Accounts Payable Services & AP Automation Providers in Bangor, ME

Brantner, Thibodeau & Associates is a local certified public accounting practice based in Bangor, Maine. Its clients include companies, families, estates, municipal bodies and nonprofit groups throughout the Bangor area. The firm describes its approach as proactive and caring, and says it wants each client to do well on a personal level. It is not a software vendor.

Accounts payable is handled as one part of its outsourced bookkeeping and accounting work, which suits organizations that prefer a CPA team to manage payables, records and reporting.

Bookkeeping and payables support

Dependable payables management rests on orderly record-keeping, and that is the core of the firm's accounting practice. Clients decide how often they want bookkeeping done: every day, month, quarter or year. The firm points out that people whose personal or estate matters overlap with a business may also need receivables and payables handled alongside tax preparation. Its accounting offering includes:

• Bookkeeping on a schedule the client chooses
• Receivable and payable processing
• Maintenance of the general ledger and production of financial statements
• Initial accounting system setup and continuing help
• Reviewed and compiled statements
• Tax planning and return preparation connected to the records

Software knowledge

Several professionals at the firm hold QuickBooks ProAdvisor credentials, and the team is comfortable with similar accounting programs. Companies looking to update how they process payables can have an advisor examine their current files and suggest improvements. The firm positions this as a way to trim overhead without owning every accounting task internally.

Who the firm serves

Both new ventures and long-established businesses of any size work with the practice. Client industries mentioned by one partner include logging, trucking, rental, real estate, retail and franchised restaurants. The firm also staffs CPAs with advanced experience serving government bodies, such as school units, towns, cities and water and sewer districts, along with nonprofit organizations. Auditing receives substantial attention, including Single Audits, and the firm takes part in the AICPA's Government Audit Quality Center.

Leadership and working style

Two partners lead the firm: Craig S. Costello, CPA, CGMA, and Christopher S. Madden, CPA, CGMA. Each graduated from the University of Maine and started working in 1994. Costello focuses on municipal and nonprofit audits, taxes for individuals and businesses, and QuickBooks consulting, and he has overseen audits that demanded 400 or more hours.

Madden's strengths are business and personal taxation, reviews and compilations, launching new businesses and QuickBooks consulting. Both belong to the AICPA and the Maine Society of CPAs, and Madden coordinates the firm's involvement in the AICPA Tax Section and Private Companies Practice Section.

The firm encourages prospective clients to begin with a consultation so needs can be defined and fit confirmed before a relationship starts. It highlights approachable people, individual attention and good value as its main selling points.

Maine Accounting Solutions is a small, locally owned accounting practice based in Bangor. It works with small business owners, individuals, families, nonprofits, trustees and executors. Most of its clients are in the greater Bangor area, but the firm also serves clients in other states. For buyers looking at accounts payable help, it is best seen as a full-service bookkeeping and tax firm whose regular bookkeeping work includes some payables tasks. It does not sell a standalone AP automation platform.

Accounts Payable and Bookkeeping Support

The firm's payables work sits inside its bookkeeping service. Staff work in either QuickBooks Desktop or QuickBooks Online. They enter transactions, review them and keep the ledger current. The firm says it helps with certain payable and receivable functions rather than running a company's whole payables department. This suits businesses that want an outside bookkeeper to keep vendor activity recorded correctly, not ones that need large-volume invoice processing. Related tasks include:

• Recording and reviewing vendor and expense transactions in QuickBooks
• Reconciling bank, credit card and loan accounts on a regular schedule
• Preparing year-end 1099 forms for contractors and vendors
• Preparing and filing state sales tax returns
• Helping during workers' compensation and insurance audits
• Setting up QuickBooks and supporting it afterward
• Working with outside payroll providers

Broader Accounting and Advisory Work

Besides bookkeeping, the practice prepares business and personal tax returns and estimated payments. It has a particular focus on returns for nonprofits, trusts and estates. It helps trustees, executors and beneficiaries meet IRS filing rules. For new ventures, it gives guidance on choosing a business entity and building financial forecasts. For established businesses, it advises on efficiency, profitability and planning.

This means a client who comes for payables and ledger upkeep can have tax filing and advisory work handled by the same team.

How the Firm Works With Clients

The firm stresses hands-on, personal attention and long-term relationships over high-volume processing. It offers flexible meeting times and remote appointments, so clients can work with it from a distance. It also works with clients' financial advisors, attorneys and other professionals, which can help when bookkeeping decisions affect tax or legal planning. The office keeps longer weekday hours in winter than in summer.

Background and Team

The team has about seven decades of experience between them. Founder Glenn Goodwin has done tax work in the Bangor region since 1980. He is a Husson University graduate and has served on the boards of several local nonprofits.

Bookkeeping specialist Donna Bradford, also a Husson graduate, began working with Goodwin in 1996 and handles a wide range of accounting tasks. Jill Howland-Sloat, a University of Maine graduate, joined the profession in 2019. She works largely remotely from northern Maine and supports both business and individual clients.

The firm says its staff keep up with changes in tax law through ongoing training, and that it takes part in community events around Bangor. Small businesses that want a close relationship with a local bookkeeper who handles some payables work may find the firm a good fit. Organizations that need dedicated AP automation software should look at other providers.

