Bookkeeping for Maple Ridge businesses

One person, two entities, one bank card

A corporation is a separate legal person, and in an owner-operated business it rarely behaves like one in practice. Groceries go on the business card because it was in the wrong pocket. A supplier is paid personally because the company account was short that week. Cash comes out when it is needed at home. None of that is unusual and none of it is fatal, but every instance has to land somewhere in the ledger, and the place it lands is the shareholder account. The bookkeeping question is not whether these happen; it is whether they are identified as they occur or discovered eleven months later. Separating business and personal finances covers the practical setup.

The shareholder account is a balance, not a bin

Left unreviewed, the shareholder account becomes a place to put anything that does not obviously belong elsewhere, and it ends the year as a number nobody can explain. Reviewed monthly it is straightforward: personal spending on the business card increases what the owner owes the company, business costs paid personally reduce it, and wages or dividends are recorded as what they are rather than as draws. The distinction matters beyond tidiness, because a balance owed by the owner to the corporation at year end has consequences under the shareholder loan rules. Keeping it small and explained is far easier than unwinding it later.

The vehicle, and the log that decides it

Almost every Maple Ridge owner-operator drives a vehicle used for both work and everything else, and the tax treatment turns on a record kept during the year. A mileage log showing date, destination, purpose and distance is what supports either route — a company-owned vehicle with the personal portion treated as a benefit, or a personally owned vehicle with business kilometres reimbursed. An estimate produced at year end supports neither. The log is unglamorous and it is the single most commonly requested document in a small-business review. Vehicle deductions covers both routes.

Reimbursing yourself properly

Owner-operators pay for things personally constantly — parking, materials, a tool bought on the way to a job, the home internet the business uses. Each is legitimately a business cost and each needs a route into the books that is not simply taking cash out. A recorded expense claim with receipts attached, reimbursed by a traceable payment, produces a deduction that is supported and a shareholder account that stays explained. Cash taken with the intention of covering it produces neither. Petty cash and owner reimbursements sets out a workable process.

Receipts, and what an image has to show

The CRA accepts electronic records provided they are readable, complete and retained for the required period, so a phone photo taken at the counter is generally enough — if it captures the whole document. What it will not accept is a bank or card statement line as a substitute, because that shows an amount and a vendor but not what was bought. For a business where meals, small tools and supplies are frequent, the practical rule is to capture at the point of purchase and attach the image to the transaction, because a receipt that is not photographed within a day is usually never photographed at all.

GST and PST on a small BC ledger

British Columbia has two sales taxes and they are not tracked together. GST at 5% is charged on most sales, and GST paid on purchases is generally recovered as an input tax credit. PST at 7% is a separate registration with separate returns, and PST paid on business inputs is generally a cost rather than something recoverable. For a small Maple Ridge corporation the practical consequence is two accounts in the ledger and two filing rhythms to keep straight. Filing GST from books that have not been reconciled is the most common reason a small business ends up amending returns later.

How the work runs remotely

EverStone is a sole practitioner CPA firm at 32615 South Fraser Way in Abbotsford. There is no Maple Ridge office and no local staff. Bank and card feeds come in electronically, receipts are captured by phone, and the shareholder account is reviewed each month rather than at year end. For an owner-operated business the useful part is that the person deciding whether an item is personal or business is the CPA who will prepare both the corporate and the personal return, so the same answer is used in both places.