Accounts Payable Services & AP Automation Providers in Charlotte, NC

Based in Charlotte, North Carolina, only a brief trip from Fort Mill, AvidXchange develops software and payment services that automate accounts payable.

Its customers fall into three categories: finance departments looking to eliminate paper from their bill-paying process, makers of ERP and accounting platforms that want to build AP capabilities into what they sell, and vendors who receive funds through the company's payment network.

According to AvidXchange, its products draw on a data history stretching back over a quarter of a century, and it blends artificial intelligence with the judgment of trained staff rather than depending on automation by itself.

Tools for Accounts Payable Departments

The core offering spans every stage from purchasing through payment. It is organized into three components, which customers can combine into a package tailored to their sector:

• Procurement automation: pulls approved POs directly into the screen where invoices are reviewed, uses AI to pair individual line items, and handles both two-way and three-way matching, with variance thresholds that can be adjusted vendor by vendor. The company's purchasing tool in this category is called AvidBuy.
• Invoice processing: machine learning reads invoice data, even from handwritten documents, capturing both summary fields and individual lines. When necessary, staff reviewers verify what the system extracted. AvidXchange states that its capture accuracy exceeds 99 percent and that roughly nine in ten invoices reach the approval stage without anyone touching them.
• Payment processing: a range of electronic disbursement methods intended to reduce hands-on effort and simplify account reconciliation.

A trio of AI agents works alongside these components. The first handles data capture and improves by studying earlier approvals; the second compares invoices with purchase orders; the third recommends actions by reviewing how similar items were approved before. People, not the software, always issue the final approval.

A reporting tool, AvidXchange Analytics, allows staff to type everyday questions about where invoices stand, how long approvals take and what payments have gone out. Further oversight comes from detailed activity logs, adjustable approval routing and a module for tracking lien waivers.

Connected Systems and Embedded AP

AvidXchange reports connections to over 200 platforms, which means customers do not need to replace the accounting software they already use.

Among the supported systems are property-focused platforms such as Yardi, MRI and Rent Manager; nonprofit tools including Blackbaud and the MIP package for fund-based bookkeeping; mid-market ERPs like Acumatica, Sage and NetSuite from Oracle; Microsoft's business applications; QuickBooks from Intuit; and, as the newest addition, Workday.

Software vendors in the ERP and accounting space can also plug the company's managed payables backbone into their own products, giving their users a prebuilt invoice and payment workflow without the cost of developing one in-house.

Vendor Payment Network

Businesses that receive payments from AvidXchange clients become part of the AvidPay Network. Using the AvidXchange Supplier Hub, these vendors select how they want to receive funds, whether by virtual card, AvidPay Direct or a paper check sent by mail. The hub also lets them track invoices, take advantage of straight-through processing and reach a support group assigned specifically to vendors.

Sectors Served and Qualifications

The company tailors its products to a number of fields, such as:

• Property management and community and homeowner associations
• Building and construction
• Banking and other financial firms, plus professional service providers
• Healthcare organizations
• Hotels and similar hospitality businesses, along with auto dealers
• Companies in software, tech and media
• Public-sector agencies
• Primary and secondary schools, colleges and universities, and charitable organizations

AvidXchange holds money transmitter licenses covering business-to-business payments across the United States, with the registration number NMLS ID 1494826. Beyond its core products, it maintains a security trust center, offers training for customers, produces a group of podcasts and supports a charitable foundation. Organizations near Fort Mill evaluating AP options will find a provider offering complete payables automation, an extensive vendor payment network and corporate offices close by.

Fisher, P.A. is a certified public accounting practice headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, a short drive from Fort Mill, SC. The firm works mainly with middle-market companies, the people who own them, and their families, combining tax work, advisory engagements and outsourced finance support. For buyers looking at accounts payable help, Fisher is best understood as a full-service CPA firm whose outsourced accounting and business improvement work includes payables oversight. It is not a dedicated AP automation software vendor.

Accounts payable and outsourced accounting

The firm sells monthly accounting support in three tiers. These are scaled to fit everyone from a newly launched startup to an established mid-sized company, and range from outsourced bookkeeping and accounting to controller-level and CFO-level engagements.

