Payroll Companies & Payroll Services in Decatur, IL

A Long-Established CPA Practice in Decatur

Mark A. Edgar CPA is a certified public accounting practice in Decatur, Illinois, run by its namesake, Mark Edgar. He has advised clients on accounting matters since 1976, which gives the practice nearly five decades of history in central Illinois. The firm describes itself as a family-run business. For companies comparing payroll providers, that means working with a small, owner-led office rather than a large national processing center.

Who the Firm Serves

The practice works with both businesses and individuals. On the business side, it serves full-time owners, small companies and corporations in the Decatur area that need help keeping their books, payroll and tax filings in order. On the personal side, it helps households whose spending and income have become hard to track, including building budgets that change as their finances do. Most clients are in Decatur and the surrounding area.

Payroll and Related Services

Payroll is one of the firm's three main service areas, along with accounting and tax work. Because one CPA office handles all three, an employer can have its payroll prepared by the same people who keep its books and file its taxes. That can make it easier to keep wage records, financial statements and year-end filings consistent. The main services are:

• Payroll services for local employers
• General and business accounting
• Individual accounting and budget planning
• Tax preparation for individuals
• Tax preparation for corporations and other business clients
• Help with audit-related questions

How the Firm Works With Clients

New clients can start with a free first consultation to talk about their needs before signing on. The firm says it stands behind all of its work with a full satisfaction guarantee.

It also keeps longer office hours during tax season, which helps business owners who need to sort out payroll records and tax documents during the busiest part of the year. The practice says its trained, experienced staff handle each client's finances responsibly.

Its goal is to help clients catch transactions that might otherwise be missed and avoid budgeting too much or too little.

What Sets It Apart

The firm's main strengths are the owner's long career and its role as an all-in-one accounting office. It describes its fees as reasonable and competitive. Buyers who want a payroll provider they can visit in person, with a licensed CPA in charge and accounting and tax help under the same roof, may find it a good fit.

It is a service firm and does not sell payroll software. It is likely best suited to small and mid-sized employers who prefer a personal, local relationship over a self-service online platform. The office is on West Pershing Road in Decatur.

MCK CPAs & Advisors, the trade name of May, Cocagne & King, P.C., is a certified public accounting practice based in Decatur, Illinois, with additional locations in Bloomington and Monticello. For employers comparing payroll providers, the firm represents a CPA-led alternative to standalone payroll processors: wage processing and payroll tax filings are handled inside a wider practice that also manages bookkeeping, financial statements, income tax work and employee benefit plans for the same clients.

Payroll and related services

Within its accounting practice, MCK lists payroll check writing alongside the preparation of payroll and sales tax returns. Those functions sit next to bookkeeping, financial statement preparation, and the design and installation of accounting systems, which lets a business keep its payroll records, general ledger and compliance filings with a single team. The firm also handles benefit work that often connects to compensation, including:

• Retirement plan documents and ongoing plan administration
• Cafeteria plan documents
• Medical reimbursement arrangements
• Nonqualified and deferred compensation plans

Beyond payroll, the practice covers individual, corporate, partnership, fiduciary and estate tax preparation and planning; audits, reviews and compilations; and management consulting topics such as business start-ups, valuations, succession and strategic planning, forecasting, financing and employee searches. A technology group assists with choosing accounting software, training staff to use it, hardware selection and sales, network setup and administration, backups, disaster planning and cyber security risk reviews, which can matter to employers moving payroll onto new systems.

Who they serve

MCK works with both individuals and businesses across Central Illinois, and the firm reports that more than 50 industries are represented among its clients. Its audit and accounting work extends to agribusiness, banking, commercial companies, community colleges, government bodies, school districts and not-for-profit organizations.

Agriculture is a notable specialty: an Agribusiness Group focuses on grain elevators and co-ops, with knowledge of grain inventory and valuation, position records, marketing contracts and warehousing rules, and the firm even owns a grain probe for sampling. Farm clients can also get help with year-end planning, lease-or-buy equipment decisions, farm valuations and loan procurement.

Background and approach

John May started the firm in Decatur in 1970. Alan King later opened the Monticello office, and Ty Cocagne joined soon after, giving the practice its current legal name. Growth came through mergers and acquisitions, including Chamblin, Moss & Moore LLP in 2005, a Monticello practice in 2015, and Sulaski & Webb CPAs of Bloomington in 2018. Today it employs over forty people across three locations, led by a managing partner and five additional partners, all of them CPAs.

The firm takes part in the AICPA Peer Review Program and publishes its latest report, which carried a rating of pass. MCK describes itself as a relatively small practice that values close, personal relationships, aims to stay rooted in its local communities while growing, and offers referrals to other qualified professionals when a request falls outside its own services. Its website also provides a client portal login and an online payment option.

ProEmp & Associates is a privately held payroll service provider based on West Main Street in Decatur, Illinois, and it also serves the Bloomington-Normal area. The firm was founded in 1995 and has run payroll for Central Illinois employers for about three decades. It stresses that it is locally owned. Buyers who would rather speak with a staff member than use an automated help tool will see that this personal contact is central to how the company describes itself.

Who they serve

The company works with businesses of many types and sizes. Its business listings describe a typical client as a small or mid-sized employer with anywhere from a few workers to a couple of hundred. By its own figures, ProEmp supports more than 300 client companies and handles more than $200 million in payroll.

It does not ask employers to adopt a new system. Instead, it builds each plan around the way the client already works, adjusting how payroll data is collected, processed and reported so it fits the client's existing setup.

Payroll and related services

The core service is accurate, on-time payroll, along with the federal and state tax filings and compliance work that come with each pay run. The firm also points out that an employer's staffing duties don't end once checks go out, so it offers several related services:

• Payroll processing and reporting tailored to each employer
• Payroll tax filing and federal and state compliance
• Pay-as-you-go workers' compensation, with the premium withdrawn each pay period
• New hire tax credit management during onboarding
• Review of health insurance and employee benefit packages
• Certified payroll for union contractors who must pay prevailing wages

Added value for employers

Beyond basic processing, ProEmp offers a set of extras it calls perks. Its new hire tax credit screening checks, while a worker is being onboarded, whether that hire qualifies the employer for a federal credit. Under the pay-as-you-go workers' comp arrangement, the premium owed for each payroll cycle is deducted with that cycle, which spreads the cost across the year.

The firm also says it knows health coverage well and can review a client's current benefits to look for savings or better options for staff. For construction and trade employers that work with area unions, its certified payroll support covers prevailing wage reporting.

Leadership and background

The business is led by Fred Lohrstorfer as president, Kyle Lohrstorfer as general manager and Beth Lohrstorfer as office manager. The company says its managers have long experience in nearly every part of payroll production. Decatur-area organizations comparing providers will find a locally owned firm offering direct human service, flexible plan design, and workers' comp, tax credit and benefits support from a single provider.