Behind on your bookkeeping? It is fixable.
Updated
Months behind, or years. Either way it is a normal engagement, not a confession — here is what actually happens next.
Quick answer: Catch-up bookkeeping means reconstructing your records for periods that were never completed, then filing whatever became overdue as a result. It is quoted as a one-time job separate from ongoing monthly fees, sized by how many months are outstanding and how complete the source records are. Most catch-ups are finished in two to six weeks.
Catching up costs less than it looks once the months are batched together. How catch-up work is priced, or start with an enquiry.
On this page
Being behind is more common than you think
Most catch-ups start the same way: the business got busy, a bookkeeper left, a year-end slipped, and the gap became awkward to mention. It is rarely as bad as the owner fears, and a look is the quickest way to know.
What happens while the books are behind
The uncomfortable part is not the bookkeeping. It is what accumulates around it:
- CRA does not wait for your numbers. Where a return is outstanding, CRA can assess the corporation on its own estimate of what you owe. See arbitrary and notional assessments. That assessment is legally valid until you file the real return to displace it.
- Filing obligations do not pause. GST/HST returns and payroll remittances keep coming due on their own schedule regardless of whether the books behind them are current.
- Interest runs from the original due date, not from the day you catch up, which is why the cost of waiting compounds quietly. The penalty and interest rules set out how.
- Decisions get made blind. Without current books you cannot see margin, cash position or whether you can afford to hire, and that is usually the more expensive problem.
None of this gets worse because you called an accountant. All of it gets worse if nobody does.
How far behind is too far?
No books are beyond recovery. Bank and card history can be retrieved, and an undocumented year can be reconstructed and disclosed properly. If past filings were wrong rather than missing, understand the Voluntary Disclosures Program before you file. Not sure where you fit? Start here explains the engagement from the first email.
What a catch-up actually involves
| Stage | What happens | What we need from you |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Scope | A free call to establish which periods are open, which returns are outstanding, and what records exist. | Roughly what year you last filed. |
| 2. Fixed quote | A one-time catch-up fee in writing, separate from any ongoing monthly fee, agreed before work starts. | Your decision. |
| 3. Reconstruction | Bank, credit-card and processor history pulled in and reconciled period by period; gaps identified and resolved. | Read-only access or statement exports. |
| 4. Filing | Overdue returns prepared and filed in the right order, so each one is built on the period before it. | Signatures, electronically. |
| 5. Staying current | Monthly bookkeeping from that point, so the same gap cannot reopen. | Nothing. That is the point. |
Most catch-ups run two to six weeks end to end. The variable is almost never the bookkeeping; it is how quickly the missing records can be retrieved.
What it costs
Catch-up work is quoted separately, sized by the months outstanding and the state of the records. Ongoing bookkeeping then starts at $325 a month; the fee estimate tool shows your likely range, and our published fees set out the rest.
If the returns themselves are outstanding rather than only the bookkeeping, that is a defined job with its own page. See catch-up filing for unfiled returns.
Being behind does not increase your ongoing monthly fee once you are current. It is priced once and then it is over.
Common questions about catch-up bookkeeping
How many years behind can you take on?+
Will filing late returns trigger an audit?+
What if I have lost some of the records?+
Do I have to come in with a box of receipts?+
Can you take over from my previous bookkeeper mid-year?+
Related reading
Find out how big the gap actually is
An email enquiry, no obligation, and no lecture about how it got this way.
Get My Fixed Quote Ask a Free Question
“…He is very knowledgeable and has saved me tons in taxes by restructuring my group of companies — the best accountant I've worked with in the last 10 years, after switching from three different firms.”
Starting fees
Every fee is fixed in writing before any work begins.
- Catch-up bookkeepingfrom $2,200 per year of recordsThis page
- Monthly bookkeeping, sales tax filing includedfrom $325 a month
- Payroll, remittances, T4s and ROEsincluded in monthly bookkeeping
- Books, payroll and the year-end T2 together$500–$700 a month
- Corporate year-end and T2 returnfixed fee, quoted in writing
- Personal tax return (T1)from $125; self-employed or rental $275–$500
- Controller or CFO supportcontroller from $1,650, CFO from $2,750 a month
- One-off advice call with a CPA$225 plus GST
Unsure whether last year’s work was handled correctly? You can have the return reviewed independently, a fixed-fee, no-obligation review.