Bookkeeping for Campbell River businesses

Monthly bookkeeping for Campbell River businesses starts from $300 a month, with GST and PST filing included in that fee. The books feed every filing that follows: the T2 or the T2125, the GST34 return and its input tax credits, the CCA schedule, payroll remittances and the CRA instalments. If the bookkeeping is wrong, every one of those is wrong with it. Every published fee is on the pricing page.

What a Campbell River ledger looks like

The City of Campbell River describes forestry as part of its industrial bedrock and the city as a hub for salmon farming, with netting, processing, boat-building and marine services around the farms. Fishing, both commercial and recreational, and tourism built on the water and the outdoors fill out the picture. Each of those leaves its own mark on the books.

A logging contractor’s ledger is mostly machinery, fuel, repairs and crew. A marine-service company carries a vessel, moorage and long receivables from a few large customers. A charter or tourism business takes deposits months ahead and earns most of its year in a short season. A trade working over on Quadra Island has ferry fares and travel time on every job. One chart of accounts does not fit them all, so we set yours up around what the business actually does.

Equipment, boats, loans and the balance sheet

Much of the local economy runs on machinery and vessels, and most of it is financed. A loan payment is not an expense. It is part principal, which reduces the loan, and part interest, which is deductible. Booking the whole payment as an expense overstates costs and leaves a loan balance on the statements that never matches the lender’s.

The equipment itself goes on the balance sheet and is written off through capital cost allowance, class by class. We record each purchase, trade-in and sale as it happens, so the CCA schedule at year-end is a check rather than a reconstruction. A refit invoice from a boatyard often mixes repairs with improvements, and those need splitting when the bill is entered, not in April. A leased unit is treated differently again, and the lease agreement decides which way it goes.

Lenders read these statements too. A Campbell River business that finances its next loader, truck or boat will be asked for current financial statements, and a loan schedule that ties to the lender’s own balance makes that conversation short. Books kept monthly mean the statements can be produced in days rather than reconstructed over weeks.

Fuel, parts and job costing

A contractor, hauler or marine operator can spend more on fuel and parts than on anything except wages. Those costs are only useful if they land against the right machine, the right boat, the right job or the right contract. Fuel cards, marine fuel receipts, supplier accounts and receipts photographed in a cab or a wheelhouse all need a consistent coding rule, set once and applied every month.

Done that way, the monthly report shows which units and jobs actually make money. It also supports the deductions if the CRA asks. Our monthly bookkeeping checklist sets out the routine we follow.

The owner’s own pickup is the usual grey area. When one vehicle does both business and personal driving, only the business share of fuel, insurance and repairs is deductible, and the split rests on a log. A simple mileage and vehicle log kept through the year is worth more than any estimate made in April. We code vehicle costs to their own accounts so the split can be applied cleanly at year-end.

GST and PST kept in separate accounts

BC charges 5% GST and 7% PST as two distinct taxes. GST paid on fuel, parts and equipment usually comes back as an input tax credit. PST paid on the same purchases generally does not, so it belongs in the cost of the item rather than in a receivable. Combining the two in one account makes both returns unreliable.

On the sales side, a business that sells taxable goods, such as parts or marine supplies, collects PST and files with the province on its own schedule. A contractor installing materials into a building usually pays PST as the consumer instead. A fisher selling fish for food generally charges no GST, because those sales are zero-rated, but still claims credits on fuel and gear. The BC PST guide covers who must register.

How the books differ across Campbell River’s main industries

The same monthly routine looks different depending on what the business does.

• Construction: job costing, progress billings, holdbacks receivable and subcontractor payments for the T5018.
• Trades: many small invoices, card settlements, the work van and parts sold over the counter.
• Fishing: buyer settlements, crew shares for T4F slips, and vessel and gear costs.
• Trucking and hauling: cost per unit, fuel and repairs by truck, and trip records.
• Restaurants: daily point-of-sale totals matched to card deposits, tips and liquor inventory.

Seasonal cash and the remittance calendar

Campbell River runs on more than one season. Visitor traffic for fishing, whale watching and the outdoors builds through the warm months, while forestry and marine work follow their own schedules and conditions. Either way, cash arrives unevenly while GST, PST and payroll remittances arrive on a fixed calendar.

Current books make the gap visible in time to act. We flag what is owed and when, so sales tax collected in a busy month is set aside rather than spent, and customer deposits taken in the spring are recorded as owed until the trip or the job happens. Cash flow for a seasonal business sets out the method, and GST filing deadlines lists the dates by filing period.

Books that fell behind

A busy season is when receipts pile up in a truck console, a site trailer or a boat. If your books are months or years behind, catch-up work brings them current from bank and card statements, supplier accounts and whatever records exist. Once the backlog is cleared, the monthly fee takes over and the year-end stops being a scramble. Records must be kept for six years, so the catch-up also puts them in order for any CRA review.

What the monthly fee covers

The fee is fixed in writing before work starts and does not change because you emailed a question. It covers bank and card reconciliation, coding to your chart of accounts, GST and PST returns on your filing schedule, a monthly report, and a clean hand-off to the year-end T2. Payroll can be added for a business with employees. A sample quote shows what the written fee looks like.

Remote bookkeeping

EverStone is a fully virtual, one-CPA firm. There is no Campbell River office and no local staff. Bank, card and supplier feeds arrive electronically, documents come in through a secure upload link, and the equipment and loan schedules are kept monthly rather than rebuilt at year-end. Questions go by email first, with a video meeting when it helps.

The moment there are employees, payroll in Campbell River becomes the recurring obligation. For the year-end itself, see corporate tax in Campbell River, and for the owner’s return, personal tax in Campbell River.