Accounts Payable Services & AP Automation Providers in Gainesville, GA

Based in Gainesville, Georgia, Blair C. Diaz, CPA, PC is a licensed CPA firm that has served North Georgia since 2004. Its clients include charitable organizations, small and midsize businesses, and private individuals.

Organizations looking for help with vendor bills and outgoing payments will find that the firm treats payables as one piece of a broader outsourced bookkeeping arrangement rather than as a separate product. It does not offer a dedicated software tool for automating payables.

Its model relies on a nearby team of accountants who absorb recurring finance chores, which spares clients the cost and effort of hiring internal staff for that work.

Payables Support Within Outsourced Bookkeeping

Under its outsourced bookkeeping service, the firm manages money flowing both in and out of an organization, along with the other periodic tasks needed to keep financial records up to date. Clients pass along routine transaction entry and receive scheduled reports in return. The firm says business owners keep full authority over their funds, while its accountants make sure the books are correct and prepared for scrutiny by a bank or other lender. Services in this arrangement cover:

• Handling of vendor bills (payables) and customer invoices (receivables)
• Month-end close procedures and preparation of balance sheets
• Reconciling credit card statements and monitoring cash on hand
• Financial statements and reports delivered on a weekly or monthly schedule
• Help with QuickBooks, including straightening out messy company files
• Processing of payroll

On the payroll side, the team runs each pay cycle, figures and pays the associated employment taxes, submits the required tax returns, and produces W-2 and 1099 forms at year end. For smaller businesses, the practice adds budget preparation, financial projections, cash flow planning, and assembly of financial statements. Organizations that prefer to do part of their bookkeeping themselves can also get QuickBooks advice and instruction from the firm.

Focus on Charitable Organizations

Work for nonprofits sits at the center of the practice. Firm leaders say they serve upward of 100 charities throughout the area. These engagements typically involve fund-based accounting, monitoring of grant activity, and completion of the annual Form 990. Testimonials on record come from executive directors at groups working in child advocacy, local history, and family services.

These leaders say the firm has taken over the bulk of their financial responsibilities and keeps reporting precise and punctual for both employees and board members. Beyond the nonprofit sector, the firm also works with legal practices and medical providers.

Leadership and Staff

Blair C. Diaz, CPA, founded the firm and serves as its lead accountant. She earned her business degree at the University of Georgia and began working at Coopers & Lybrand in 1992, giving her over three decades in public accounting. She is a member of both the AICPA and the Georgia Society of CPAs.

She is a frequent presenter on financial management for nonprofits and has held treasurer and finance committee roles on several area boards. Other CPAs on the team are:

• Jennifer Hanson, CPA, who leads the tax function as tax manager
• Tyler Grizzle, CPA, manager of client accounting services, with an emphasis on nonprofit clients
• Kevin Barnett, CPA, who works as a senior tax accountant

Tax planning and return preparation are also available for companies and individuals, including estate issues and filings in more than one state. This means a single provider can cover an organization's bookkeeping, bill payment, payroll, and taxes. The practice works from Green Street, in a building of local historical significance known as the Garner-Hulsey House. Clients share files with the team through an encrypted online portal.

Padgett Gainesville operates as a locally owned franchise location within the broader Padgett organization. Since 2002 it has provided accounting help to small and mid-sized firms in and around Gainesville, Georgia. Janet Kaup, an Enrolled Agent, founded the practice and continues to own and direct it today.

The office combines staff who know the regional business community with the processes, tools and instruction that come from belonging to a national franchise system. Anyone evaluating accounts payable options should understand that Padgett is best described as an outsourced bookkeeping firm that manages vendor bills as one piece of a company's overall financial picture.

It does not sell dedicated AP software.

Where payables fit in the firm's services

Each month, the firm's accounting engagement covers both sides of the ledger: money owed to suppliers and money due from customers. Team members keep watch over these balances and oversee incoming and outgoing funds so that a client's cash position remains steady and easy to anticipate.