Its materials say that regular reconciliation and review can expose weaknesses in a client's payables and receivables, and can flag cash shortfalls before they turn into real trouble. Companies that keep an in-house payables or receivables clerk can bring Fisher in to provide oversight. That added layer of internal control is meant to cut down on errors and discourage fraud.

Through its business improvement services, the firm will also look over a company's payables, help design a plan to clear up vendor payment problems, and work to keep those problems from coming back.

• Outsourced accounting with bank and credit card reconciliation
• Outsourced controller and CFO services
• Accounts payable review and payment issue remediation
• Oversight and internal controls for in-house AP and AR staff
• Accounting technology selection and implementation
• Payroll management

Advisory and tax work

Beyond monthly accounting, Fisher handles tax compliance and planning for businesses, individuals, trusts and estates, including complex 1040 returns, and it represents clients during tax audits. On the advisory side it offers consultations on startup best practices, guidance on legal and tax structure, business valuations and succession planning.

The firm's stated approach is to give clients technology that improves communication, reporting and efficiency, while its own team concentrates on strategies aimed at raising margins and adding value. It also puts weight on educating clients so they understand the tax-saving strategies it recommends and can put them into practice.

Industries served

Fisher lists a broad set of industry specialties, which can help buyers whose payables reflect sector-specific vendor relationships:

• Construction, real estate and self storage
• Logistics, retail and wholesale
• Restaurants and breweries
• Information technology, entertainment and professional services
• Non-profit organizations, sports and fitness, and pet care
• Social media influencers

Background

The original practice was started in Charlotte almost three decades ago. Principal and business advisor Emily Fisher came to public accounting in 2007 after working in corporate finance and running her own venture in the wine and food industry.

In October 2014, under a planned succession, she took over the existing practice and began rebuilding it as a forward-looking CPA firm. The team has decades of combined experience in tax preparation, bookkeeping, payroll and financial strategy, and staff keep up with ongoing tax code changes. The firm has said it is opening a second North Carolina office in Wilmington.

For Fort Mill buyers, the Charlotte office remains the closest.

Headquartered in the Carolinas, GreerWalker is an accounting and advisory practice with locations in Charlotte, North Carolina, and Greenville, South Carolina. The bulk of its client base consists of privately owned mid-sized businesses and their owners. Its roster also extends to smaller companies run by their founders, partnerships, nonprofit organizations and companies operating across multiple countries. Businesses near Fort Mill would most likely be served from the Charlotte office, located in uptown's Carillon Building.

Payables Support Within the CAS Practice

Vendor payment work at GreerWalker sits inside its Client Accounting Services (CAS) group. CAS functions as an outsourced finance department, and the firm adjusts its scope depending on how mature a business is, what sector it operates in and how many accounting staff it already employs.

The group manages incoming bills, customer receivables, payroll and cash planning in cloud-based software, with Sage Intacct and QuickBooks Online among the systems it uses. The portal links on GreerWalker's site also point to Bill.com and Tallie, an indication that clients rely on those applications for paying vendors and managing expenses.

Job postings for the CAS group describe the following payables responsibilities:

• Recording vendor invoices and moving them toward payment through an outside software platform
• Pulling corporate card transactions and assigning account codes to each charge
• Handling outgoing payments, separating responsibilities across team members when staffing allows
• Monitoring repeat obligations so each one is either supported or accrued when the month closes
• Drafting lists of uncoded transactions and reviewing payables records for regular bills that have not yet arrived
• Onboarding new suppliers, gathering their W-9 forms and preparing year-end 1099 reporting

Beyond vendor payments, the CAS staff also bill customers and pursue collections, run payroll, reconcile bank and balance sheet accounts, code general ledger entries and assist with closing the books each month. This breadth lets a business consolidate a large share of its back-office finance duties with a single outside firm.

Client Relationships

According to GreerWalker, many relationships begin with a tax or bookkeeping engagement and expand over time into assurance and advisory work as a company develops. Partners and managers make a point of learning how each business operates and what its owners want to achieve financially.

Rather than confining tax planning to the filing season, the firm treats it as an ongoing, year-round process. Other offerings include audit, review and compilation engagements; tax work covering business, international, and state and local matters, along with credit studies; and advisory services spanning forensic accounting, business valuation, transaction support and corporate finance.

