Choosing an accountant in Edmonton, and what to ask first

Why Edmonton is a different search

A search for an accountant in Edmonton returns everything from national offices to storefront preparers, and the price spread is wide. The useful question is narrower: has this firm handled a contractor’s year-end, with subcontractors, equipment and a slow winter, and can the person answering describe it?

A construction or trades corporation in Edmonton has subcontractors whose status has to be right, T5018 slips to file, WCB clearance to collect and equipment financed against a cycle that does not care about the calendar. A retail or service business has inventory to count and a year-end that lands in the wrong season. Both need the timing decisions, purchases and pay, made before the year closes rather than reported after it.

Alberta has no provincial sales tax, so the filing side is GST only. That is genuinely simpler than BC or Manitoba, and it means an Edmonton owner should spend the accounting budget on planning rather than filing.

The questions that separate firms

1. How do you handle subcontractors?

Ask how the firm decides who is a contractor and who is an employee, how payments are tracked through the year for T5018 reporting, and how WCB clearance letters are collected. A firm that does contractor work answers in one breath.

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

Ask who prepares, who reviews and who signs, and whether that changes. One CPA on the file from the first call to the filed return is the arrangement that remembers why last year’s truck was bought in November.

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

Ask for the number before anything begins and what would move it. Transaction volume, the condition of the books, the number of filings and payroll are fair answers. An hourly rate is not.

4. How do you time equipment and pay?

Ask how purchases are timed against the year-end, how the first-year claim is handled, and when salary against dividends is decided. If the answer is "at year-end", the decisions are being made after they can still be made.

5. For a retail business: inventory?

Ask how the year-end count is reconciled to the books and how slow stock is treated. A specific answer from the person who will do the work is what you want.

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 Edmonton quotes

List what each includes: T2, year-end statements, GST, payroll and T4s, T5018 slips for a contractor, the owner’s T1, and questions through the year. The lowest quote in Edmonton usually leaves out the slips and the planning.

Then ask what would change the fee and whether you would hear about it before or after.

Red flags worth walking away from

• A quote before anyone has asked how many subcontractors you pay or how many transactions you run.
• T5018 slips and WCB clearance as an add-on for a contractor.
• A fee described as an estimate, or tied to an hourly rate.
• Equipment and pay decided at year-end from the bank statements.
• Nobody will name the person who prepares and reviews the file.

Where to start

A free thirty-minute conversation covers what the business does, what is filed now and what is overdue, and ends with a fixed fee in writing. EverStone works with Edmonton clients entirely online from British Columbia.

Book a free consultation See the fixed fees

For Edmonton specifically: the Edmonton accounting page, Edmonton contractors, Edmonton retail, the T5018 subcontractor tracker and how switching works.

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