Accountants for contractors and trades in Canada

The books a trades business actually needs

Trades and construction businesses carry a set of accounting problems most other small companies do not. Money is received on progress billings rather than on completion, holdbacks sit unpaid for months while still forming part of the contract, and a large share of the labour cost is paid to people whose status as employee or subcontractor determines what has to be withheld and remitted.

HBT keeps the records at a level where each job can be seen on its own, prepares the corporate year end and personal returns for the owners, and handles the GST filings that go with progress billing. Where the treatment of a worker is genuinely unclear, we set out what the CRA looks at rather than guessing at an answer that would be expensive to be wrong about.

What a trades engagement covers

How the work begins

1. 1

   Step 1: Tell us how you bill

   Progress billing, fixed price or time and materials, plus roughly how many people you pay and how.

2. 2

   Step 2: Scope and price agreed

   Priced on job volume, transaction count and payroll headcount, and confirmed before work starts.

3. 3

   Step 3: A rhythm through the season

   Monthly close through the busy months so the year end is not a reconstruction in the quiet ones.

What does accounting for a trades business cost?

A corporate year end with the T2 return starts at $2,500 and a self employed or business owner personal return at $350. Monthly bookkeeping starts at $500 per month, or $750 per month with the year end included. A basic GST return starts at $175. Amounts are starting prices plus GST or HST where it applies and depend on the number of jobs, the volume of transactions and how many people are being paid. The fee is confirmed before any paid work begins.