Compliance Expert

Understand what and how we are impacting cannabis sales. We'll cover the average price per transaction during the month of March and months following the California shut-down due to COVID. 

We explore the question of, when where and how to report STOLEN cannabis from looting or riots. We'll cover best practice documentation ideas and documents you'll need to meet the various California Cannabis regulations. In general, when a licensed cannabis retailer has experienced a theft, the retailer must notify the BCC within 24 hours from the date of the incident. Any theft, loss, and or Criminal Activity fall within section 5036 of the Bureau’s regulations. Notification and Request Form, BCC-LIC-027 is located here. You can submit this form via email located here. We'll discuss what to expect after you file and how to keep your record available for 7 years. 

With COVID19 cannabis retailers must prioritize the customer experience, and educate sales teams effective strategies to deal with difficult situations, handle resistance, avoid liability, better manage their time, and ensure clients are comfortable and reassured. Want to learn how to maximize the confidence and success of cannabis retail sales professionals. Discover a proven step by step training method to get your team to learn the importance of focusing on people, rather than product. Understand how to build a relationship of trust and loyalty with customers. Active listening tools, asking the right questions, knowing the product, and guiding customers to the best solution for their specific needs encourages informed purchasing decisions, satisfied customers, retention, and referrals. This interview we'll discuss how to get: Real Results * Real Education * Real Success! Melissa Jane (MJ) Stapley, founder of MJ Hybrid Solutions, started her journey in the cannabis industry in 2014. She left her corp

Sonia Luna covers highlights of the Small Business Administration (SBA) and the Department of Treasury programs created through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. Visit the following websites for new guidelines: SBA – here you will find information on all COVID-19 related programs that SBA is providing, including the Paycheck Protection Program, Economic Injury Disaster Loans and Emergency Grants, and Small Business Debt Relief.  Department of Treasury –  here you will find information on the Paycheck Protection Program, as well as other tax provisions meant to help employers, including non-profits. To help small business owners and entrepreneurs better understand the new programs you can always reach Aviva Spectrum at: info@avivaspectrum.com 

Forgot about your lease terms and eviction clauses when you signed your lease over a year ago? Don't worry most of us forget about all the terms and conditions we cover in a typical lease. Aviva Spectrum specializes in offering CFO and accounting advice for cannabis companies and some are hit hard because of the recent Coronavirus Outbreak. Even though the President just signed a 2 Trillion Dollar relief package today on March 27th, 2020. NONE of those dollars cover cannabis companies! In our local city in Los Angeles, Mayor Garcetti, orders a moratorium on evictions and yes, this includes cannabis companies. In this episode, I'm going to offer free and clear advise on how to: When and how to give your landlord a good heads-up?How to determine if you should pause payments for a month or two?Determine if you can give them a later due date to better coincide with your customer payments?What to look for in your tenant lease to find out what remedies your landlord can take. We'll cover what you can do today to f

The Coronavirus has created the most unprecedented business disruption that we have seen since the 2008 financial crisis. We will be interviewing cannabis insurance industry expert Alana Long. This is the first pandemic that has rocked our country and businesses to the core in over 50 years. Learn from cannabis industry experts about what insurance coverage is actually out there today and what you can do to file the right claims at the right time. Understand what supporting documents you'll need when the government offers assistance to the cannabis industry. Leverage insight about how to account for insurance claims and even business losses which may occur in this critical time. 

Learn about tax advantages you can take from the NEW tax bill and also the new FARM BILL. Understand how to differentiate your operations from CBD sales and selling expenses and those that are "plant touching" activities.

Sonia Luna interviews practice leader Nicole Johnson on strategies to deal with cannabis taxes. Aviva Spectrum has won "Best Accountant" for the California Cannabis Awards in 2018 and we're sharing the tips and tricks every cannabis business owner needs to understand before they file their 2018 tax returns. Nicole M. Johnson, EA, is a Practice Leader with Aviva Spectrum and works out of Los Angeles, California. She has over 20 years of professional experience, with a focus on training, accounting, and tax. As an enrolled agent (EA), Nicole is federally authorized to practice tax and has technical expertise in the field of taxation. She is empowered by the U.S. Department of the Treasury to represent taxpayers before all administrative levels – examination, collection, and appeals – of the Internal Revenue Service. Having worked with clients across a number of industries to determine the best way to resolve tax liability, Nicole can analyze how to minimize tax debt and expense as much as possible. She has ex

