Accounts Payable Services & AP Automation Providers in Portage, MI

Accounting Alternatives is a Portage, Michigan accounting practice that works with individuals and small businesses. For buyers looking at accounts payable support, it is a small local firm offering hands-on bookkeeping, payroll and compliance help. It is not a software vendor and does not sell an AP automation platform.

Clients get outsourced recordkeeping and filing from people they know by name. Its website does not describe a dedicated invoice-processing or vendor-payment service, so companies that need full AP outsourcing should confirm the scope with the firm directly.

Services relevant to AP and back-office finance

The firm's core work is bookkeeping and accounting. It helps owners decide whether they need a bookkeeper, an accountant or a CPA. Its payroll department handles some of the vendor and contractor reporting that sits next to payables, including annual 1099 and 1096 filings. The main areas are:

• Bookkeeping and general accounting for small companies
• Payroll processing on weekly, biweekly or semimonthly cycles, run by the firm or by the client
• Year-end W-2, W-3, 1099 and 1096 preparation
• Monthly and quarterly payroll reports, 941 and 940 filings, and EFTPS tax deposits
• Michigan sales, use and withholding coupons, annual returns, and electronic unemployment (UIA) filing
• QuickBooks setup and training
• State and federal returns for individuals, partnerships, LLCs and trusts, plus tax planning
• Help with starting a business, including choosing an entity, registration, EIN applications, S corporation elections and state tax accounts

Small companies that want their books kept in QuickBooks can get help from staff who set the software up, show owners how to use it and keep the records filed correctly. Clients can choose to run payroll themselves with oversight from the firm or hand the whole process over. The team will build a new payroll plan or rework a system the client already has.

Background and team

Sharon Wagner started the practice from her home in 1978 after becoming a CPA. It grew mostly through client referrals and moved several times within Kalamazoo County before settling into its current office on Portage Road. Her husband John, an IRS registered tax preparer, left a career in mold making to become her business partner in 2002.

Sharon leads the accounting side, while John runs payroll and the related reporting. The wider team includes John A. Bonnema, another IRS registered preparer with more than 25 years of tax and small business experience.

Tammy Pritchard covers accounting and payroll and brings more than three decades of bookkeeping work, including over 22 years as treasurer of a family sand and gravel company. Charles Moerdyk, a CPA, has a background in auditing, taxation, accounting system design and school business management, and he also teaches accounting at the college level.

What makes the firm different is its long history and personal approach. It has served families and businesses in Southwest Michigan for more than four decades. Several staff members have owned businesses themselves, which helps them advise entrepreneurs who are just starting out.

The firm says it focuses on reasonable fees, keeping client data secure and treating each client as a relationship rather than an account number. It is a good fit for owner-managed companies that want one local office to handle their books, payroll, contractor reporting and taxes.