Accounts Payable Services & AP Automation Providers in Indianapolis, IN

Barnes Dennig is a certified public accounting and consulting firm whose clients are mostly in Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky. It has five offices: Cincinnati, Dayton, Crestview Hills in Northern Kentucky, and two in Indianapolis. Clients include fast-growing companies, family-owned and closely held businesses, not-for-profits and wealthy individuals. Buyers looking for accounts payable support will find AP inside the firm's broader outsourced accounting work rather than offered as a software product.

How accounts payable fits in

The firm's Client Accounting and Advisory Services (CAAS) group, which it calls fractional accounting, places part-time finance staff inside client organizations. These roles range from staff and senior accountants up to Accounting Manager, Controller, VP of Finance or Accounting, and CFO.

According to the firm, a fractional Accounting Manager runs daily finance tasks, including bookkeeping, payables and receivables, payroll, month-end close and audit preparation. A fractional Controller handles the wider accounting operation, including billing, A/P, the general ledger, cost accounting, budgeting and reporting improvements.

For companies that cannot justify a full-time AP lead, this offers a way to get oversight of the payables process without hiring.

How engagements work

Each engagement starts with a discovery phase to find gaps in tasks and staffing. The firm then builds a plan and assigns resources sized to that plan. Clients can pay hourly or, in most cases, a fixed monthly fee, and can add or reduce support as needs change.

Barnes Dennig says its best-fit clients have annual revenue of roughly $3 million to $100 million and plan to grow over the next three to five years. Its staff work inside the client's existing accounting software, such as QuickBooks, Sage, NetSuite or custom systems, rather than requiring a new platform.

They assess current processes, adjust to the client's setup, and train internal staff. The firm also describes its security measures, including encryption, role-based access, multi-factor authentication and activity monitoring.

Related controls and assurance work

Barnes Dennig also has a large assurance practice. This is useful for buyers who want their AP function tested as well as staffed:

• Internal control reviews and segregation of duties testing
• Audits, reviews and compilations of financial statements
• Fraud and forensic accounting
• IT controls and SOC reporting
• Tax compliance, sales tax and state and local tax
• Profit improvement, forecasting and transaction advisory

Industries and background

The firm lists experience in construction, manufacturing, wholesale distribution, healthcare, dental practices, automobile dealerships, restaurants, real estate, technology, transportation and logistics, professional firms, government and education, landscaping, and not-for-profit organizations. It belongs to Allinial Global, an association of independent accounting firms, and publishes benchmarking reports for construction, manufacturing and non-profit clients.

Its awards include sixteen Top Workplace honors and seven ClearlyRated Best of Accounting wins, and it appears on an IPA Top 200 firms list. Its fractional staff come from public accounting, private industry, or both. The firm also offers fractional HR services, so a client can outsource both finance and people operations to one provider.