Bookkeeping for Burnaby businesses
A Burnaby ledger rarely belongs to one kind of business. A software studio near Brentwood, a fabricator in the Big Bend and a shop in Metrotown all book GST, PST and payroll differently. EverStone keeps books for Burnaby businesses remotely, at a fixed monthly fee.
Quick answer: Burnaby bookkeeping usually means two sales taxes in separate accounts, payroll liabilities that tie to the CRA, and either inventory or deferred revenue depending on the trade. EverStone keeps those books remotely from Abbotsford, every month, at a fixed fee. The CPA who reconciles the ledger is the one who prepares the year-end return from it.
Monthly bookkeeping for Burnaby businesses starts from $300 a month, with GST and PST filing included in the same fee. Those books feed everything that follows: the T2 or the T2125, the GST34 return and its input tax credits, the CCA schedule and any CRA instalments. See the published fees.
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One ledger, built around how the business earns
Burnaby’s economy runs from tech campuses around Brentwood and Lougheed to light-industrial parks on the Big Bend flats beside the Fraser River. A generic chart of accounts fits none of them well. A studio billing annual licences needs deferred revenue. A food processor needs inventory and cost of sales. A renovation company needs job costs and holdbacks.
EverStone sets the chart of accounts up once, around how your money actually arrives, and keeps it that way. The monthly reconciliation then answers a real question each month instead of producing a list of uncategorized items. How to set up a chart of accounts explains the structure.
GST and PST kept apart from the first entry
British Columbia charges 5% GST and 7% PST as two separate taxes. GST goes to the CRA on the GST34 return; PST goes to the BC Ministry of Finance on its own return. Each needs its own liability account. Mixed together, neither return can be reconciled, and the error usually surfaces at the worst time. Rates and thresholds are on the BC tax facts page.
The purchase side matters as much. GST paid on business costs comes back as input tax credits. PST paid on equipment, software or supplies generally does not come back, so it belongs in the cost of the item. Coding PST as a receivable inflates the GST claim and fails the first review. The BC PST guide covers what PST reaches.
Stock and work in progress for Burnaby producers
Light manufacturers, distributors and food producers along the Big Bend and the Lougheed corridor carry inventory, and inventory is a tax figure. Closing stock decides cost of goods sold, and cost of goods sold decides profit. A count taken once at year-end tells you the margin twelve months too late.
For these businesses the monthly close includes a stock movement review, and the year-end count is planned rather than improvised. Raw materials, work in progress and finished goods are kept as separate accounts. See the year-end inventory count guide.
Payroll liabilities that tie to the CRA
Every pay run creates liabilities: CPP, EI premiums and income tax withheld, plus the employer’s share. In the books these should clear to zero each time the remittance goes out. When they do not, the difference is either an unremitted deduction or a payment coded to the wrong place. Both are cheaper to find in March than in a CRA payroll review.
WorkSafeBC premiums and, for larger employers, the BC Employer Health Tax get their own accounts too. The balances are checked against My Business Account rather than assumed. For the pay runs themselves, see payroll services in Burnaby.
Catching up when the books have slipped
A business that grew quickly often has a year or two of bank activity and no reconciled ledger. That is fixable. The catch-up starts from bank and card statements, rebuilds the sales tax filings period by period and ends with a clean opening balance for the monthly work. The CRA expects records kept for six years, so the rebuild is done properly rather than estimated. Catch-up bookkeeping explains how it runs.
How the books differ across Burnaby’s main industries
Tech companies need deferred revenue for annual licences, a clean split between research wages and everything else, and PST tracked on software they buy. See tech startup accounting in Burnaby.
Manufacturers need inventory, work in progress and an equipment register that feeds the CCA schedule. Retailers in the town-centre malls and street-front units need the point-of-sale report posted daily, with card settlements matched gross of fees. See retail accounting in Burnaby.
Restaurants along Kingsway, Hastings and the newer tower podiums need liquor PST split from food, and tips that run through payroll. Contractors working on Burnaby’s tower and renovation sites need holdbacks on both sides of the ledger and subcontractor payments tagged for the T5018 from the first invoice. See contractor accounting in Burnaby.
What the monthly engagement covers
- Bank, card and processor accounts reconciled every month
- GST and BC PST tracked in separate accounts and filed on your assigned schedule
- Payroll entries and source deduction liabilities cleared to the remittance
- Inventory or deferred revenue schedules, where the business needs them
- Owner draws and shareholder loan balances tracked as they happen
- Books closed and handed clean to the year-end file
Not sure whether monthly or annual suits you? Which bookkeeping cadence costs less sets out the trade-off.
Prepared and reviewed by a Chartered Professional Accountant at EverStone CPA, an Abbotsford CPA firm working remotely with small businesses and incorporated owners across British Columbia. Updated . About the firm · Send an enquiry
What gets done, and when
| Cadence | What we do |
|---|---|
| Monthly | Transactions categorized, bank and credit card accounts reconciled, source documents filed |
| Quarterly | GST return prepared and filed, where you report quarterly |
| Annually | Books closed and handed clean to the year-end file |
| Ongoing | Payroll entries and owner draws tracked so nothing is reconstructed later |
| Sales tax where you operate | 5% GST plus 7% BC PST: two registrations, two returns |
Source: Monthly bookkeeping services. General information, not advice.
Burnaby bookkeeping questions
How much does bookkeeping cost for a Burnaby business?+
Do GST and PST need separate accounts in the books?+
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Can you take over books that are a year or more behind?+
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Related services and local guides
Nearby cities, the rest of what we do for Burnaby businesses, and the reference pages behind this one.
Fees are fixed and agreed in writing before the work starts; the published fee page shows the starting points.
Running two sales taxes and a payroll in Burnaby?
Get GST, PST and payroll kept straight in the ledger every month, at a fixed monthly fee.
Remote bookkeeping from Abbotsford
EverStone is a one-CPA firm based in Abbotsford, serving Burnaby businesses remotely. There is no Burnaby office and no local staff. Bank, card and processor feeds arrive electronically, documents come in through a secure upload link, and questions go by email first, with a video call when it helps. The person reconciling your accounts is the CPA who prepares the year-end from them.
Talk to a CPA about this
One Chartered Professional Accountant, start to finish. Fixed fees, quoted in writing before any work begins, and no obligation from a first conversation.
