Accounts Payable Services & AP Automation Providers in Madison, WI

Overview

Berndt CPA is a certified public accounting firm headquartered in Madison, Wisconsin. It has a second office in Wauwatosa that serves the Milwaukee area. The firm works mainly with entrepreneurs and small to mid-sized companies. It combines tax and accounting work with advisory, payroll and HR support.

For buyers evaluating accounts payable help, its relevance lies in a cloud-based outsourced accounting model. Under that model, bill payment, invoice approval and expense reimbursement run through connected online applications rather than paper-based office routines.

Accounts Payable and Outsourced Accounting

The firm says it has vetted and linked a set of cloud applications. Clients use them to review and approve vendor invoices, pay bills and process reimbursements from a desk, from home or from a mobile device.

Its client portal includes logins for Bill.com and QuickBooks Online, which suggests these tools sit at the center of its payables and bookkeeping workflow. The Onvio Client Center is used for document exchange. Each engagement starts with a plan built around the client's operations. The Berndt team revisits that plan as the business changes so the toolset keeps pace.

Owners also get dashboards showing current financial statements, so decisions can rest on up-to-date numbers instead of prior-year results.

The firm pairs its AP work with related services:

• Outsourced accounting and bookkeeping
• Fractional CFO leadership, including cash flow and working capital planning
• QuickBooks setup, customization, training and ongoing support
• Payroll, payroll tax filing and HR administration through its subsidiary, Stelios Payroll
• Tax planning and preparation, including state, local and multi-state matters, estate and trust work, and IRS representation
• Business consulting, business planning, mergers and acquisitions, and bank financing support
• Start-up and back-office setup services

Industries Served

Berndt CPA lists experience across a broad range of sectors:

• Associations and nonprofits
• Child care centers
• Construction
• Dentists and veterinary practices
• Home healthcare and pharmacies
• Life sciences and technology
• Manufacturing
• Professional services
• Real estate and hospitality
• Retail and wholesale

Its professional services clients include law practices, agencies, consultancies and engineering firms. For them it handles contractor payments, uneven billing cycles and multi-entity consolidations. It also connects their accounting software with time tracking and project tools. On the financing side, it helps clients prepare lender packages, review internal controls and monitor loan covenants after funding.

Team and Credentials

The firm is led by CEO Bruce D. Berndt, CPA, CGMA. The leadership group also includes partners and dedicated chief operating, technology and accounting officers. Its roster of more than forty people includes numerous CPAs and enrolled agents, certified payroll professionals and SHRM-certified HR managers. Other staff focus on client onboarding, tax and nonprofit taxation. Each payroll client is paired with a dedicated specialist for continuity.

For payables buyers, the main distinction is the combination of a cloud-first bill pay and accounting platform with the depth of a full-service CPA firm. A company can bring AP processing, bookkeeping, payroll, tax and CFO-level guidance together under a single Wisconsin provider.

CM Business Services is a bookkeeping firm on Monona Drive in Madison, Wisconsin. It supports small business owners who no longer have time to keep their own books or who need outside help with payroll and financial records. For buyers comparing accounts payable options, the firm is an outsourced, staff-led service rather than an AP automation platform. Its bookkeepers track bills, prepare checks and produce reports directly inside the client's accounting software, most often QuickBooks.

Accounts payable and related services

Payables work is offered alongside receivables as part of the firm's monthly bookkeeping package. Staff enter vendor bills into the client's computerized accounting system so that obligations can be tracked. They then produce reports that either itemize or summarize outstanding bills and customer invoices.

An owner or manager meets with the firm once or twice a month to go over these figures. To support payables, the firm prints computer-generated checks that carry a voucher history and prepares deposit slips tied to a record of payments received. It also reconciles bank statements and reports on checks and deposits that have not yet cleared.

Beyond payables, the firm covers most of the back-office accounting a small company needs:

• Full-service bookkeeping, or temporary coverage when in-house staff are unavailable
• Monthly profit and loss statements, balance sheets, budgets and cash flow forecasts
• QuickBooks installation and setup, company-specific training and monthly review of entries
• Payroll processing, paycheck printing, optional direct deposit, Form 941 filing with deposit guidance, and year-end W-2, W-3 and 1099 preparation
• Upkeep of employee records, including W-9, I-9 and WT-4 information
• Job cost tracking with per-job budgets and profitability reporting
• Sales and use tax reports
• Year-end tax organization, adjusting entries and ongoing coordination with the client's outside accountant

How the firm works with clients

Each engagement is scoped to what the client asks for. A company can hand over its entire bookkeeping function or contract for a single task such as payables entry or payroll. Work can take place at the client's premises or at the Madison office. The team can also connect remotely to a client's computer.

Clients who have been given an account can send documents through an upload area on the firm's website. Financial information is treated as confidential. When a client needs help beyond bookkeeping, the firm can draw on a broader circle of business consultants it is associated with.

Background and team

The company is owned and run by Cara M. Martinson, who grew up in Madison, earned her degree at UW-Madison and has more than 15 years of financial reporting experience. Her identical twin, Carson Wilhite, also Madison-raised and a UW-Madison alum, joined the firm in 2000. She serves as senior bookkeeper and is listed as manager of the Madison office.

The firm says its staff together bring close to three decades of bookkeeping experience. Besides Madison, the company lists a second office in Auckland, New Zealand, associated with the owner. A testimonial on its site from a CPA at Clifton Gunderson LLP credits the firm with keeping shared clients' financials orderly ahead of planning and tax work.

CM Business Services suits small Madison-area businesses that want a dedicated bookkeeper to manage bills, checks and reconciliations within QuickBooks. It is not designed for larger organizations seeking invoice capture software or automated approval workflows.