Bookkeeping for Saskatoon businesses

Two tax accounts that do not behave alike

GST paid on business purchases is claimed back as an input tax credit, so it sits in a receivable account and nets against what you collect. PST paid on things your business uses is generally not recoverable, so it belongs in the cost of whatever was bought. Code a PST charge to the GST account and the GST return overclaims. Code it nowhere and your asset costs are understated for CCA.

On the sales side both are liabilities, but to different governments on different returns: GST to the CRA, PST to the Saskatchewan Ministry of Finance. The ledger keeps them apart from the first transaction so neither return has to be rebuilt. Input tax credits covers the recoverable half.

PST on what arrives from outside Saskatchewan

Saskatchewan applies PST to goods consumed or used in the province, wherever they were bought. A part ordered from an online seller in Ontario, a used trailer picked up in Alberta, software licensed from a US vendor: if no Saskatchewan PST was charged, the tax is usually self-assessed and reported on your own return.

This is where Saskatoon books most often go quietly wrong, because nothing prompts the entry. Monthly review of out-of-province suppliers is how it gets caught, rather than in an audit years later. The rate and scope are on the Saskatchewan tax facts page.

Farm, shop and hauling in one ledger

Around Saskatoon it is ordinary for one family to run a grain operation, a small repair shop and a truck that hauls for neighbours. Each line has its own tax treatment. Most farm sales are zero-rated for GST, repair work is taxable for GST and often PST, and hauling income has its own costs and fuel records.

Set up as classes or separate entities from the start, those lines report cleanly and the year-end can see what each earns. Mixed together, the farm looks less profitable than it is and the shop looks better. Operations that are mainly farming are covered in more depth on the Saskatoon farm accounting page.

Job costs for contractors and site suppliers

Builders and mining-service firms bill by job, often through progress draws, and the bookkeeping has to follow the job rather than just the bank account. Labour, materials, equipment hours and subcontractors are coded to each contract so the margin on each is visible while the work is still running, not after it is closed.

The same coding supports the T5018 slips for subcontracted construction work and the payroll figures WCB Saskatchewan asks for. See contractor accounting in Saskatoon and mining services accounting for the tax side.

Card batches, cash and the restaurant ledger

A Saskatoon restaurant or café generates more transactions in a week than many contractors do in a month, and the sales side rarely lands in the bank the way the POS reports it. Card batches settle a day or two later and net of processing fees, delivery apps pay out net of their commission, and cash deposits need to agree to the till counts.

The ledger records each sale gross, with GST and PST on meals split out as the POS charged them, and the fees as expenses. Controlled tips run through payroll, not sales. Done this way the tax returns reconcile to the POS reports without a guess, and food cost as a share of sales means something. The Saskatoon restaurant page covers the rest.

Reconciled every month, not rebuilt in April

Each month the bank and card accounts are reconciled, transactions coded, receipts matched and the aged receivables reviewed. A GST return then comes straight off a ledger that already agrees to the bank. Books kept this way cost less at year-end, because nothing is reconstructed, and they answer a lender’s question the week it is asked.

Monthly bookkeeping starts from $300 a month with GST filing included; PST filing and payroll are scoped in writing alongside it. If the books are already months behind, a bookkeeping catch-up brings them current first.

Why Saskatoon books do not need a Saskatoon bookkeeper

Bank feeds arrive electronically, receipts come in through a secure upload link or a phone photo, and the file lives in cloud accounting software you hold your own login to. GST is federal, PST returns are filed online with the province, and the Saskatchewan corporate tax rides on the federal T2. EverStone is a one-CPA firm in Abbotsford; there is no Saskatoon office and nothing about the work needs one.

The moment there are employees, payroll in Saskatoon becomes the recurring obligation.

The year-end this all feeds is corporate tax in Saskatoon.