They match the books to real transactions on a regular schedule, a step that catches errors before they grow and reduces exposure to fraud. Since payroll, tax and advisory services sit under the same roof, information about vendor obligations moves directly into the client's reports, returns and cash projections without being handed off to another provider.

• Monitoring of amounts owed to vendors and amounts due from customers
• Recurring monthly bookkeeping and account reconciliation
• Financial statement preparation
• ADP-based payroll, covering direct deposit and payments to contractors
• Tax return preparation and planning for businesses and individuals, plus representation before the IRS
• Advisory work on budgeting, forecasting and cash management

Systems and client approach

Rather than pushing clients onto new software, Padgett adapts to whatever tools a business already relies on. Staff have experience with QuickBooks, Xero, Thomson Reuters products, ADP and Gusto, and the office counts QuickBooks ProAdvisor assistance among the resources it offers.

A company can ask for guidance in selecting accounting software or simply have the team link into its existing environment. Files can be exchanged through a protected online portal. The firm characterizes its service as forward-looking and ongoing throughout the calendar.

Its advisors try to understand the day-to-day operations of every client and stay in regular contact, instead of appearing only when returns are due.

Client base and staff

The practice serves a broad range of businesses in the area, such as:

• Professional service firms and real estate companies
• Retailers and restaurants
• Agricultural operations and builders
• Medical practices and legal offices

Several Enrolled Agents hold senior positions on the Gainesville tax and accounting staff. The office also employs a payroll manager devoted to that function, a group of staff accountants, a coordinator who handles new client setup and personnel focused on the client experience. At the national level, Padgett brings more than fifty years of work with small businesses.

Locally, the office participates in Georgia's HEART credit, a state incentive that rewards donations to qualifying healthcare facilities outside major metro areas. Through it, the firm directs support toward the hospital serving Stephens County and assists clients in making eligible gifts.

Padgett Gainesville is likely to suit businesses that would rather have a single nearby accounting team manage vendor bills, bookkeeping, payroll and taxes than operate a do-it-yourself automation platform. Fees are set individually, reflecting how large and complex each client's operations are.

Rushton is a certified public accounting and advisory firm headquartered in Gainesville, Georgia, with a second office in Alpharetta. Established in 1981, the firm ranks among the larger accounting practices in North Georgia and works with business owners, families, governments, nonprofits and churches.

For buyers evaluating accounts payable support, Rushton is best understood as a full-service CPA firm whose Client Accounting Services group can take on vendor bill handling as part of an outsourced bookkeeping relationship, rather than as a standalone AP software vendor.

Accounts Payable Within Client Accounting Services

The Client Accounting Services (CAS) team positions itself as a stand-in for an in-house finance department. Its accounts payable work centers on entering and paying supplier invoices, keeping tabs on company card spending and the receipts behind it, issuing year-end 1099 forms to independent contractors, and giving clients digital access to records of bills that have been paid. Because AP is delivered alongside the rest of the CAS menu, a company can bundle payables with related back-office functions:

• Bookkeeping with round-the-clock online access to the books
• Bank and credit card account reconciliations
• Monthly financial statement preparation
• Vendor bill processing and payment
• Credit card expense and receipt tracking
• Contractor 1099 preparation
• Payroll processing, payroll tax filings and W-2s
• Retirement plan and wage garnishment remittances

This setup tends to suit small and midsize organizations that want one outside team handling payables, reconciliations, payroll and reporting together, with CPA oversight behind the work.

Broader Expertise

Beyond CAS, Rushton offers tax planning and compliance at the federal, state and local, and international levels; assurance and financial reporting engagements; and a sizable government audit practice covering counties, municipalities and authorities.

That government work includes Single Audits performed to Uniform Guidance standards, grant compliance testing, SPLOST and hotel/motel tax consulting, and reviews of internal controls such as risk assessments, walk-throughs and policy development. The team includes several Certified Fraud Examiners who handle fraud risk assessments, forensic reviews and agreed-upon procedures.

