MOCPA's Member Appreciation Day! - Missouri Society of CPAs

Overview

Join us for a whole day filled with complimentary sessions for MOCPA members! This event will have a total of seven 50-minute sessions providing 1 CPE credit each. You can choose the sessions you would like to attend or register for them all! Click on the Agenda tab to see course descriptions.

Event Overview:

8:30am – 9:20am – 2025's Best LIFO Opportunities, Presented by: LIFOpro
10-minute break
9:30am – 10:20am – Lease Management from the Clipboard to the Dashboard, Presented by: Oaken
10-minute break
10:30am – 11:20am – Calling BS on Cybersecurity Nonsense, Presented by: SmartVault
10-minute break
11:30am – 12:20pm – Generative AI Implications to Risk, Presented by: AON
40-minute lunch break
1:00pm – 1:50pm – Back to the Basics with Reconciliations, Presented by: Skystem
10-minute break
2:00pm – 2:50pm – Optimizing Your Firm’s Technology Stack, Presented by: Rightworks
10-minute break
3:00pm – 3:50pm – Designing a Modern, End-to-End Workflow for the Modern CAS Firm, Presented by: Keeper.app

Designed For

CPAs, Accountants, Financial Experts

Notice

Thank you to our event sponsors:

Fees

Credits

Level

Code

Vendor

Fields of Study

Thursday, September 18

Optional Session

8:30am - 9:20am 2025's Best LIFO Opportunities

Alex Howe

Alex Howe is the Accounting Manager for LIFOPro—the nation’s only service provider dedicated exclusively to LIFO—where he oversees client services and marketing.
LIFOPro offers turnkey outsourcing LIFO solutions and proprietary LIFO software.
A native of Omaha, Alex graduated from the University of Nebraska Omaha.
Before joining LIFOPro, he worked as a small business consultant and sales specialist.

This session will highlight the most significant opportunities for businesses leveraging the Last-In, First-Out (LIFO) method in 2025. Participants will gain insight into LIFOPro’s history and evolution into the nation’s premier LIFO service provider, and learn how partnerships with CPA firms have expanded access to these benefits. The program will explore the impact of tariffs and the unprecedented LIFO opportunities they create, with a special focus on strategies for auto dealers. Finally, we’ll discuss which industries and businesses represent the best LIFO candidates in 2025 and how to maximize the potential of this powerful tax strategy.

This session is available to registrants and their guests

Optional Session

9:30am - 10:20am Lease Management from the Clipboard to the Dashboard

Shashi Raghunandan

Shashi Raghunandan is the founder and CEO of Oaken. He brings over two decades of experience in financial services and payments—including leadership roles at Mastercard and J.P. Morgan. He is a board member at MIFOS, a open source technology platform for financial inclusion and a former Forbes Business Council contributor. Shashi lives in Zionsville with his wife, Joyita and dog Snoopy.

Ron Dunker

Learn why lease management continues to be a focus area for rapidly growing agribusinesses and how your firm can help reduce risk, improve compliance and make things more efficient for your customers.

This session is available to registrants and their guests

Optional Session

10:30am - 11:20am Calling BS on Cybersecurity Nonsense

Luke Kiely

Luke Kiely, chief information security officer at SmartVault, has held several key senior roles overseeing information security, cybersecurity, and data compliance for top SaaS companies worldwide. He has also held law enforcement positions where he was instrumental in covertly monitoring and apprehending perpetrators of data-based cybercrimes. Luke is responsible for SmartVault’s global information security, risk management, and compliance strategies, and championing cyber and information security best practices within the business and its customers.

Overwhelmed by all the cybersecurity claims vendors boast? It's more complicated than ever to separate substance from noise, especially since many companies use AI to sound impressive and credible...

Fortunately, former cybersecurity officer, Luke Kiely, will show you how to spot misleading security claims, implement practical security measures at your firm without disrupting your workflow, and use good security practices to build client trust and grow your business. No technical jargon. Just clear, actionable advice you can use immediately.