In this one of a kind interview with Zendesk CFO, Elena Gomez, Sonia Luna uncovers some of the best practices and lessons learned from someone who's been there! With an unparalleled knowledge of the SaaS business model and proven ability to build teams and partner with business leaders, Elena has been invaluable to the company.  Prior to joining Zendesk, Elena spent 6 years at SalesForce, where she helped build a world-class finance department.   Throughout her two-decade career in finance at Fortune 500 companies, including Visa and Charles Schwab, Elena has built a track record of strategic financial leadership.    Elena holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of California, Haas School of Business, and is a National Board Member of the non-profit, Spark.   

In this exciting interview CEO of Aviva Spectrum Sonia Luna, interviews Gayle Edwards, Managing Director, Professional Accounting Solutions (PAS). Gayle Edwards has over 25 years of experience in hotel operations, starting as a night auditor and advancing to the VP of Finance level.  Her impressive track record and wealth of operational insight allows her to be the resident BlackLine expert for PAS and pasUNITY.  By leveraging her deep knowledge of back office operations, Gayle has been able to successfully introduce BlackLine into hospitality, creating one of the largest Blackline Partners deals to date. Gayle earned a BA from Penn State.  

In this compelling interview, Sonia Luna interviews the President of QuickFee, Kyle Redding. Kyle is a CPA & President of QuickFee, Inc. He started his career with EY, working in both the US and Australia, and transitioned into the early stages of QuickFee Australia, where he grew the business from 50 to 700 firms, including 70% of the Top 100 Accounting firms in Australia and the Big 4. Kyle moved back home to California to establish QuickFee USA and quickly gained notoriety by being published in Accounting Today, Accounting Web & CPA Practice Advisors. QuickFee was recently recognized by Accounting Today as one of the “2017 Top New Products” for their unique payment portal that offers clients of professional firms a “fee financing option” directly alongside ACH payment & Credit Card payment.

In this compelling interview, Sonia Luna interviews Darren Marble on crowdfunding mistakes and best practices. Darren Marble is the CEO of CrowdfundX, a pioneering financial marketing firm serving corporations and entrepreneurs across a wide mix of industries and geographies. The company helps clients to effectively architect and execute strategic equity and rewards-based crowdfunding campaigns that build brand equity and drive growth.   Notably, under Darren’s leadership, CrowdfundX designed, produced and marketed the Reg A+ equity crowdfunding campaign for Elio Motors, which raised just under $17 million from 6,200+ investors. Elio subsequently listed on the OTC Markets OTCQX under the symbol "ELIO," making it the first company in the United States to have completed a Reg A+ equity crowdfunding offer and list shares on a public exchange. At present, CrowdfundX is currently managing more than a dozen Reg A+ equity crowdfunding campaigns. Darren was recently elected to the Board of Directors with the Crowd

In this breakthrough interview, you will gain significant insight on what to consider and measure when reviewing organizations social media marketing efforts. For years now, the auditing profession has been trying to understand the impact and risk of Social Media. More importantly what costs it could have when good money is being spent on bad social media marketing plans! Today, our listeners, will walk away knowing how and why influencer marketing works and how auditors can find the right audit trail! Go “way, way” back in the day, over 22 years in digital marketing, and explore the changes in the last two decades. Understand what are third party reports that compliance experts can rely on the data they’ve been given. Discover why content marketing appears to be growing so fast. Learn who's doing content marketing right (and why)!  Sonia Luna, CEO of Aviva Spectrum, a financial transformation and compliance consulting firm headquartered in sunny, Los Angeles, California. She is also a speaker and writer on

In this in-depth interview Sonia Luna interviews Brenda Morris, on ways to modernize the accounting department. Brenda is retail financial consultant, working with teams to optimize their environments and support growth.  She was most recently with Hot Topic/Torrid, an exciting leader in gift & fashion apparel retail, as a strategic partner to leadership to grow and develop the company and to spin out the Torrid brand. Prior to that Brenda was CFO for 5.11 Tactical, an international apparel and gear company, Love Culture Inc., a young women's retailer, which doubled in size during her time with them. Brenda was with Icicle Seafoods from 2009 to 2011 as CFO. Brenda was previously with Maveron start-up iFLOOR Inc., a hard surface retailing concept. She was CFO of Zumiez Inc, a specialty teen retailer. At Zumiez, she completed an IPO, 2 follow on offerings, and an acquisition of one 20 store chain. Prior to Zumiez, Brenda was at K2 Corporation as CFO. At K2, she directed all financial and ops functions. Pri