Exit planning is provided by an affiliated company, GreerWalker Corporate Finance, LLC, while wealth management is delivered through outside strategic partners.

Sector Focus

GreerWalker organizes dedicated teams around particular industries:

• Construction, serving firms that run entire building projects, subcontractors focused on a single trade, and companies that build roads, bridges and similar infrastructure
• Real estate, covering both developers and property managers
• Manufacturers and distributors
• Professional and business service companies, among them law practices, staffing agencies, technology providers and engineering firms
• Financial services clients such as investment advisory firms and mortgage lenders
• Nonprofits, employee benefit plans, the motorsports industry and companies with international operations

History and Organization

The firm has provided professional services for over three decades. It is organized as an alternative practice structure, as permitted by the AICPA Code of Professional Conduct. Under this arrangement, GreerWalker Attest, PLLC serves as the licensed CPA entity responsible for attest engagements, while GreerWalker Advisors, LLC delivers tax, advisory and other non-attest work, CAS engagements included.

IPA has recognized GreerWalker in its Top 200 rankings and has also given it Best of the Best honors. Team members are encouraged to give their time to local causes and take on board roles in the Charlotte and Greenville areas.

Based in Charlotte, North Carolina, this CPA firm, which carries the name of its principal accountant, serves small and mid-sized companies that prefer to hand off their financial administration to an outside team. It presents itself as a single source for accounting, taxation, payroll and human resources help. Engagements are flexible, so owners decide how much to delegate, anywhere from routine transaction recording to long-range financial forecasts spanning several years.

Accounts payable and bookkeeping support

For companies looking for help with payables, the firm's outsourced bookkeeping offering is the most relevant. Both Charlotte-area businesses and those located in other states can shift all of their record-keeping to the firm, which then tracks what is owed to vendors and what customers still owe.

The firm says this setup can reduce or eliminate in-house bookkeeping positions and saves owners the effort of training employees on payables and receivables. It also lowers exposure to internal fraud and avoids the cost of buying servers and accounting software. All work takes place on secure web-based systems protected by encryption, firewalls, redundant backups and continuous monitoring.

Clients have access to their records whenever they want, from the office, from home or on the road. Related offerings include cloud accounting, compiled financial reports and coaching on getting more out of QuickBooks.

• Outsourced record-keeping covering both supplier invoices and customer receivables
• Accounting work and financial statements designed for smaller enterprises
• Payroll processing with direct deposit, paper checks and payroll tax filings
• Completion of W-2, W-3 and 1099 forms, plus remittance of withheld amounts to third parties
• Tax filings for companies, individuals, estates and trusts, and help resolving back taxes that were never filed or paid
• HR software, employee timekeeping and background screening for job candidates

Industries and clients

The firm's client base spans a wide range of sectors, with special attention paid to dentists, physicians and other healthcare practices, restaurants and hospitality businesses, attorneys, real estate agents and investors, and retail shops. Contractors in the skilled trades and founders launching startups also come to the firm for guidance. Nonprofits are another client group, since they must classify revenue and expenses accurately to preserve their tax-exempt standing. For individuals and families, the firm offers financial, retirement and estate planning.

How the firm works

New clients begin with a no-cost initial consultation, available in person or virtually. The firm stresses building genuine relationships with the people it serves rather than viewing them as entries in a spreadsheet, and it takes pride in replying promptly and plainly. Sensitive documents move through a secure client portal and a separate file-transfer tool. Every payroll client works with an assigned payroll specialist who also monitors changing compliance rules. Service is available in both English and Arabic.

Background

The practice is led by its namesake certified public accountant and cites more than three decades of professional experience. It describes its approach as pairing traditional accounting expertise with modern technology. Its office sits near the intersection of Monroe Road and North Sharon Amity, with parking available behind the building.

In addition to Charlotte itself, the firm serves clients in Matthews, Pineville, South Charlotte and surrounding communities. Companies comparing accounts payable providers should note that this firm manages payables as one part of a broader outsourced accounting and bookkeeping arrangement, rather than offering a standalone AP automation software product.