Choosing an accountant in Vancouver, and what to ask first

Why Vancouver is a different search

The businesses that come looking for an accountant in Vancouver are disproportionately project-based: production and film crews incorporated for a season, trades subcontractors moving between sites, tech and e-commerce founders billing across provinces and borders. Their income is lumpy, their expenses are front-loaded and their sales tax position changes with where the customer is.

That last point is the Vancouver problem. BC charges GST and PST separately, with different rules and different registrations, and a business that sells goods or certain services into BC often needs a PST registration it does not know it needs. The gap surfaces at the worst possible time, in a provincial review, with interest attached. A firm that is genuinely a BC firm treats PST as a filing period, not a footnote.

The other Vancouver problem is scale. In a large practice the file moves to whoever is free, and the person who sold the engagement never sees it again. Ask about that directly.

The questions that separate firms

1. Are GST and PST two filings in your practice, or one?

Ask how PST is reconciled to sales records, how often both returns are checked against the books, and what the firm does when a client sells into BC from outside it. If PST is described as part of GST, the answer is wrong.

2. Have you handled a project-based or crew-based business?

A production company incorporated for one season, a subcontractor on three sites, a founder with revenue in four provinces: ask for the last file like yours and what was hard about it. A firm that has done the work names something specific.

3. 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 only arrangement that builds memory about a business whose shape changes every year.

4. Is the fee fixed, in writing, before work starts?

Ask for the number in an engagement letter before anything begins, and ask 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.

5. Are questions through the year included?

Whether to incorporate a second entity, how to pay yourself, when to buy equipment: those decisions happen before a year-end and are worth more than the return. Ask whether a call in July is included or billed.

6. What does switching involve?

You authorise the new accountant with the CRA, the new firm requests your file, and work continues from the last filed year-end. Mid-year is fine, and a backlog is quoted separately.

How to compare two Vancouver quotes

List what each includes: T2, year-end statements, GST and PST as separate filings, payroll and T4s, the owner’s T1, and questions through the year. A downtown quote that looks high often includes the planning; a low one often excludes PST entirely.

Then ask what the firm does when a client’s sales tax position changes mid-year. The answer tells you whether anyone is watching the file between springs.

Red flags worth walking away from

• PST described as part of GST, or not raised for a business that sells goods or services into BC.
• A fee described as an estimate, or tied to an hourly rate.
• The person who quoted the engagement will not be doing the work, and nobody will say who will.
• No experience with lumpy, project-based income, or a plan to "smooth it out" in the books.
• The year-end is the only time the firm expects to hear from you.

Where to start

A free thirty-minute conversation covers what the business does, where its customers are and what is filed now, and ends with a fixed fee in writing. EverStone is a BC firm working online from Abbotsford; there is no trip downtown in the process.

Book a free consultation See the fixed fees

For Vancouver specifically: the Vancouver accounting page, e-commerce accounting in Vancouver, Vancouver trades, Vancouver realtors and the BC PST guide.

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