Sonia Luna, CEO of Aviva Spectrum, interviews, David Chavez, Chief Audit Executive at DreamWorks Animation responsible for creating the strategy, vision and execution of the risk management and internal audit operations located here in sunny, Los Angeles, California. David also serves as an Advisory Board Member of the North Carolina State University ERM project and he served as a Governor of the Board for the Institute of Internal Auditors for a local chapter in Texas. David was nominated in 2012 as a candidate for the PCAOB Advisory Board. We’ll be discussing what are the current issues and best practices regarding Risk Management, data analytics and the best use of GRC technology in the internal audit department and across an enterprise. Prior to joining DreamWorks Animation, David was a National Leader of Deloitte’s GRC Technology practice where he managed multiple GRC related engagements for Fortune 100 companies. Before that David was the Head of the ERM & GRC office for Dell Computers. He is the

  In this insightful new episode, Sonia Luna CEO of Aviva Spectrum interviews Erin Selleck, Chair of the Audit Committee and member of the Enterprise Risk Committee at Broadway Financial Corp, and it’s subsidiary Broadway Federal Bank. Discover the the core elements of Enterprise Risk Management and the expectations and best practices for the board’s role in successful governance and oversight of ERM. Learn effective techniques when handling out-of-the-ordinary challenges, as well as considersations before key decision making on a board. Prior to joining the board at Broadway Financial Corp., Erin Selleck served as Senior Executive Vice President, Treasurer, and Executive Committee member at MUFG Union Bank, a top-25 U. S. bank and a key subsidiary of Japan’s Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG), one of the world’s largest financial organizations. Her many accomplishments at Union Bank include successfully guiding the bank through the most significant financial crisis of the modern era, presiding over me

In this engaging episode with Alan Phillips, Vice President of Internal Audit at The Cheesecake Factory, he and Sonia Luna CEO of Aviva Spectrum will discuss ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­some of the changes in the internal audit field and best practices for structuring this important department. Learn some of the changes that have occurred and gain insights into upcoming trends from a 40-year veteran in the financial services and hospitality fields. Prior to joining The Cheesecake Factory, Alan served as a Partner at Ernst and Young for 10 years where he started the firm’s internal audit outsourcing and co-sourcing practice in the Southwest.  There, he had the pleasure of serving numerous Global 1000 companies. Alan has worked in Internal Audit field for over 30 years. Alan holds a B.S. in Accounting from the San Diego State and is a CPA and Certified Fraud Examiner and is a speaker for the IIA on Risk Management and Sox.

In this compelling interview with Leena Roselli, Senior Manager of Research for FEI (Financial Executives International), Sonia Luna, CEO and Founder of Aviva Spectrum and Leena will be discussing the four year audit fee trends. We'll delve into how compliance and regulatory issues have impacted how much organizations are spending on audit fees and what they can do to minimize their costs.  

Listen as Sonia Luna, CEO and Founder of Aviva Spectrum interviews, Global Director of Internal Audit at Quiksilver, Nicole Ungaro about auditing 3rd party providers.  We will cover best practices and risks. Quiksilver is that look and feel of “California surfer.” It’s truly a global California based brand. Nicole has 16 years experience in auditing, starting her career in external audit at KPMG.  She then transitioned to internal audit, creating an internal audit department at Universal Electronics and Wet Seal.  Nicole holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Cal State Long Beach.   Nicole is also involved with the Institute of Internal Auditors, Orange County chapter as the Treasurer, since August 2014. 

Sonia Luna interviews Chief Ethics Officer at Health Net, Bruce Anderson, who has over 20 years of experience in compliance and healthcare.  As many of you know, Health Net is one of the largest health care providers in the US and headquartered in California. Bruce directs Medicare, corporate compliance and ethics programs. He oversees initiatives related to compliance with federal laws, corporate compliance daily operations, and compliance training and education.  Bruce holds a Master’s Degree from the University of Pennsylvania and several certifications in the healthcare field including HIPAA Privacy.  Bruce is a Certified Compliance and Ethics Professional (CCEP).