APRIL 2006

Dear CCH Learning Center Subscriber,

Welcome to the April 2006 issue of Focus on Learning, the monthly newsletter for the CCH Learning Center! In each issue, we highlight a course or series of courses on a timely topic, as well as advise you of new courses released in the CCH Learning Center. We also inform you of new features, provide helpful tips on existing features, and help you use the CCH Learning Center to meet your professional development and CPE needs.

Access or Change Your User Information
Retrieve your CCH Learning Center username and password: Now that tax season is behind us, you may be ready to start earning your CPE credit for the year. Maybe you wish to use the Learning Center to meet your CPE needs or to brush up on a topic, but you can’t remember your username or password. It’s easy to retrieve both of these from the Learning Center. Learn about retrieving your username or password.

To retrieve your user information, simply click on the Forget Your Password link on the left side of the Learning Center screen. You’ll be taken to the Login box. An Email field is at the bottom of the box under "Forget Your User Name or Password?" Enter your e-mail address into this field and click the Send Password button. Your username will immediately appear at the bottom of the screen and your password will be e-mailed to you shortly thereafter. If you have changed your e-mail address within the past year, you may need to enter your previous e-mail address in order to receive your user information.

Change your password: New Learning Center subscribers are assigned a username and password. The My Account tab lets you change your password to something more meaningful to you. Learn how to change your password.

To change your password, you must be logged into the Learning Center. After you have logged in, simply click on My Account on the top right side of the Learning Center. Delete the existing password from the Password field and type in your new password. You must enter the same password in the Password Again field. Click on the Continue button on the bottom right side of your screen. Your password is now changed. It’s that easy!

New Learning Center Core Library Courses

CCH is committed to keeping you up-to-date and knowledgeable on the latest issues that impact your firm or corporation. Many new or revised courses have been released to the CCH Learning Center Core Library over the past two months. See the new or updated titles released to the Learning Center Core Library:

New Specialty Library

Accounting and Audit Courses: In addition to the accounting and auditing titles listed above, several new courses have been released exclusively to CCH’s Accounting and Audit Specialty Library. This new Library covers a broad range of topics, including fraud, recently issued standards, and specialized areas such as governmental auditing and not-for-profit organization audits. The CCH Specialty Library - Accounting and Audit serves as a valuable research tool and helps practitioners meet their A&A CPE requirements. New courses released exclusively to this library include:

Course Spotlight

FASB 123R: Features. Customers appreciate CCH’s focus on staying current with the latest accounting and tax changes. As Controller Frank Pulsfort puts it, “I like CCH’s continued effort to show the reforms generated by the horrendous actions of Enron Executives.” CCH continues covering the latest and most important accounting reforms with FASB 123R: Features, a new course covering the recently issued statement that impacts share-based payments.

FASB 123R: Features traces the evolution of guidance for stock options as an employee incentive from the late 1970s and early 1980s, when stock options became a much more important component of compensation. It explores the scope of FASB 123R and its rules, the use of various valuation techniques for awards, and how to recognize compensation cost for an award accounted for as an equity instrument. Topics covered include:

Background of the Statement
Effective Date of FASB No. 123R
Effects of the Revision
Requirement of the Statement
Valuation Techniques
Rules for Employee Stock Purchase Plans
Recognition of Compensation Cost for an Award Accounted for as an Equity Instrument
Accounting for Tax Effects of Shared-Based Compensation Awards

Upcoming Courses

We will release many new courses in the CCH Learning Center in the weeks and months ahead to give you even more choices and more value. Learn more about the new CCH Learning Center courses in development. Among the new and updated courses that are in development now, look for courses in the following areas soon:

Accounting and auditing developments
Compilation and review
Estate tax return preparation
Fiduciary accounting and taxation
Gift tax return preparation
Recent tax developments
State tax issues
Tax research
U.S. international taxation
Uniform definition of a child

Audio Seminars

CCH’s wide range of interesting, educational CPE options now includes audio seminars. Each audio seminar allows an unlimited number of users at your firm to get up-to-speed on a hot topic using nothing more than a telephone connection. Plus, participants can earn up to 2 CPE Credits. Learn about upcoming audio seminars here.

CCH’s audio seminars, presented by top experts, are designed to provide you with updated information on the hottest tax and accounting topics. Along with detailed handout materials, each site registering for an audio seminar receives topically-related bonus items such as books, journals, newsletters or self-study CPE courses. Check out the latest Audio Seminar schedule for details on upcoming seminars.

Let Us Know What You Think

Please let us know if this Focus on Learning issue has been helpful for you, what we could do to make it better, additional topics you’d like us to cover, etc. We appreciate your business and value your feedback very much. Let us know how we can help make this communication vehicle and the CCH Learning Center even more valuable to you by emailing us at learningcenter@cch.com or calling us at 800-344-3734. You may contact us via postal mail at CCH, Attn: Marketing Communications, 2700 Lake Cook Rd., Riverwoods, IL 60015.

Sincerely,

Gwendolen Hefty
Managing Editor, CCH Learning Center
CCH Tax and Accounting Group