In our last blog post, we took a closer look at one of the two most important financial reports in your business: the balance sheet. We looked at some of the basic types of accounts that you’ll see on your balance sheet – assets, liabilities and shareholder’s equity – and what they mean to a business. We had such positive feedback that in this blog post we’ll focus on the other: the income statement. What is an Income Statement? An income statement is a financial report that lists the income, expenses and net profit (or loss) for a business. Different from a balance sheet, which is a snapshot ..read more

The world of small business bookkeeping and accounting can get a little confusing and overwhelming. When crediting an asset actually decreases its value, but to decrease the value of a liability you have to apply a debit, it’s easy to get lost and make mistakes that could affect the important financial decisions that you make in your business. While we’re not trying to write a textbook on bookkeeping terminology, we thought we’d break down some bookkeeping terms for beginners , starting with what you might find on your balance sheet. What is a Balance Sheet? A balance sheet is a list of all th ..read more

Many businesses require their employees to travel around their local community, whether its sales reps, service technicians or delivery people. CRA has created a strict set of guidelines defining what can and cannot be claimed as business expenses, and understanding CRA vehicle allowance rules is important for any business owner or manager, especially if a vehicle is used for both business and personal travel. Here is a quick overview of CRA’s vehicle allowance rules and guidelines. Claiming Business Vehicle Expenses At the highest level, the Canada Income Tax Act states that any expenses inc ..read more

For many businesses, summer can be a slow time of the year. With the kids out of school, vacations and a host of other things to keep us busy, a lot of businesses experience a brief slowdown during the summer months. If you’re in this position, you can take advantage of the slowdown by reviewing your business budget, taking some time to look at the year so far and think about what the rest of the year might look like. Review Your Budget At the beginning of the year, we recommend to our clients that they create a financial budget for the upcoming year. As the old saying goes, failing to plan is ..read more

Most small business owners feel lucky to turn their passion into a profitable business. Working on something you love every day is certainly a perk of being an entrepreneur but the role also comes with a long list of lack lustre tasks, like bookkeeping, that need to be done in order to keep their business growing. We can almost guarantee that any small business owner would list bookkeeping as one of their least favourite business tasks, but we would rank it as almost the most important. Thankfully, there is an app for that! But hold on a minute. What do you do if small business bookkeeping pr ..read more

If you’re a small business owner, you might just be getting over filing your year-end tax return. But don’t rest on your laurels for too long: the deadline for quarterly HST/GST returns for businesses with a December 31 year end is at the end of July! You’re required to file and pay your HST return within 30 days of the end of the quarter, so with the end of the previous quarter ticking by on June 30 you’ve got until the end of July to file. Here are some tips for filing your business HST return in Ontario. Filing HST in Ontario How often you’re required to file and pay your GST/HST return in ..read more

You decided that you need to start using a professional accounting software package, either because you’re just starting a new business or because the way that you used to do it just isn’t good enough. You’ve researched the best accounting software packages and found QuickBooks leading the pack so you went out and bought a copy. You’ve installed it … started it up … and … now you’re looking at a screen and you have no clue where to start! Managing your business finances isn’t just about knowing where to click in QuickBooks, there’s a lot more to make sure that your business finances are runnin ..read more

We’re pretty deep into bookkeeping. It’s what we’re trained in, it’s what we deal with day in and day out with our clients, and we dream about it at night (okay, maybe that’s a stretch). Bookkeeping might not be the most exciting topic in the world, so we try to talk about the value that bookkeepers can provide business owners: helping them understand and manage their business finances effectively. But we also see that we use some terms that some people might not be so familiar with, so we’re going to take some time to explain seven bookkeeping terms that every business owner or manager should ..read more

As we roll into June we’re getting down to the wire on the 2014 year-end tax return deadline for unincorporated businesses. If you own or run an unincorporated business your year end was December 31, 2014 but you have until June 15, 2015 to file your business tax return. If you haven’t filed your business tax return yet it’s time to get started because penalties and fees for late returns can get costly. Check out this unincorporated year end checklist for a quick guide to getting started! Step 1 – Get Your Accounts Up-to-Date Start by making sure that all of your accounts are up-to-date. Hopef ..read more

We spend a lot of time promoting the value of hiring a part time bookkeeper – how working with a professional bookkeeper can help a small business owner stay up-to-date with their financials, understand how their business is performing, and stay in compliance with CRA. But we also appreciate how business owners must balance the cost of hiring a bookkeeper and other professional service providers, so in this post we’ll discuss how much a bookkeeper would typically cost your business. What is a Typical Part Time Bookkeeper Hourly Rate? As is the case with many things in business, there’s a range ..read more