This control-focused background may interest AP buyers who care about segregation of duties and payment fraud prevention. The firm also has dedicated groups for nonprofits and faith-based organizations, plus a wealth management arm.

Industries the firm highlights include construction, healthcare, wholesale distribution, manufacturing and real estate, along with public-sector and mission-driven organizations.

Team and Approach

Managing Partner J. Chris Hollifield leads Rushton, alongside partners focused on tax, assurance, and government and nonprofit work, and founding partner W. Barclay Rushton. Erin Pitts, CPA, manages the CAS group.

Staff credentials include CPA, CFE, CFF, CVA, EA and CCIFP designations, and partners hold roles with groups such as the Georgia Society of CPAs, CPAmerica and an AICPA state and local government expert panel.

The firm emphasizes long-term relationships, one-on-one service and getting to know each client's operations in detail, and it presents its offering as a single place for accounting, audit, advisory and wealth needs.

Firm overview

Tillman Bailey Samples & Associates, LLP, commonly shortened to TBS, is a CPA practice headquartered in Gainesville, Georgia. With nearly three decades in operation, the firm counts clients throughout North Georgia as well as in other regions. For organizations weighing outsourced payables assistance, TBS represents the conventional accounting-firm route rather than a technology vendor.

It does not market a separate AP software product. Payables work is instead delivered as one component of a broader engagement that spans bookkeeping, payroll, taxation and consulting.

Payables as part of a complete accounting engagement

The firm assembles its small business services according to what each client requires. An engagement might combine complete payroll processing, oversight of money owed to vendors and money owed by customers, and the production of financial statements, with all of it linked to tax strategy and filing.

Companies that prefer a single group to pay suppliers, reconcile the ledger and submit returns may find this arrangement appealing, because fewer handoffs occur between separate service providers. Expanding businesses that need senior finance guidance can also engage TBS for fractional CFO assistance.

Because the firm's published materials do not identify specific AP automation tools or payment systems, prospective clients with firm technology requirements should raise that question with TBS before engaging.

• Management of payables and receivables
• Routine bookkeeping and payroll processing
• Preparation of financial statements
• Fractional chief financial officer services
• Tax strategy, filing and dispute resolution
• Audit, attestation and assurance engagements
• Consulting on succession, business launches and growth

Client base

TBS serves private individuals along with companies at all phases of development, whether newly launched, mature or in a growth period. Its audit and attestation group examines the books of corporations, nonprofits and pass-through entities, offering owners, boards and other interested parties an independent level of confidence while also recommending improvements to financial controls and procedures. Tax services cover personal planning, business tax strategy, compliance filings and the settlement of tax problems.

Service approach

A collaborative, team-oriented method sits at the center of the firm's work, with recommendations tailored to each client's circumstances. When an issue extends beyond accounting, for example into legal territory, TBS assists clients in finding qualified outside specialists. On consulting and planning engagements, the firm collaborates with experienced wealth management professionals.

TBS points to its role in helping clients navigate Paycheck Protection Program loans and Employee Retention Credits as evidence of its willingness to tackle unfamiliar problems. Owners can also turn to the firm for succession strategy, tax-conscious sales or transfers of a business, acquisition due diligence, and new venture formation, including guidance on selecting an entity type.

A secure web-based portal allows clients to upload files, and invoices can be settled online.

History and local involvement

The firm maintains a strong relationship with the University of North Georgia and its Mike Cottrell College of Business. At UNG's Dahlonega location, TBS underwrites a dedicated room used for instruction and gatherings, and it backs the university's Beta Alpha Psi chapter.

Firm personnel have held seats on UNG advisory panels for the business college as well as for the accounting department. For over two decades, TBS has offered compensated internships that let accounting students build hands-on skills before launching their professional lives. The firm operates from an office on Boulevard NE in the heart of downtown Gainesville.