Choosing an accountant in Calgary, and what to ask first

Why Calgary is a different search

Calgary has no shortage of accountants and no shortage of firms that specialise in oil and gas. For an owner-managed business the question is different: does the firm understand a business that is capital-heavy and cyclical without being a producer? Energy services companies, equipment operators, the trades that build out what the producers order, and the consultants who sell into all of it share one accounting problem, which is that income arrives unevenly and the big decisions are about timing.

Alberta is the one province with no provincial sales tax, so the sales-tax side is GST only. That simplifies filing but it does not simplify the file. Equipment purchased in a good year, a bonus accrued before a year-end, a salary set against dividends when the outlook is uncertain: those are where a Calgary corporation’s tax result is decided.

The professional corporations, physicians, engineers and consultants working through a company of their own, carry the personal services business question if they have one main client. Ask about it directly.

The questions that separate firms

1. How do you plan through a cycle?

Ask what the firm does with a client in a strong year and what it does in a weak one. The answer should mention timing of capital purchases, how salary and dividends are set, and what is held back. If the firm sees you once a year in the spring, the cycle is being managed without an accountant.

2. Who does the work, and who signs it?

Ask who prepares, who reviews and who signs, and whether that changes from year to year. One CPA on the file from first call to filed return is the arrangement that remembers what last year’s decision was for.

3. Is the fee fixed and in writing before the work starts?

A cyclical business should not carry an uncertain accounting bill. Ask for the number in writing before anything begins and what would move it. Transaction volume, the condition of the books, the number of filings and payroll are fair answers.

4. How do you handle equipment?

For an energy services or equipment-heavy trades business, ask how purchases are timed against the year-end, how financing is recorded and how the first-year claim is handled. A firm that does this work answers specifically.

5. For a professional corporation: PSB and how I pay myself?

Ask whether the firm assesses personal services business risk for a one-client corporation and how it plans salary against dividends during the year. Both should be raised unprompted.

6. What does switching involve?

Authorisation with the CRA, a file request to your previous firm, and work continues from the last filed year-end. Mid-year is fine, and a backlog is quoted separately.

How to compare two Calgary quotes

List what each includes: T2, year-end statements, GST, payroll and T4s, the owner’s T1, and questions through the year. In Calgary the planning conversation during the year is the part worth paying for; a quote that excludes it is cheaper only until the next downturn.

Then ask what would change the fee and whether you would hear about it first.

Red flags worth walking away from

• The firm has no view on timing purchases or pay through a cycle.
• A fee described as an estimate, or tied to an hourly rate.
• PSB risk never raised for a professional corporation with one main client.
• Equipment financing and first-year claims handled "however the software does it".
• Nobody will name the person who prepares and reviews the file.

Where to start

A free thirty-minute conversation covers what the business does, where it is in its cycle and what is filed now, and ends with a fixed fee in writing. EverStone works with Calgary clients entirely online from British Columbia; the time zone difference has never been the hard part.

Book a free consultation See the fixed fees

For Calgary specifically: the Calgary accounting page, energy services accounting in Calgary, Calgary professional corporations, Calgary trades and how switching works.

Choosing somewhere else? The same questions, with the local specifics, for Abbotsford, Chilliwack, Langley, Surrey, Maple Ridge, Aldergrove, Vancouver, Victoria, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Ottawa, Toronto, Mission and the Fraser Valley.