2023 - ISCPA's Annual Tech Conference - Keep Your Edge

Are efficiency and performance important to you? Do you value data security? Do you want to be more productive? The ISCPA Technology Conference can help you do all of this and more. Learn from technology expert Tommy Stephens and determine how to address your organization's most pressing needs. Walk away with practical, technology-based tips and tools to safeguard your systems, strengthen security, deter fraud and increase productivity.

Don't get left behind! Join us for exciting presentations on how to take full advantage of today's technologies to advance your business practices, processes, and workflows so that you and your team are working at peak efficiency.

Technology...There's always something new on the horizon...

Day One

• Tech Update
  • What are my best technology choices, and how do I keep up? Even informed accounting professionals will find multiple ideas they can apply daily.  This visionary session provides insights, options, and recommendations to help you decide which technologies will affect your business and which will give you a competitive edge. Included in Tech Update are emerging and evolving technologies important to accounting professionals. We will cover the benefits and risks of adopting recent technologies, ranging from software applications to hardware devices. You will also learn how to develop a balanced technology strategy that includes current, emerging, and future technology choices for your firm or business.
• Now Is The Time To Automate!
  • The term "automate" has been an industry buzzword for at least a decade. Yet, few organizations have embarked on successful automation journeys, leading to greater efficiencies, reduced errors, and happier team members. In this session, you will learn how to crank up your automation projects and see first-hand how easy and effective automation can be. More specifically, this session shows you exactly how you can work with tools from Zoho, Zapier, and Microsoft to enable powerful routines that will allow you and your team to get more done in less time.
• Taking Another Look At PDFs
  • We're all familiar with PDF documents. However, it's safe to say that most professionals use only a tiny fraction of their features.  This circumstance is unfortunate, considering all you can do with PDF documents. Therefore, isn't it time to take another look at PDF documents and all you can do with them? Participate in this session to learn more about PDFs and how and why they should be a cornerstone technology in most organizations. Collaboration options, long-term storage and archival, and fillable forms are just a few features you will learn about in this session. This session is for you if you're ready to elevate your PDF productivity!
• The Best Kept Secrets Of Microsoft 365
  • Many organizations have implemented Microsoft 365/Office 365 at a basic level, but few have truly explored the breadth and depth of tools included with their subscriptions. Some less commonly known apps help you manage shared email boxes, create and use web forms, schedule appointments, trade shifts, create real-time closed captions, and translate presentations. Attend this session and learn more about the hidden features in Microsoft 365 that you can use to level up your productivity.

Day Two

• Ten "Must Know" Features In Excel
  • Most business professionals have used Excel for years, often without the benefit of any formal training. Thus, they don't know about key features in the application and, therefore, don't use them. Of course, this leads to inefficiencies and errors. Isn't it time to stop this madness? This session is for you if you're ready to become more efficient and effective with Excel! You will learn ten critical features that can help you get more work done in less time and improve your accuracy. We encourage you to make plans to join us for this session to learn the best ways of working with Excel!
• Ripped From The Headlines - Outrageous Tales Of Cybercrimes
  • Remote work environments have created many new opportunities for cybercriminals and other fraudsters to exploit, and accounting professionals are some of the most commonly targeted individuals. This session is a series of case studies that examine actual criminal filings and news accounts and use them to highlight some of the actions you can take to limit your exposure to similar schemes. Attend this session and learn more about how high-profile control failures occurred so you can be more effective at preventing crimes in your organization.

• Tech Update
  • Create strategic and tactical benefit lists of hardware and software options
  • Evaluate current communications choices to improve your efficiency
  • Identify key technologies to implement in your business and personal life
  • List examples of emerging technologies that will affect the accounting profession
    
• Now Is The Time To Automate!
  • Identify at least three benefits of successful automation efforts
  • List two automation tools you can use to extract and transform data
  • Specify examples of Microsoft 365 plans that include access to Power Automate
  • Differentiate between Power Automate and Zapier
  • Identify at least three tasks that most businesses should automate
     
• Taking Another Look At PDFs
  • List examples of PDF software vendors
  • Differentiate between PDF options available from Adobe
  • List at least two ways you can use PDFs in collaborative environments
  • Identify critical steps in the process used to create fillable PDF forms
    
• The Best Kept Secrets Of Microsoft 365
  • Select at least three optional services included with Office 365
  • List at least two tools that extend Microsoft Teams to perform new tasks
  • Identify at least one optional Office 365 service which protects confidential information
    
• Ten "Must Know" Features In Excel
  • List at least three primary features associated with Power Query
  • Identify the steps necessary to utilize modern collaboration options in Excel
  • Cite examples of the benefits related to using dynamic arrays
  • Differentiate between Solver and Scenario Manager as optimization tools
  • Identify at least three benefits of protecting your data with Sensitivity Labels
    
• Ripped From The Headlines – Outrageous Tales Of Cybercrimes
  • List at least three major security incidents reported in the headlines in the last year, and explain at least one primary internal control design or operation flaws that allowed the hack to occur
  • Select the correct definitions for security terms such as attack surface, vulnerability, exploit, social engineering, phishing, malware, heuristics, biometrics, and multi-factor authentication (MFA)
  • List at least three best practices learned by reviewing the control failures cited in the case studies

Day One

• Tech Update
  • Hardware and software trends
  • Communication and collaboration tools
  • Key products to consider for implementation
  • Emerging technology in accounting automation, metaverse, and blockchain
    
• Now Is The Time To Automate!
  • Where to begin your automation journey
  • Which automation tools should you initially focus on
  • How to automate everyday tasks in accounts payable, banking, and approval workflows
  • Common automation pitfalls
    
• Taking Another Look At PDFs
  • Understanding the Portable Document Format
  • Identifying tools you can use to work with PDFs
  • Collaborating using PDFs
  • Creating, distributing, and collecting fillable PDF forms
  • Using PDFs to enhance security
    
• The Best Kept Secrets Of Microsoft 365
  • New features and tips and tricks in Microsoft 365
  • Learn how to take advantage of optional services like Bookings, Shifts, Information Rights Management, and Approvals
  • See some of the tools you can activate to help your team create and share video content intended only for internal use

Day Two

• Ten "Must Know" Features In Excel
  • Best practices for working with large volumes of data
  • How to securely and efficiently collaborate with others
  • Using Excel for optimization scenarios
  • Creating "audit trails" in Excel
  • Define "dynamic arrays" and list examples of their benefits
    
• Ripped From The Headlines – Outrageous Tales Of Cybercrimes
  • Common security weaknesses which occur with hardware and software at home and in the office
  • Malware, ransomware, data breach, and incident response tips
  • Internal control failures that resulted in the theft of assets or unauthorized manipulation of data
  • User authentication and security awareness training
    

• Manual
  • If you did not purchase a printed manual, download it from your upcoming events in "My CPE" on website, and bring it with you
  • If you did purchase a printed manual and would also like an electronic copy be sure to download it
• Review ISCPA Parking Map - found in your email confirmation
• Bring your laptop computer and follow along