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Practical Tips for Controllers & CFOs Part 1

This course provides more than 200 useful and unusual veteran tips to help you in your work, and is Part 1 of a two part course.

Created byStephen Priddle
IntermediateUpdated Jun 7, 2022

What You'll Learn

  • check_circleBecome more creative – get outside the box
  • check_circleHear straight talk on ethics in the real world
  • check_circleGetting the most out of your bank
  • check_circleLearn about a different angle on the role of finance
  • check_circleObtain the finance headcount benchmark
  • check_circleGet cost-cutting tips
  • check_circleImprove the insight provided by your financial reporting

About This Course

This course provides more than 200 tips to help you at work.

As a finance leader, you are expected to be able to deal with a myriad of issues and situations. You have your experience and what you learned from colleagues and mentors, but this course will provide you with many more veteran tips, including many unconventional ones. You won’t find these tips in most courses or textbooks, but you’ll be able to use many of them. Over 9,000 accountants have taken the course, so you don’t want to fall behind them.

This is Part 1 of the two-part course.

The following professionals will benefit from this course: Controllers, CFOs, directors of finance, treasurers, and accounting managers. In addition, it is helpful for people moving toward these roles. Consultants and public accountants have historically been 10-15% of the audience and also enjoy it.

AGENDA

• Straight talk on ethics in the real world • Improve the insight provided by your financial reporting • The finance headcount benchmark revealed • More creative thinking for accountants – get outside the box • A different angle on the role of finance • Cost-cutting tips • The finance headcount benchmark revealed

PAST FEEDBACK

• I can tell you this is the most interesting course I have followed on the CPA portal,… and I have roughly 30 years of experience. You have very good communication skills and you have a bright sense of humour • You were covering pretty much all a controller or CFO have to know do to a good job. It is always inspiring to see a real CFO telling real tips to cause he have been hands on during several years as you shown on your course • I really appreciated the concrete examples, it is easier to relate to. I also appreciated the jokes. • I found it very refreshing to have some insights on how I could improve my "game". A lot of topics you bring up are aspects of our daily life at work but are not thought of at university or CPA program. • I've enjoyed the delivery speed of your course and it kept my attention all the way through. I liked your hands-on and concrete approach • I wish I knew some of these tips before, e.g. conversion tips, and I would probably implement others, like a one-page dashboard. • I find it very interesting and not the typical CPA online course! • I like how it's different and feels like it's more practical for day-to-day work, especially as an entrepreneur. • Topics I particularly enjoyed: Ethics and integrity, banking • The mix of tips with actual life experiences made the course enjoyable. • Thank you for providing so many practical tips! It’s fun to learn through lots of stories!

Course Content

6 activities • 6 videos • duration: 4h 9m

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Introduction, the finance headcount benchmark - where do you stand & ethics Part 1 (course PDF Handout)-Part11 videos • 41 min
  • videocamSection 1 Video
    Duration 41:58
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Ethics Part 2 and outside the box thinking-Part11 videos • 47 min
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Outside the box thinking continued-Part11 videos • 42 min
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Finance leadership, a different take on the finance role, and banking, Part 1-Part11 videos • 44 min
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Banking, Part 2 and financial reporting tips-Part11 videos • 41 min
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Cost-saving, offshoring, working with clerks-Part11 videos • 32 min

Your Instructor

Stephen Priddle

menu_book32 courses
star6,724 reviews

Stephen Priddle, CPA, CA, CMA is the President and Founder of Practical PD, Courses for Accountants. Stephen is also the Vice-President, Finance & CFO of Fidus Analytics Inc.  In addition, he is a Board member, co-owner and Corporate Secretary of the SureWx group of companies, a global aviation business, which he was the CFO for 12 years previously. An engaging and experienced instructor, Stephen Priddle weaves practical tips together with stories from his business experience and input from participants. Seasoning the mix with a dose of accounting humour, he serves up useful and dynamic courses which have been attended by nearly 38,000. When speaking, he is candid about errors he has made in his career and the lessons that can be learned from them. Someone said: “humans are hard-wired to learn from stories” – Stephen is in part a business/accounting storyteller, who draws out the lessons from the stories. Stephen’s teaching experience includes presenting courses for over 70 accounting bodies and organizations in Canada and abroad. He has been a Session Leader in the CPA Professional Education Program, and has taught at the University of Toronto and Carleton University. He has moderated in the legacy CA, CMA and CGA program. Stephen is a prolific author. His published business, accounting and finance cases are used by many organizations. Stephen has nearly 40 years of varied business experience. After working with KPMG for five years, he moved into industry, where he has worked for public and private companies. He has gained a wide range of experience in financial reporting, treasury management, merger & acquisition and other business matters. Through his courses, he interacts with hundreds of financial leaders a year and thus stays on the leading edge in terms of best practices and hot topics. Stephen obtained his CPA, CA and CMA designations following graduation from Carleton University with an Honours Bachelor of Commerce degree, accounting major.

Credit Information

Is this course eligible for my CPD requirements as a Canadian CPA?

Provincial regulators of CPAs in Canada do not require that independent providers of CPD be approved to offer courses. Instead, individual CPAs are responsible for assessing whether a CPD activity meets their requirements, and may take activities from any source provided those requirements are met.

Every course offered on LearnFormula is delivered by a qualified subject matter expert or learning organization, and advances learning objectives that are relevant to the responsibilities or professional competencies of Canadian CPAs. All activities on LearnFormula are quantifiable in terms of hours, and are also verifiable, in that users receive documented evidence of their attendance via a certificate of completion after finishing a course (and this certificate is stored by LearnFormula indefinitely). Nearly 100,000 Canadian CPAs successfully satisfy their CPD requirements via LearnFormula on an annual basis.

What Students Are Saying

4.6 out of 5
Student's Choice
484 reviews
  • CC
    Cristina C.
    starstarstarstarstar

    Exceptional! Thank you !

  • CT
    chi t.
    starstarstarstarstar

    Thought it would be a technical pd course, but turned out to be much practical. Different but good in a way.

  • MH
    Mehdi H.
    starstarstarstarstar

    Highly recommend this course.

  • KV
    Kent V.
    starstarstarstarstar

    Some small editing errors that got left in the course, otherwise practical and reliable as you can tell there is real experience to back up the guidance.

Frequently Asked Questions

We are a registered provider with 300+ associations and regulatory bodies worldwide. We operate across 27 global markets including Canada, the US, Australia, and the UK. Every course page clearly displays its specific accreditations. Upon completion, you receive a professional certificate that can be validated online. Our certificates include all necessary accreditation details, credit hours, and completion dates, and are formatted specifically to meet the submission requirements of most global regulatory bodies.

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