits and how the use of software robots can or clients to become more competitive and agile. You will gain an understanding of finance functions. the risks, opportunities. and organizational impact of automation while learning the decision criteria and key considerations needed to build a business case and run a successful proof-of. Concept. You will also understand the steps and governance needed to implement or advise clients on how to implement successfully.

ENTERPRISE RISK MANAGEMENT

The Framework itself is a set of principles organized into five interrelated components:

1. Governance and Culture: Governance sets the organization’s tone, reinforcing the importance of, and establishing oversight responsibilities for, enterprise risk management. Culture pertains to ethical values, desired behaviors, and understanding of risk in the entity.

2. Strategy and Objective-Setting: Enterprise risk management, strategy, and objective-setting work together in the strategic-planning process. A risk appetite isestablished and aligned with strategy; business objectives put strategy into practicewhile serving as a basis for identifying, assessing, and responding to risk.

3. Performance: Risks that may impact the achievement of strategy and business objectives need to be identified and assessed. Risks are prioritized by severity in the context of risk appetite. The organization then selects risk responses and takes a portfolio view of the amount of risk it has assumed. The results of this process are reported to key risk stakeholders.

4. Review and Revision: By reviewing entity performance, an organization can consider how well the enterprise risk management components are functioning over time and in light of substantial changes, and what revisions are needed.

5. Information, Communication, and Reporting: Enterprise risk management requires a continual process of obtaining and sharing necessary information, from both internal and external sources, which flows up, down, and across the organization.

The five components in the updated Framework are supported by a set of principles.4 These principles cover everything from governance to monitoring. They’re manageable in size, and they describe practices that can be applied in different ways for different organizations regardless of size, type, or sector. Adhering to these principles can provide management and the board with a reasonable expectation that the organization understands and strives to manage the risks associated with its strategy and business objectives.

Learning Objectives:

  1. Recognize what RPA is and its business value, with specific focus on accounting and enable your business
  2. Identify the opportunities and use cases for automation.
  3. Recognize the decision criteria needed to build a business case
  4. Recognize key risks and challenges that need to be addressed before implementing RPA
  5. Recognize the governance and controls considerations for addressing automation risks.
  6. Recognize the key components to implementing RPA
  7. Recognize the accounting, finance, and operational process implications of RPA.
  8. Recognize audit implications associated with RPA.
  9. Recognize future trends of automation.