Bookkeeping, HST and payroll
Bookkeeping, GST/HST and payroll
Last reviewed: August 2026
QuickBooks Online, monthly or quarterly, reconciled and closed rather than left open. The month is done by the 12th, not reconstructed in April.
Bookkeeping
- Bank, credit card and merchant feeds reconciled every period
- POS, booking platform and payment processor brought into agreement
- Chart of accounts built around how your business actually makes money
- Job costing for contractors, service-line reporting for clinics
- Month closed and locked, not left open all year
GST/HST
- Registration and filing frequency review
- Return preparation and filing on schedule
- Input tax credit review, including what you cannot claim
- Exempt and taxable apportionment for mixed clinics
- Holdback and substantial completion timing for construction
Payroll, T4 and T5
- Source deduction remittances on schedule
- Year-end T4 and T5 slips filed and issued
- Taxable benefit review before it becomes an assessment
- Records of employment
- Contractor versus employee review
What "closed" actually means
Plenty of businesses have a bookkeeper and still cannot answer a simple question about last month. Closed means all of the following are true, every period:
- Every bank and credit card account reconciles to the statement, to the cent
- Merchant deposits agree to gross sales, with fees, refunds and chargebacks recorded separately
- HST collected and HST paid agree to the return that was filed
- Payroll agrees to the remittances made
- Deferred revenue, prepaid packages and gift card liabilities are carried properly
- The period is locked so nothing changes behind you
That is the difference between bookkeeping that produces a tax return and bookkeeping that produces a decision.
Frequently asked questions
How often do you do the bookkeeping?
Monthly for most clients, quarterly where volume is low. Monthly means last month is closed and reconciled by roughly the 12th, so you are looking at real numbers rather than a bank balance.
Do you fix a messy prior year?
Yes, and it is quoted separately as a one-off cleanup rather than buried in the monthly fee. We review the opening balances against the last filed return before touching anything, because starting from a wrong opening balance just moves the problem forward a year.
When does my business have to register for GST/HST?
When taxable supplies exceed $30,000 over four consecutive calendar quarters. Registration can also be voluntary, and for a business facing significant startup or build-out spending it is often worth doing early to recover the HST on those costs.
Should I file HST monthly, quarterly or annually?
It depends on your revenue and on cash flow. Annual filing keeps the admin down but concentrates the payment, and annual filers over the instalment threshold have to pay quarterly instalments anyway. Quarterly suits most owner-managed corporations. We review this rather than leaving whatever was set at registration.
Can you run payroll for us?
Yes. Remittances on schedule, year-end T4 and T5 slips, taxable benefit review, and the records of employment that come with turnover. We also review whether the people you are paying as contractors would survive a CRA look, which is the expensive version of this question.
What is the deadline for T4 and T5 slips?
The last day of February following the calendar year the payments were made. This runs on the calendar year, not your fiscal year, which is what catches businesses with an off-calendar year end.
Hand over the books
Including the messy prior year. We quote the cleanup separately so you can see exactly what the catch-up costs and what the ongoing costs.
Guides
Bookkeeping, HST and payroll guides
The six-year record rule, and how far back the CRA can actually go
Six years is the record retention rule. The CRA reassessment window is a different length. Here is how both work and which records a business has to keep.
Read the guideSmart employee benefits: maximizing deductions while boosting morale
Which employee benefits are deductible to your business and tax-free to your team, which ones CRA treats as taxable, and how to document the difference.
Read the guideEnhance employee benefits with a Health Spending Account
How a Health Spending Account works in Canada, why reimbursements are tax-free to employees and deductible to the business, and the rules to watch.
Read the guideWhen should you register for GST/HST?
The $30,000 small supplier threshold explained, when GST/HST registration becomes mandatory, and why registering voluntarily early is often worth it.
Read the guide