Accounts Payable Services & AP Automation Providers in Dover, DE

First State CPAs & Associates is a certified public accounting practice located in downtown Dover, Delaware. The firm works with people and organizations across the country, offering bookkeeping, payroll, tax preparation and planning, and retirement guidance. Its clients range from LLCs and partnerships to C and S corporations, nonprofits, professional practices, trusts and estates.

Accounting and Bookkeeping Support

The firm argues that business owners gain more by handing day-to-day record keeping to specialists than by doing it themselves, since the time spent on administration is time taken away from running the company. For organizations weighing outside help with bills and vendor payments, the firm provides human-delivered bookkeeping rather than a self-service automation product. Payables sit alongside the rest of a client's financial records. The published list of tasks includes:

• Handling of accounts payable and accounts receivable
• Check writing and bank deposits
• Bank and credit card reconciliations with journal entries
• Form 1099 and Form 1096 preparation
• Cleanup and catch-up work on neglected books
• Monthly statements and compiled or reviewed financial reports
• Accounting controls, risk controls, standards assessment and compliance analysis
• Budget planning, cash flow estimates and metrics administration
• Delaware gross receipts filings
• Consultation for new businesses

Payroll is part of the offering too, including quarterly and year-end reporting, so vendor payments, employee pay and related filings can be coordinated by one team.

QuickBooks Services

Companies that keep their records in QuickBooks can rely on in-house Advanced Certified ProAdvisors. These staff members install and configure the software and train users on any version. The website also provides a client portal, a payroll login and a virtual office area for working remotely.

Tax and Retirement Planning

Tax work is a major part of the practice. The firm prepares individual, business, nonprofit (Form 990), estate and trust, multi-state, and expatriate and FBAR returns, and it supports planning through the year. When clients run into trouble, the team can step in for audits, overdue filings, wage garnishments and installment agreement negotiations with the IRS or with state and local authorities. In-house Certified Retirement Counselors advise on investments, risk management and estate planning.

The People Behind the Firm

Managing Partner Mickey Davis, CPA, is a lifelong Delaware resident who graduated from the University of Delaware in 2003 with an accounting degree. He began as a staff accountant at the affiliated Davis-Smith Accounting Associates and earned his CPA license in December 2008.

Kelly Seip, CPA, started in banking, moved to Delaware in 1997 and then spent twenty-two years at large Kent County firms, concentrating on tax management for small and large businesses in Delaware and the tristate region. She holds a degree from Bloomsburg University and belongs to the AICPA and the Delaware Society of CPAs.

Sonja Kirby, a staff accountant and CPA candidate, joined in July 2014 after years at a national tax chain. She focuses on return preparation and understands the circumstances of service members, veterans and their families. Office Manager Florence Amato brings more than three decades in office administration and bookkeeping, with a specialty in small business operations.

Overall, the firm suits small and mid-sized organizations seeking CPA-supervised handling of bills, reconciliations and vendor tax forms, with payroll and tax help under the same roof.