Upstream Academy tackles today’s hottest issues head-on in these one-hour virtual presentations. We’ll help your firm think strategically, understand vital principles and processes and achieve desired outcomes.
For one price, all individuals from the firm can participate in each one-hour webinar. During the live presentation, participants can ask questions related to the topic and receive knowledgeable answers drawn from the presenter’s many years of experience consulting and interacting with hundreds of accounting firms around the world.
After each Management Presentation, registered firms automatically receive one year of access to the recorded on-demand webinar to share with firm members.
Management Presentations start at 10:00am Mountain (noon Eastern) and last one hour. CPE credit is available for all those who attend. UAN Members get free access to all Management Presentations.
Are you maximizing the benefits of your firm’s specialties? With lots of firm growth now coming from non-traditional areas, the ability to successfully vet, build, and launch new niches provides a huge competitive advantage. Let’s discuss how to find the next niche, calculate potential profit, find and cultivate your client base, staff appropriately, and launch your next profitable endeavor. We’ll provide proven principles, best practices, and lessons learned from the best firms to help you niche down to level up.
Target Audience: Partner / Partner Track
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Allowing partners to weigh in on every major decision might make sense when your group is small. As firms grow, however, this structure can bog down decision-making, limit partner productivity, and impede firm success. Let’s talk about how and when to hire executives, how to define and clarify roles, and what needs to stay with the partner group. Learn how to amplify partner effectiveness, enhance productive collaboration, and drive firm-wide success by adding a C-suite.
Target Audience: Partner / Partner Track
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How often are firm members attending webinars, conferences, and training sessions purely to comply with annual requirements – finding hours earned more important than knowledge gained? Certification credits are a reality in CPA firms, but how can you encourage training that also motivates, develops, and prepares individuals for future roles? We’ll explore how to foster a culture of curiosity, continuous improvement, and proactive learning. Learn what works, what doesn’t, and how to develop a system to achieve your development priorities.
Target Audience: Partner / Partner Track / HR / L&D
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Every pebble dropped into a pond creates ripples—some reach farther than expected. Even well-intentioned firm changes can create unexpected challenges to employee retention, firm morale, partner effectiveness, public image, etc. So, how do you map those ripples, anticipate the unexpected, and adjust your course when changes flow in surprising directions? Let’s discuss how to proactively assess risk, plan for different scenarios, solicit the right input to gauge impact, communicate to the right groups, and adapt to minimize negative consequences.
Target Audience: Partner / Partner Track
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As the profession shifts from time-based billing, your firm can gain a distinct advantage by adopting pricing strategies that better reflect the value you provide, and the results clients care about. So, how can you structure, price, and deliver services based on client value rather than hours worked? Let’s explore common challenges—such as scope creep, client communication, and team mindset—and learn how to manage them effectively.
Target Audience: Partner / Partner Track
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As your firm grows and embraces more virtual communication, maintaining a unified culture across offices becomes both more challenging and more critical. This session explores how to break down silos, foster collaboration, and develop a shared identity both internally and with clients. Learn how to bridge distances by aligning teams, systems, and values to create a truly “one-firm” mindset – while respecting local differences.
Target Audience: Partner / Partner Track
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Capacity is the lifeblood of growth—but finding it in an already busy firm can feel impossible. Join us as Courtney shares practical strategies to uncover hidden capacity, streamline workflows, and help your team focus on the work that truly matters. Discover effective approaches to scheduling, delegation, and process improvement that free up resources for growth.
Target Audience: Partner / Partner Track
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Relying on working more hours to generate more revenue limits both flexibility and scalability. Let’s explore some innovative ways to build recurring or passive income through advisory, tech services, training programs, and other nontraditional approaches. Jeremy will share real firm examples of how to develop “off-the-clock” revenue and analyze how to test and launch similar ideas.
Target Audience: Partner / Partner Track
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Technical skills alone aren’t enough to create trusted advisors. So how can you embed advisory thinking throughout your team from the very beginning, creating professionals who see beyond the numbers to help clients achieve their goals? Let’s explore practical ways to train staff to think beyond compliance work, engage in meaningful client conversations, and connect financial data to business decisions.
Target Audience: Partner / Partner Track
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Leadership transitions are among the most critical moments in a firm’s lifecycle, impacting stability, morale, profitability, and culture. John Sensiba will share his recent experience with transitions to help you identify potential successors, develop essential leadership skills in them, and execute a smooth managing partner succession that preserves your firm’s legacy and momentum.
Target Audience: Partner / Partner Track
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Accountability begins at the top but can be difficult to define and enforce effectively – especially among peers. Let’s take a candid look at what it takes to build genuine accountability at the partner level. We’ll explore how to identify and set collective expectations, address performance gaps, and reinforce behaviors that support firm goals without harming relationships or morale.
Target Audience: Partner / Partner Track
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Your firm certainly has staunch supporters, but how can you cultivate raving fans – clients who are so enthusiastic about your work and how well you do it that they brag about you to anyone who will listen? Let’s discuss how to transform loyal clients into raving fans (and keep them raving).
Target Audience: Partner / Partner Track
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When do persistence, resolve, and a never-say-never attitude become a liability? Clinging to outdated processes and failing strategies drains resources, stifles innovation, and saps morale. Let’s identify when it’s time to pivot, abandon ineffective initiatives, or embrace new directions. Jeremy will discuss how strategic quitting can free up resources, unlock innovation, and send your firm in new, more strategic directions.
Target Audience: Partner / Partner Track
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Weigh in! This member-driven session invites you to explore a topic you select through our June member survey. Whether focused on leadership, team development, client service, or growth, the discussion will focus on practical strategies that can be implemented immediately to strengthen your firm and people.
Target Audience: Partner / Partner Track
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As with everything Upstream Academy does, your satisfaction is guaranteed. If you are not completely satisfied with the value you receive, we will either refund your money or accept a portion of those fees that reflects your level of satisfaction.
Stand-alone presentations: $350 (price will increase to $400 on January 1, 2026)
Two-part series: $700
Three-part series: $1,050
UAN Members can attend all Management Presentations at no charge.