In the webinar, you will learn:
- Common misleading vendor claims and verification techniques
- Accounting-specific security frameworks that protect your practice
- Practical WISP implementation strategies that balance security and productivity
- How to leverage security practices as a competitive advantage in client acquisition and retention

Credits: 1 - Information Technology - Technical

This session is available to registrants and their guests

Optional Session

11:30am - 12:20pm Generative AI Implications to Risk

Nicole Graham

In her current role, Nicole empowers results for clients by delivering innovative and effective solutions. She delivers risk management consulting services to Aon’s CPA firm clients to assist them with mitigating professional liability risks as well as providing guidance regarding Cyber, Employment Practices, Management Liability, and other related exposures.

Tyler Crews

Tyler honed his sales and customer service experience as a Senior Internal Wholesaler at Prudential Financial, where he provided tailored financial solutions, built strong client relationships, and supported advisors in navigating complex insurance and investment products.

Stay ahead of potential risks of using generative AI by establishing procedures around its use. Learn 6 key considerations for your firm when developing a generative AI policy. Hear the risks and how to address the concerns.

Credits: 1 - Information Technology - Technical

This session is available to registrants and their guests

Optional Session

1:00pm - 1:50pm Back to the Basics with Reconciliations

Nancy Wu

Nancy Wu has spent most of her career working in consulting and auditing various accounting departments’ financial close processes for public and private organizations ($200 Million to $4 Billion).

Her published work around leveraging user behavior to design internal controls is archived in the Cornell University Library. Ms. Wu is also the author of a whitepaper that discusses management standards around the balance sheet reconciliation process. She is the subject matter expert on an award-winning webinar program that draws hundreds of sign-ups each month on topics ranging from internal controls over financial reporting, to month-end close infrastructure, to Finance tone at the top.

Ms. Wu currently leads sales and customer success for SkyStem, a technology company that offers month-end close and reconciliation automation for mid-market companies in banking, healthcare, retail, and various other industries.

Join us in this webinar, where we share best practices on how to think about the reconciliation work each month, when best to do reconciliations, how they should be prepared, and some common pitfalls to avoid.

Learning Objective: This course objective is to understand how to properly prepare and review balance sheet reconciliations and its impact on the financial statements

Credits: 1 - Accounting - Technical

This session is available to registrants and their guests

Optional Session

2:00pm - 2:50pm Optimizing Your Firm’s Technology Stack

Sam Larson

Sam is responsible for leading strategy and development for Rightworks generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) solutions. He works closely with accounting professionals to uncover pain points and shape data tools that deliver actionable insights. With a strong background in data-driven product management, he focuses on making the company's GenAI solutions practical and impactful, enabling firms to streamline workflows, enhance decision making, and scale advisory services.

Accounting firm technology has gone through a number of evolutions from introducing PCs and building networks to the return to the cloud and optimization of remote work during the pandemic. And now firms are adopting the next generation of digital automation, including generative AI tools such as ChatGPT. Underlying this is the firm’s information technology infrastructure and production applications referred to as the Tech Stack.
This session will discuss key requirements for your firm’s future technology strategy, as well as specific recommendations on hardware, infrastructure and the evolving mix of tax, audit and accounting applications utilized to optimize client service.

Learning Objectives:
• The 5th Industrial Revolution-AI is happening now; understand how it is changing everything and what your firm must do to ride the AI wave!
• “Anyway” Collaboration: Working effectively anytime, anywhere, with anyone are minimum table stakes today-is your collaboration tech leading or lagging?
• THE Tech Stack: Optimum accounting firm system infrastructure and specific equipment recommendations keeping your firm on the leading edge.
• The Modern Firm Application Stack: How “best of breed” solutions are driving productivity in today’s accounting firms.

This session is available to registrants and their guests

Optional Session

3:00pm - 3:50pm Designing a Modern, End-to-End Workflow for the Modern CAS Firm

This session is available to registrants and their guests