CPDStore Ireland

26th Sept, 10:00

Finding Balance

Speaker: Edel Walsh - Edel Walsh Coaching & Consulting

“Finding Balance” is designed to master the art of balancing professional demands with personal well-being. This course is vital as the pressures of the accounting profession often lead to burnout and decreased productivity. By attending, you will learn how to achieve a sustainable work-life balance, recognize the benefits of balanced living, and identify the signs of imbalance. Additionally, the webinar will cover strategies to boost workplace productivity, including time behaviour analysis, understanding the time management matrix, managing distractions, and tackling procrastination. This knowledge will not only enhance your well-being but also increase the value you provide to your practice, business, and clients.

Edel Walsh will cover the following topics during this webinar:

Work life balance

• What balance looks like for you?
• The benefits of a balanced work-life
• The signs and effects of an unbalanced life

Productivity in the workplace

• Analysing your time behaviour
• Appreciating the time management matrix
• Managing distractions
• Tackling procrastination

By attending this session, you will learn how to achieve and maintain a healthy work-life balance, tailored to your unique needs and circumstances. You will understand the numerous benefits of balanced living and recognize the signs and effects of an unbalanced life. Additionally, you will enhance your productivity in the workplace by analysing your time behaviour, appreciating the time management matrix, managing distractions effectively, and tackling procrastination head-on. These skills will empower you to improve your overall well-being and increase your efficiency and effectiveness in your professional role.

Course Level: Foundation

26th Sept, 11:00

HR & Employment Law Update - September 2024

Speaker: Yvonne Clarke - RBK

The session will provide an overview of the updates and changes in Employment Law in 2024 and a review of same.

It is important for employers to ensure they remain up to date and compliant with the latest updates to employment legislation. Staying informed about changes in employment law helps employers proactively manage risks, refine HR practices, and maintain a fair, compliant, and productive workplace. This not only protects the organisation from potential litigation but also enhances its reputation and fosters better employee relations.

It will cover the relevant pieces of legislation governing remote working, collective redundancies, pensions, maternity protection and parents leave.

In this session Yvonne Clarke will cover the following topics,

• Extension of Parents Leave & Parents Benefits as of August 2024
• The right to request remote working and the right to request flexible working arrangements for caring purposes under the Code of Practice – The Work Life Balance and Miscellaneous Provisions Act 2023
• Expansion of the Employment Permit System & Employment Permits Bill 2022
• Collective Redundancies - The Employment (Collective Redundancies and Miscellaneous Provisions) and Companies (Amendment) Act 2024
• Pensions – Auto Enrolment Update

Some other changes coming down the line:

• Maternity Protection (Amendment) and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill 2024
• General Scheme of the Employment (Restriction of Certain Mandatory Retirement Ages) Bill 2024
• Gender Pay Gap Information Act 2021 – Employee Threshold 150+ in 2024
• Directive (EU) 2022/2941 on Adequate Minimum Wages
• Implementation of the EU Artificial Intelligence Act in Ireland

By attending this session, you will learn about updates to employment legislation. Employers can then ensure they are compliant with the latest regulations, reducing the risk of possible litigation, fines, and penalties

This session will allow employers to refine their practices and policies to align with the latest legal requirements. This can lead to better employee management, reducing turnover and enhancing employee satisfaction

Attending this webinar will also help employers identify areas where their managers and HR staff may need further training to ensure their organisation maintains high standards of compliance

Course level: Intermediate

26th Sept, 12:00

Red Flags in Business

Speaker: Kevin Artlett – Pecunia (2016) Limited

Every business has a trail of how it is trading, weather it is good or bad.We will be looking at how these can be spotted, and how important it is to be proactive for your clients, as well as your practice, to ensure the reduction of financial stress in a business, and how to ensure you give the best advice and point your client in the right direction for the best intervention if and when required.

In this session Kevin Artlett will cover the following topics;

• What are red flags? Proactive V Reactive
• How to find them (regular management accounts/what to look for)
• What impact can happen if you miss red flags have on your client, and your practice.
• What impact will this have on the director of your client?
• How will working with credit management experts aid you and your clients.

By attending this session, you will learn/understand/be able to identify how to recognise red flags, what impact this can have on your client. What true issues your clients may be facing now and in the future. How you can help and who would be best to refer to, to help assist your client from not reaching their potential…

This session will be of most interest to Accountants, Auditors, tax advisors and anyone that has a business client base.

