Protect your practice and increase its long-term value
In order for a professional practice to grow and succeed, you must be proactive about ethics. This course will help practitioners to deal with actual ethical dilemmas they face, regardless of the size of the practice or the role they play within the practice. We do this by providing a step-by-step approach that will help you navigate through complex and sensitive issues that arise in any practice.
Course Description
Our profession requires its members to protect the public interest, and this is done through the robust requirements contained in our code of professional conduct. This is because third parties, such as investors, lenders, regulators, and the public rely on our work for their well-being. This places the practitioner between the requirements of laws, regulations, standards, and rules (including the code of professional conduct) and the demands our clients make as paying customers. Often, these demands contradict the rules and regulations. Therefore, we see professional practice as a balancing act between these two forces. Therefore, the key question is: how can you build high-trust relationships with clients while staying at arm's length, remaining independent, and still complying with all the rules?
Using an ethical lens is necessary to achieve this balance and to create sustainable success in professional practices. We recommend taking a risk-based approach that considers the probability and impact of ethics-related risks occurring. We examine three dimensions of these risks: staff, client, and practice management. We then consider prevention, detection, and mitigation strategies for all risks.
This is a workshop-style course in which you will pause and apply the approach at each step to your own practice. We share actual situations we have encountered and give you an opportunity to consider how you would respond to them. We share resources that will help you gain new insights and learn from others.
By being proactive about ethics, you can prevent code of conduct violations that can have a detrimental impact on your practice and your career. You will also protect your practice and increase its long-term value. This will help you sleep better at night.
Prerequisites: Knowledge, Experience, or Courses:
This course is for members in professional practice and those aspiring to either start or to acquire a professional practice. There is no specific knowledge prerequisite.
Applicable for:
This course will benefit members at all levels within professional practices. It is suitable for sole practitioners, members in smaller practices, mid-sized practices, and even larger firms.
Lead Instructor, FCPA, FCA
Arun Mathur, FCPA, FCA, LPA has over 35 years of teaching and corporate training experience. He is a retired Partner at Gerald Duthie & Co. LLP, where he provided professional services to a diverse group of clients. Arun is also Owner and Lead Instructor at UltimQuest Knowledge Inc., offering corporate training on improving governance, ethics, internal control, performance measurement and related topics. He provides live and online training through CPA bodies across Canada and Bermuda. Arun served for several years on the Board for HealthForce Ontario Marketing and Recruitment Agency, and was also Chair of the Finance and Audit Committee there and for the Trillium Gift of Life Network. He has served on the CMA Ontario's Review Committee prior to the merger as well.
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.
