Author: NPFM

Robyn Leet is the Director of Business Process Assessments & Attestations at AAFCPAs and her full biography can be found here: https://www.aafcpa.com/people/robyn-leet/

Robyn will give an overview of how to approach automating your accounts payable process; this will include assessing your needs, preparing your staff and vendors for an implementation, and what products are commonly used.

Bart Hawley is the Director of Special Advisory Services practice at CliftonLarsonAllen, one of the largest audit, tax and consulting firm in the U.S. Bart has over 25 years of management and consulting experience and his expertise includes operational accounting, budgeting and forecasting as well as management reporting, cash management and treasury operations across various industries.  Bart will give an overview of various available budgeting tools and technologies that he has worked with and how they can be utilized in the budgeting planning and process. Along with that, Bart will also briefly touch on the budgeting process and how to put a budget together.

Slide deck here: Budgeting Tools and Technologies

Rebecca Pilot, the President & CEO of SmithPilot, will give an overview of compensation studies, including determining the organization’s compensation philosophy, what is involved in the data gathering and analysis process, and how to use the data to determine salary scales and individual salary amounts. Rebecca will also touch on issues related to salary transparency, internal equity, market and other pay factors, and implementation of new rates.

Slide deck here: Compensation Benchmarking

David B. Wilson is an employment attorney and founding partner of the firm Hirsch Roberts Weinstein LLP. He will discuss progressive discipline and an employer’s best practices when accompanied by a disclosure of a disability (as addressed by the ADA, FMLA, and the MA PFML).  Using a case study approach, Dave will walk us through the general scenario of a progressive discipline/termination when an employee’s disability is disclosed.  What are the risks and dilemmas in resuming corrective action?  How can we frame the process so we can move forward with confidence and keep dialogue as constructive and real as possible, without saying things that will come back to bite us? What bright lines should we not cross?

Dave  (https://www.hrwlawyers.com/team/david-b-wilson) has spent over three decades defending employers in employment, wage and hour, and general commercial disputes in the federal, Massachusetts and New Hampshire courts. In addition to his interest in the intersection between technology, the law and the workplace, including social media and employee tracking, Dave is a MCAD certified trainer in Preventing Harassment and in Preventing Discrimination (in the Workplace) and has served on the faculty for the MCAD certification course.

Vassilis Kontoglis, Director, IT Security & Data Analytics with the accounting and audit firm AAFCPAS, will give an overview of what finance and IT leaders should be concerned about when setting up policies and procedures to deal with cybersecurity within our organizations. He will speak to the threats we face, what we can do to lessen the risks of being attacked, what to do if we are attacked – with a particular emphasis on ransomware, and how we can protect our organizations. He will also talk about preventive measures we can take and what kind of insurance we need in case we are attacked. AAFCPAS provides a broad range of services, including Cyber Security & Technology Assessments, IT auditing, and systems selection & implementation.