Accounts Payable Services & AP Automation Providers in Okatie, SC

Colleran Accounting is a CPA practice in the Bluffton area. Sally Colleran, CPA, leads the firm and works with owner-run companies across the South Carolina Lowcountry. It is a good fit for service and retail businesses that have outgrown doing their own books and want an outside accountant who also gives advice.

The firm says its ideal client earns roughly a million dollars or more each year and wants an ongoing relationship, not help only at tax time. Its clients come from Bluffton, Beaufort, Hilton Head and nearby counties. Meetings are scheduled ahead of time, and clients can choose to meet in person or online with the same services either way.

Accounts payable and related services

For companies comparing AP providers, Colleran Accounting adds bill pay as an optional service on top of its bookkeeping and controller packages. It does not sell AP software. Instead, the firm's staff handles vendor bills inside the client's own books, and a CPA reviews the results. Other optional services fit closely with payables work:

• Accounts payable bill pay
• Accounts receivable and invoicing
• Year-end 1099 filings for vendors and contractors
• Accrual-basis accounting
• Inventory setup and upkeep
• Ongoing payroll support, including payroll for S-corporation owners

The core packages cover bookkeeping, monthly reconciliation of business bank and credit card accounts, month-end adjusting entries, monthly sales tax returns and monthly financial statements, such as a profit and loss statement and a balance sheet. A lighter controller option suits businesses that keep a bookkeeper on staff and want a CPA to check the work. The other packages bring regular advisory meetings, either every quarter or every month. Clients can move to a different package as their needs grow.

Setup, payroll and tax work

The firm also offers one-time projects for new companies. These include guidance on forming a business, covering early federal and state filing duties, choosing a bookkeeping system and planning the first year. It can also set up payroll, which involves opening employer accounts with South Carolina agencies, connecting payroll software, onboarding employees, arranging direct deposit and training in-house staff.

Its payroll work is done mainly in QuickBooks Online Payroll and Gusto, and the firm can run payroll for clients once setup is finished. Tax preparation and planning are offered only to clients who already use its accounting services. The firm prepares S-corporation and partnership returns as well as owners' personal returns.

It does not currently take on C-corporations or nonprofit organizations.

Background and approach

Sally Colleran was raised in eastern Ohio. She started her public accounting career auditing nonprofit organizations and later moved into work with small businesses. According to the Bluffton Chamber of Commerce, where the firm is a member, she holds CPA licenses in both Ohio and South Carolina.

She aims to explain the numbers in plain terms so owners can make decisions with them, and clients say she communicates clearly and teaches as she works. Past clients include a dance school, a real estate brokerage, a kitchen store and an events company.

The firm does not provide attest work of any kind, including audits, reviews, compilations or financial statement preparation engagements. Buyers who need assurance reports should keep that in mind.