Payroll Companies & Payroll Services in Appleton, WI

Ahrens & Associates, S.C. is an accounting firm in Appleton, Wisconsin. Most of its work is tax preparation, and it also handles payroll administration, general bookkeeping and financial consulting. For Fox Cities business owners comparing payroll providers, the firm is a local alternative to national payroll platforms. Payroll is handled by the same practice that can also take care of a company's tax returns and books.

Payroll Services

The firm sees payroll as a job that can pull an owner's attention away from daily operations and longer-term goals. Its service is meant to take that work off the owner's plate. Ahrens & Associates does not sell one fixed package. Staff sit down with each owner individually and build a payroll arrangement for that company. Factors they look at include:

• The size of the business and its headcount
• What the employees on the payroll need
• The range of services the business itself offers
• How much guidance the owner wants during setup

The firm works with both small and larger employers. It also helps businesses that are new to payroll or unsure how to begin. Owners get advice and recommendations through the whole process, from the first setup decisions to ongoing processing. This suits first-time employers who want a person to talk to, not just a software dashboard.

Related Accounting and Tax Work

Because payroll is part of a wider accounting practice, clients can bring several financial tasks to one office. Its other services include:

• Tax returns for individuals
• Business and partnership tax filings
• Tax preparation for trusts and estates
• General bookkeeping
• Consulting on financial questions

This can help employers who want the people keeping their payroll records to also know their year-end tax situation.

How They Work With Clients

Tax work follows a set routine. It starts with a meeting to gather documents and find out what has or hasn't changed in the client's household or situation. The firm then quotes a price for the return, prepares it, files it electronically and lets the client know when the finished statement is ready to pick up.

The office says it aims to answer client questions within 24 hours. New clients can ask for a free quote, and the website has a page for sending documents to the firm online.

Background and Distinguishing Features

The team has more than four decades of combined experience in tax work. The firm says professionalism, courtesy and timeliness are central to how it operates, and that it puts clients first by keeping the owner's business priorities in mind. It works from a single office in Appleton. For buyers, the main differences from large payroll vendors are the one-on-one, tailored payroll planning and the option to keep payroll, bookkeeping and taxes with one local firm.

Overview

Fox Valley CPAs, LLC is a certified public accounting firm in Appleton, Wisconsin, established in 1997. The practice works with business owners, executives, independent professionals and households throughout the Appleton area.

Payroll is one piece of a broader menu of accounting and tax work, so an employer can keep wage processing, bookkeeping and tax filings with a single group of professionals. The firm says its principals run a small business of their own, and it describes itself as a financial partner, guide and confidante across every stage of a company's life.

Payroll and Related Services

Payroll help is tailored to what each employer requires, with the goal of freeing owners from the weekly burden of paying staff so they can concentrate on running the company. The firm also draws attention to the tangle of federal and state payroll rules and to sales and use tax, noting that tax law is complex and mistakes are costly.

Employers who are already behind can turn to its tax relief work, which includes payroll tax problems and a range of IRS matters. Around payroll, the firm offers:

• Small business accounting and bookkeeping
• QuickBooks guidance, including setup, training, answers to questions and tune-ups
• Tax preparation and planning for businesses and individuals
• A part-time CFO arrangement and cash flow projections
• Reviews and compilations, offered at two levels of assurance for stockholders, creditors or private investors
• Loan preparation, strategic planning and support for new ventures
• Services for non-profits, including attention to tax-exempt status
• IRS audit representation, liens, levies, wage garnishment, payment plans and offers in compromise

Industries Served

Specialized knowledge is offered in construction, dentistry, healthcare, hospitality, law, manufacturing and real estate. Executives and independent professionals are part of the client base as well, and individuals can get tax and financial planning guidance.

Leadership and Staff

Kristen Voster, CPA, serves as President and Owner. She arrived in 2008 and was named a partner in 2015, and her career spans more than two decades across public accounting and industry. A QuickBooks ProAdvisor, she specializes in designing and implementing accounting systems and consults on business purchases and sales. Her memberships include the AICPA, the Wisconsin Institute of CPAs, the Appleton Northside Business Association and the Fox Cities Chamber of Commerce.

Several colleagues are relevant to payroll clients. Laura Brooks, a staff accountant, handles bookkeeping and payroll and teaches QuickBooks in both desktop and online versions; her background includes public accounting and manufacturing. Tina Pritzl, also a staff accountant, brings a long record in payroll and bookkeeping alongside decades of individual tax return work.

Abraham Eisen, CPA, is a manager and Jami Johnson, CPA, is a senior accountant, and both provide review, compilation and accounting services. Shelby Schweitzer is a staff accountant, and Andrea Schmude is the office manager.

Working With the Firm

New clients may begin with a free consultation. The firm describes its approach as resting on professionalism, responsiveness and quality, and it emphasizes personal, one-on-one attention. Files can be exchanged through a ShareFile portal. For employers weighing payroll options, the appeal here is having payroll, books, QuickBooks support and tax compliance managed under one local CPA roof.

Watertax Inc. is a Certified Public Accounting firm on East Calumet Street in Appleton, Wisconsin. It combines payroll processing with bookkeeping, tax work and business advice. For employers comparing payroll providers, its main feature is that wage processing sits inside a broader accounting relationship. The same office that runs a company's payroll can also keep its books, prepare its returns and deal with the IRS if a payroll tax issue arises.

Payroll and Related Business Services

The firm presents payroll as a way for owners to stop spending their days on employee pay administration and get back to running the business. Payroll can be set up on a monthly, quarterly or annual engagement alongside bookkeeping. This lets a small company hand off both recordkeeping and compensation tasks to one provider. Watertax also lists payroll tax problems among its tax resolution services, which helps employers who have fallen behind on deposits or filings. Related offerings include:

• Payroll processing for small businesses
• Resolution of payroll tax problems, liens, levies and payment plans with the IRS
• Small business accounting and bookkeeping
• Cash flow, receivables and payables management
• Fraud prevention and debt financing strategies
• Strategic business planning, succession planning and new business formation
• Support for non-profit organizations

QuickBooks Support

Many small employers run payroll and books through QuickBooks. Watertax helps with initial setup, training, on-demand answers to questions and periodic tune-ups of existing files. Its site also points clients to discounted QuickBooks purchases. This may suit businesses that want to keep payroll in-house on familiar software while having professionals available to review their work.

Tax and Personal Services

Beyond payroll, the firm handles tax preparation and proactive tax planning. It represents clients in IRS audits and helps with unfiled returns, back taxes, wage garnishments, offers in compromise and innocent spouse relief. Individuals can also get personal financial, retirement and estate planning. The firm says it places weight on teaching clients how life events affect their finances. Documents can be exchanged through a client portal and a secure file-transfer tool, and prospective clients are offered a free initial consultation.

Background and Team

Craig Meyer and Brandon Butler founded Watertax in 2006. The company grew partly by absorbing other locally owned practices whose owners retired, and it traces that client-service lineage back more than five decades. It was previously known as Stonehaven Financial Services, LLC. Meyer, a co-owner, holds a finance degree and an MBA from the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh.

Before founding the firm, he spent nine years in financial services, including business banking and cash management, and he has taught finance courses at UWO and Marian University. The staff includes Cathleen Mueller, a CPA with over 25 years of accounting experience. Office manager and accountant Darby Warnke has been with the firm since 2005.

Accountant Jamie Mazur has more than two decades in the field, with particular experience in country club accounting and deduction management. All of the firm's CPAs hold Wisconsin certificates. That licensed oversight, together with banking and MBA backgrounds on staff, sets it apart from payroll-only vendors.