CPA Small Practitioners' Forum 2024: Technology Panel

The CPA Small Practitioners’ Forum was created to offer an inviting, semi-causal, and easygoing professional development weekend that provides substantial professional development value to small practitioners. All profit earned by the CPA Small Practitioners’ Forum is donated to the Alberta CPA Education Foundation, so you are helping young people in Canada get scholarships for university. All these courses are reviewed by the delegates at the Forum in Banff annually so we have a great lineup that is adjusted every year to keep things relevant to small practitioners. If you work at a public accounting firm in Canada with employees of 1-50 people, you are our target demographic and you should find this course useful.

Mike is a general practice partner with KMSS, focusing on small and medium sized enterprises. He has been with the firm since 2016 and a partner since 2020. In addition to being a CPA, Mike is also a Certified Fraud Examiner, and the firm’s transaction advisory and due diligence practice. Prior to joining KMSS, Mike spent time with larger national and international accounting firms, in addition to delivering post secondary accounting and tax courses at various colleges and universities. While not a technology expert by any means, Mike was chosen to deliver training for the transition to IFirm back in 2021. Mike was required to gain an in depth understanding of the software and can speak candidly on our experience over the past 4 years of using the program.

Grace C. McKay has been an accountant for 25 years, nearly 20 of those years as a designated as a CPA, CA. She has trained and worked with “Big 4” accounting firms, and has worked in multiple industries helping companies of all sizes, ranging from local owner-managed businesses to multi-billion dollar global corporations. She brings a breadth of experience to her clients, providing holistic financial reporting, process design, and owner-managed corporate taxes. Over the years, she has connected with a wide range of specialists in financial planning, corporate reorganizations, valuations, IT, infrastructure/ construction, and many others, and is positioned to help you grow your business.

Adrian Hodgson has held a wide breadth of positions before becoming a Chartered Accountant, which has equipped him with a deep understanding of various industries and technologies from a broader perspective. Having lived and worked across Canada—from Fredericton to Inuvik to Vancouver—he has developed meaningful connections and gained knowledge of the diverse cultures within the nation. After graduating from the University of New Brunswick with double honours in Accounting and Finance and a concentration in Marketing, he moved to Calgary in 2012. Adrian passed the UFE in 2014 and continued his career with Paul Teoh Chartered Professional Accountants, where he worked for 7 years, 7 months, and 7 days. When his time at Paul’s came to a mutual conclusion, Adrian founded Frosty Squirrel Professional Corporation. He chose this path to avoid getting lost in the corporate world, hoping instead to make a greater impact by educating and empowering clients to achieve bigger and better things.