Choosing an accountant in Toronto, and what to ask first

Why Toronto is a different search

The Toronto problem is choice: national offices, mid-sized practices, boutiques and countless preparers, with quotes so varied that the cheapest and dearest are often wrong for the same reason: nobody who knows your business works the file.

Toronto’s owner-managed businesses have specific needs. An agency has project revenue to recognize, contractors to classify and fast-growing payroll. A restaurant has tips, high transaction volume and HST that must be right every period. A one-client consultancy faces the personal services business question.

Ontario’s single HST is simpler than the two-tax provinces, and the employer health tax arrives once payroll passes the exemption. Neither is difficult. Both are where a firm that reconciles once a year gets its clients reviewed.

The questions that separate firms

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

In Toronto this is the first question, because the answer varies most. Ask who prepares, who reviews and who signs, and whether that changes from year to year. The answer you want is a name, and the same name next year.

Start with the credential. CPA members and public accounting firms in Ontario are listed in CPA Ontario’s member, firm and licensee directories; a minute there confirms that the person and the firm you are talking to are who they say they are.

2. Is the fee fixed and in writing before the 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, whatever the headline number.

3. How often do you reconcile HST and payroll?

Every period, tied to the books, is the answer. Once a year from the bank statements is how a restaurant or an agency ends up in a review with interest attached.

4. Have you handled a business like mine?

An agency with project revenue, a restaurant with tips and a high transaction count, a consultant with one main client: ask for the last file like yours and what was hard about it. A firm that has done the work names something specific.

5. Are questions through the year included?

How you pay yourself, whether to accrue a bonus, whether to bring on staff or contractors: those decisions happen before a year-end. Ask whether a call in July is included or billed.

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 Toronto quotes

List what each includes: T2, year-end statements, HST, payroll and T4s, the owner’s T1, and questions through the year. In Toronto the lowest quote usually excludes the payroll and the questions, and the highest often includes a partner you will never meet.

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

Red flags worth walking away from

• The person who quoted the engagement will not be doing the work, and nobody will say who will.
• A fee described as an estimate, or tied to an hourly rate.
• HST and payroll reconciled once a year rather than every period.
• No experience with project revenue, tips or contractor classification, as your business requires.
• A promise about the size of a refund before anything has been reviewed.

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 Toronto clients entirely online; the three-hour difference has never been the hard part.

Get My Fixed Quote See the fixed fees

For Toronto specifically: accountant services in Toronto, Toronto agencies, Toronto restaurants, Toronto 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, Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Ottawa, Mission and the Fraser Valley.