Bookkeeping for Kelowna businesses

Kelowna bookkeeping starts from $325 a month, with payroll and GST/PST filings included. The books drive the T2 or T2125, GST/HST and its credits, CCA and instalments.

Two tax accounts, and only one of them comes back

The top BC ledger error is treating PST like GST. GST on purchases is a receivable, reclaimed as an input tax credit. PST is not recoverable; it belongs in the cost of the item. One combined “sales tax” account overclaims GST, understates expenses and creates a phantom asset.

Fix it once: code bills so GST and PST separate, with distinct liability accounts for each collected tax. Returns then come straight from the ledger. The BC PST guide covers what PST reaches.

Sales that carry different tax on the same receipt

Mixed sales are common. Restaurants charge GST on meals but PST only on wine and beer. Tasting rooms sell bottles alongside fees, glassware and tickets. Contractors bill labour and installed materials already PST-paid. Record tax by type, or the PST return is a guess.

We map every sales category in your system to its tax treatment when we take the file on, then test it against the first few months of returns. Getting the mapping right once costs less than correcting it after an audit letter arrives.

Deposits taken in March for work done in August

Okanagan summers are prepaid: event deposits, group bookings, contractor deposits, wine-club fees. Deposits are not revenue until delivered. Booked early, they distort spring and summer and can misplace GST.

We hold deposits in a liability account and release them when the event, the job or the shipment happens. The monthly profit then tells you something true about the month.

Stock that is counted, not assumed

Barrel wine, cased stock, liquor rooms and job materials stay on the balance sheet until used. Purchase-report inventory drifts monthly. We set a counting schedule, high-value items more often, and adjust to the count. The year-end count explains what the CRA expects.

Card deposits, platform fees and the bank that never matches sales

Processors pay net of fees days later; platforms pay net of commission weeks later. We book gross sales, fees as expenses and payouts as transfers, then reconcile each account to zero. Monthly, that leaves a few timing items; yearly, a mystery. Why reconciliation matters explains more.

Payroll entries and the employer costs behind them

Summer crews reshape payroll. Wages, employer CPP and EI, WorkSafeBC and, for bigger teams, BC employer health tax belong to the month worked. We book them with each run so labour cost shows when it happens. See the Kelowna payroll page.

Catching up after a busy season

July owners skip bookkeeping, and many ledgers are months behind by fall. That is fixable: we catch up oldest month first, file late GST or PST, then go monthly. Catch-up bookkeeping explains how.

How the ledger differs across the valley’s industries

Each industry shapes the chart of accounts. Wineries need inventory by stage and a vineyard-winery split. Restaurants need food, liquor and labour against sales. Contractors need job costing against billing.

Realtors need commission matched to brokerage statements and vehicle costs split out. Startups need development costs by project from month one, the basis of an SR&ED claim. Realtors and startups rarely charge PST; the others usually do.

Why a Kelowna ledger does not need a Kelowna bookkeeper

Feeds arrive electronically, receipts by upload, in cloud books you can log into; QuickBooks or Xero both work. EverStone has no Kelowna office or staff. The CPA keeping your ledger also prepares the year-end, so there is no clean-up bill.

Accurate books and insight are different jobs; ask whether books are still the binding constraint. For budget reporting, fractional controller work starts at $1,650 a month.