Accounts Payable Services & AP Automation Providers in Saint Charles, IL

Overview

Apex CPAs & Consultants is a certified public accounting and advisory practice with offices in St. Charles, Illinois, and Scottsdale, Arizona. The firm presents itself as closer to a consultancy than a conventional CPA shop. It concentrates on privately owned companies whose owners are focused on expansion. Its Illinois office serves a wide stretch of the western suburbs. Naperville appears on its list of covered communities, along with Aurora, Warrenville, Batavia, Geneva and Chicago.

For buyers evaluating outsourced accounts payable support, the most relevant part of the offering is the accounting practice, built around controllership and outsourced client accounting. In these engagements an external team runs the routine finance function, an area that typically involves vendor bills, disbursements and month-end reconciliation.

The pages reviewed for this listing do not itemize specific AP tasks, so prospective clients should confirm the exact scope of bill handling and payment workflows early on. Apex pairs this work with QuickBooks advisory and ERP system implementation. That combination may suit companies looking to modernize how invoices and approvals flow through their books.

Services

• Controllership and outsourced client accounting
• Fractional or outsourced CFO support
• QuickBooks advisory
• ERP system implementation
• Reviews and compilations
• Business, personal, and state and local tax work
• Tax credits, incentives and cost segregation studies
• Succession planning, M&A and buy/sell due diligence

Beyond bookkeeping and reporting, the firm frames its work around four owner outcomes: stronger profitability, higher enterprise value, a lighter tax burden and less personal reliance on the company. As a result, accounting engagements are often tied to wider planning, from scaling operations to preparing a business for sale or transition.

Client testimonials on the site describe long relationships, including one owner who has worked with the firm for more than ten years. They stress tax planning and strategic guidance alongside routine accounting.

Industries and Credentials

Apex works across many sectors, but it highlights particular depth with technology companies, manufacturers, wholesalers, builders and construction suppliers, professional service firms, and retailers. The practice has spent more than 25 years serving closely held companies. It is led by James N. Chakires, CPA, CVA, who serves as Managing Partner and CEO, and Lucas Vandewoestyne, CPA, CGMA, who serves as Partner and COO.

The firm belongs to the AICPA and the Illinois CPA Society. It voluntarily undergoes peer review on a three-year cycle and reports receiving the top rating at every review since it was founded. Through CPA Connect, a global network of independent CPA firms, Apex can draw on affiliates in more than 35 states and representation in over 90 countries.

That network can help clients facing national or cross-border questions. Each staff member completes at least 40 hours of professional training per year. The Daily Herald Suburban Business recognized Apex as a top Illinois workplace in 2022, 2023 and 2024.

Naperville-area companies may find Apex a reasonable fit if they want one partner to run ongoing finance operations while also advising on tax and growth. This is especially true for businesses that run on QuickBooks or are weighing an ERP upgrade.