Schroeher's Tax & Accounting Services is a family-led accounting practice headquartered in Bangor, Maine. The firm works with businesses and individuals across the state and also serves clients located elsewhere in the country. It is not a dedicated AP automation platform. For companies evaluating outside help with payables and the wider back office, it is a small, long-established local option that combines bookkeeping, tax and advisory work under one roof.

Background and team

Dean M. Schroeher launched the practice in 1980 as a sole proprietorship. The business was reorganized as a corporation, Dean M Schroeher, Inc, in 1998. Dean holds a degree from Husson College and has held accounting roles with manufacturers, retailers and nonprofit organizations in addition to building the practice. Kevin J. Schroeher is also a Husson College alumnus.

He earned both an undergraduate accounting degree and a master's in business, and spent time at a CPA firm before joining the family practice. That mix of industry and public accounting experience shapes how the firm approaches client books.

Bookkeeping and accounting support

The firm's accounting work is the area most relevant to buyers seeking accounts payable help. It offers comprehensive bookkeeping. Its website does not list accounts payable as a separately named service, although recording and managing vendor obligations typically falls within that kind of bookkeeping scope. Clients interested specifically in bill processing or vendor payment handling should confirm the exact arrangement directly. Related accounting offerings include:

• QuickBooks implementation and ongoing file management
• Accounting setup for newly formed companies
• Training for a client's in-house bookkeeping staff
• Help assembling budgets and financial forecasts
• Support on one-off special projects

Tax and advisory services

Tax work forms a core part of the practice. The team prepares federal and state returns of all kinds and helps with planning, forecasts and estimated payments. It also represents clients in dealings with the IRS, including audits. Beyond income tax, the firm handles payroll and sales tax matters as well as estate and tax-exempt situations.

Its stated philosophy is that clients benefit from discussing major business or personal financial moves in advance. That way, tax consequences can be addressed before a transaction closes rather than after.

On the consulting side, the firm presents itself as a broader financial advisor than a traditional tax preparer. It reviews proposed changes to internal procedures, technology hardware and software, and advises on how to put them in place. Software consulting is one of its core client services. This may be useful for businesses weighing a move to new accounting tools or reworking how payables are recorded.

How the firm works

The practice emphasizes service shaped around each client and revised as that client's circumstances evolve. Accounting, tax and advisory work overlap heavily, so the firm takes an integrated view. It treats a client's bookkeeping, tax position and system choices as connected issues. The firm suits Bangor-area organizations that want a hands-on local accountant to keep their books, including payables, in order alongside tax compliance. It has more than four decades of continuous operation in the community.

Twin Birches Bookkeeping is a small bookkeeping practice in Bangor, Maine, run by two sisters, Joan West and Jane Arey. It works mainly with small businesses around Bangor and Brewer and in Downeast Maine. The firm started from the view that local owners should be able to get dependable, reasonably priced financial help without paying for a large accounting firm. That makes it a hands-on, relationship-based option for buyers comparing accounts payable providers, rather than a software platform.

Accounts payable and cash flow support

The firm handles accounts payable and accounts receivable together, treating both as ways to protect cash flow. On the payables side, staff enter and organize vendor bills, set payment dates so the business avoids late charges, and keep watch so that obligations are not overlooked.

On the receivables side, they can create and send customer invoices, monitor open balances and flag past-due accounts so the owner can follow up. Through one-time projects, the team can also help a business that has fallen behind on its bills get caught up.

• Vendor bill entry, organization and payment scheduling
• Customer invoicing and tracking of receivables and overdue accounts
• Monthly bookkeeping with bank and credit card reconciliation
• Monthly profit and loss statements and balance sheets
• Year-end 1099-NEC preparation for contractors and other non-employees
• QuickBooks Online setup, file cleanup and user training
• Catch-up reconciliation and custom chart of accounts projects
• Referrals to outside payroll specialists

How they work

Client books are kept in cloud accounting software, mainly QuickBooks Online and the Digits platform, although the sisters say they can also work in a client's existing platform. Transactions are pulled in from linked bank and card accounts, coded to the client's chart of accounts and reconciled every month.

Clients can meet with the firm on a monthly or quarterly schedule, or just annually, depending on their needs. Support runs all year instead of only at tax time, and the firm says it handles client data confidentially and securely. Owners deal directly with the two partners, not with rotating staff.

Industries served

The firm lists experience with construction companies and trades, including job costing, retainage, change orders and seasonal swings. It also serves boutique gift retailers, property managers who need tenant ledgers, owner statements and vendor reconciliation, hospitality businesses that deal with tips and daily sales reconciliation, and law firms.

Background and credentials

Both owners are Certified ProAdvisor bookkeepers for QuickBooks, and Joan West also holds Digits certification. Joan has worked in bookkeeping since 2019. Before that, she did billing and administrative support for a tax accountant and worked in construction administration and training.

Jane Arey has about four decades of administrative and business experience in catering and events, sales and marketing, a wholesale and retail jewelry venture, and residential and rural construction. Buyers looking for local, personal help with paying vendors and reconciling their books, rather than a dedicated AP automation product, will find this a good fit.