Course level: Foundation / Intermediate

26th Sept, 13:30

The Benefits of Blockchain and Crypto that Accountants Should Know

Speaker: Alan Sellers – Your Crypto Coach Ltd

There are many myths about the cryptocurrency space. Furthermore, the disruptive technology that is blockchain, upon which all digital assets are based, is being adopted twice as fast as the internet was. The top 15 accountancy practices in the UK are all providing blockchain and digital asset advice for their clients. This session will show you why your practice should do the same.
,br> Alan Sellers will cover the following topics during this webinar:

• What is blockchain in simple non techie terms
• Blockchain and crypto bombshells – Dispelling the myths about this space
• Real world examples of blockchains importance to business
• Smart Contracts – How these are transforming the way businesses operate
• The role of Artificial Intelligence and how it works with blockchain and crypto

By attending this session, you will have a much better understanding of blockchain. You will learn that this new technology, with its related cryptocurrencies, can provide significant benefits to numerous clients within your practice. You will also have a great understanding of cryptocurrencies ahead of the next self-assessment deadline as crypto holdings will need to be reported by your clients separately.

This webinar will appeal to all accountancy practices, and their SME clients.

Course Level: Foundation

26th Sept, 14:30

GDPR Challenges Six years on and How to Use GDPR Compliance to Protect Value Within Your Business

Speaker: Stuart Anderson - XpertDPO

In this session Stuart Anderson will cover the following topics:

• Valuable Business Assets
• Is Data an asset to consider?
• What does GDPR say about Security
• Technical & Organisational Measures – What you need-to-know
• Recent Fines
• Due care & due diligence

This course will be of interest to Accountants and Business Owners

Course level: Foundation / Intermediate

26th Sept, 15:30

The Pembroke Approach - Reducing Costs, Increasing Profitability

Speaker: Paul Duffin and Barry O’Donovan – Pembroke Alliance

If you have clients in the Manufacturing, Tech, Professional Services or Tourism sector, Pembroke Alliance will reduce their costs, increase their efficiencies and profitability, and secure the right grant support to help them deliver their strategic growth plan.

Pembroke has secured minimum savings of €200,000 with over 150 clients in the last 10 years, with an average saving of €240,000 per client, at a net cost of €10k after grant support.

Pembroke Alliance client’s revenue ranges from €2m to €500m. We also support smaller Local Enterprise clients with Turnover ranging from €100,000 to €5 million.

We have over one hundred active clients where we have implemented LEAN Production projects, which resulted in total savings of €8.3m in 2023.

During the Webinar, we will be giving an overview of the following grants, which are all supported by different agencies:

• Lean – Continuous improvement – How to reduce costs, increase efficiency and introduce “Accountability” across your business with Daily Improvements and making them stick.

• Digitalisation – We will establish requirements for each client to either identify a suitable ERP system or optimise the existing systems in fulfilling the goal of being a data-driven business.

• Green sustainability – This is a key driver for both Enterprise Ireland and for export development. We will identify both their energy-saving and carbon-reduction opportunities and the requisite grant support for implementation of these opportunities. We also develop Decarbonisation & Sustainability plans for all our clients.

• Export development – We have a very experienced Senior commercial team with access to worldwide markets, especially the UK, Europe, and the US. We have a large number of clients in the Food, Engineering, Professional Services and Furniture sectors.

• Other areas of expertise – We have expertise in writing up grant applications, and business and project plans for the various grant support agencies (Enterprise Ireland, (SEAI) Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI), Leader Rural Fund, Intertrade Ireland, LEO, Bord Bia, Udaras and others).

• We also establish if existing (LEO’s) Local Enterprise Office companies are suitable to transition to becoming Enterprise Ireland clients. If they are suitable, then we can assist them through the process.

By attending this session, you will learn the following:

• How Pembroke Alliance work with clients to create opportunities that reduce costs and allow businesses to scale.

• You will gain knowledge on how companies get help and support with:
◦The implementation of operational efficiencies and embedding a Culture of Continuous Improvement to make the savings stick.
◦Digitalisation optimisation,
◦The new Green/sustainability requirements for companies

 (e.g. CSRD only came into law in July this year),

• How to get support around developing
◦New export sales channels,
◦Key persons hire,
◦Developing a strategy around any of the key pillars of your business
• Operations,
• People & Management,
• Innovation with R & D,
• Finance,
• Sales & Marketing, (Customs/tariffs)

This session will be of most interest to the Practices that have clients working in any of the following Industry Sectors - Engineering, Furniture, Tech, Service Sector, MedTech, Pharma, Recycling, Packaging, Electronics, Plastics, Agri, Construction, Finance, Food (Bakery, Ready meals, Dairy, Meat, Fish, Poultry Pork, etc) Retail, Restaurant chains, Tourism etc.

If you have either LEO (Local Enterprise Office) or EI (Enterprise Ireland) clients, we can work with you in determining the best supports available and the enrolment of clients to government bodies/supports.

Course level: Foundation