Contractor accountant in Chilliwack

For a one-owner Chilliwack contractor, monthly bookkeeping, payroll and the year-end T2 with statements usually cost from $500 to $700 a month all-in.

Holdbacks are the year-end problem

Chilliwack builders routinely have part of each draw held back until completion, so the work is invoiced but the cash sits with the owner. Booking holdback as income when billed can put profit a year ahead of the money; leaving it off makes the working year look thin. GST does not always follow the invoice date either. For a builder with several jobs a season, this is the cut-off item most worth getting right.

Subcontractors, T5018s and classification

A construction business paying subcontractors for construction services generally files T5018 information returns. The harder question is whether a worker is a subcontractor at all: who directs the work, whose tools, who can profit or lose, and whether a replacement can be sent. A framer booked only by you, on your hours and equipment, is the textbook problem. See our subcontractor versus employee guide.

A season, not a year

Chilliwack construction income bunches into the drier months. Flat instalments overpay through winter or underpay after a strong summer, with interest. We set them to your real pattern and revisit them as it shifts, which for a growing builder is most years.

Equipment and the year-end purchase question

An excavator, dump trailer, crew truck or shop compressor is written off through capital cost allowance at its class rate. The half-year rule normally halves the first claim; for eligible property the Accelerated Investment Incentive sets it aside, so the first-year write-off can be much larger. A pre-year-end purchase only pays if the year has income to use it, so raise it in the fall.

Growing past yourself

Most Chilliwack trades reach the point where the next contract needs employees. That brings source deductions on a schedule set by your withholding, year-end slips, and a sharper line between crew and subs. It is also when salary versus dividend becomes a real choice about how much profit stays in the company for the next truck or hire.

Barns, shops and agricultural-adjacent work

Chilliwack contractors serve a market most Fraser Valley trades do not: a large agricultural base needing barns, equipment sheds and processing space. Those jobs run larger and lumpier, paid on the farm’s cash cycle rather than a draw schedule, often for an incorporated farm with its own year end and reporting needs.

Plan for the consequences. Longer jobs put more work in progress across year end. Farm customers paying after harvest bunch receipts into part of the year, affecting instalments and how a strong year feels. And because farm buildings are capital to the customer, they often need more detailed documentation from you than a homeowner would. We set the file up so that is not a spring scramble.

Plan also for the gap between finishing a job and being fully paid. With holdbacks, final inspections and customers paying on their own cycle, the last portion can sit outstanding for months. Two or three at once is real money, invisible in a profit figure that already counts the work as earned. We track it so you plan from cash you can use.

What EverStone handles for you

A single CPA and a single price, settled before the work starts:

• The company’s T2 and its year-end statements
• Open jobs and retained holdbacks checked at the year-end cut-off
• T5018 slips for the subs you paid
• A written file on why each sub is a sub and not staff
• CCA on trucks, trailers and heavy equipment
• GST and PST returns filed and tied back to the books
• Instalments planned around the building season

Fixed fees, fully online

EverStone is a CPA firm that works online, by video, phone and secure upload, which suits a day on site better than an appointment. The fee is fixed and agreed before work starts. See what it costs.

Remote contractor accounting

EverStone is a virtual, one-CPA firm. There is no Chilliwack office and no local staff. Meetings are by video or phone and documents move securely, with no visit needed. Subcontractor, equipment and vehicle costs are tracked as they happen, not rebuilt at year end.

Where the same file also needs getting the Chilliwack returns filed and personal tax in Chilliwack, that is handled in one engagement.