Contractor accountant in Edmonton

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

A CPA for contractors in Alberta has to handle the AT1 as well as the T2; both come out of the same year-end file here.

Contractors elsewhere face the same CRA questions with different sales tax: Winnipeg construction contractors deal with Manitoba RST, and our national page for incorporated contractors covers subcontractor-versus-employee risk. Retail operators in the same city are covered on Edmonton retail accounting.

Subcontractor reporting and who counts as staff

A construction business paying subcontractors for construction services generally files T5018 information returns for them. The harder question is whether each worker really is a subcontractor. Substance decides it (control, tools, chance of profit or loss, ability to substitute), not the invoice. Getting it wrong brings CPP and EI exposure with interest. See our subcontractor versus employee guide.

Payroll once you carry crew

Employing tradespeople brings source deductions, remitted on a schedule set by your average monthly withholding, and year-end slips. Missed remittance dates are easy and expensive, because penalties attach to the deduction, not the tax. We keep the schedule and file, so you need not track it from a job site.

Equipment, and when to buy it

Trucks, trailers, tooling and shop equipment are recovered through capital cost allowance. The half-year rule generally halves the first claim, but the Accelerated Investment Incentive suspends it for eligible property, allowing a much larger deduction. A big purchase timed around year-end helps only if that year’s income can absorb it.

Holdbacks, progress billing and uneven income

Construction revenue rarely lands in the period the work was done, GST does not always follow the invoice date, and seasonal work makes instalments easy to misjudge; we plan them against real cash flow. Construction company bookkeeping services have to place holdbacks, progress draws and retainage on the right side of the cut-off, or the year-end figures mislead.

Taking on your first employees

Hiring your first employees is the biggest change in a trades file, and it usually happens fast because a contract required it. From the first pay run come source deductions, a remittance schedule set by average monthly withholding, year-end slips, and records that must be exact.

Two things catch Edmonton contractors most. First, remittance frequency is set by your withholding and changes as you grow, so your original schedule may no longer apply. Penalties attach to the deduction, not the tax, so a missed date is costly. Second, the subcontractor line: employing one crew while treating similar workers as subs invites the comparison you do not want.

We set the payroll up, keep the remittance calendar, file the year-end slips, and make sure the employee and subcontractor populations are distinguishable on more than paperwork.

Holdbacks, progress draws and when revenue is earned

Holdbacks are earned and invoiced, then retained by the payer until the job is signed off. Booking one as revenue on the invoice date can put profit in a year before the cash exists; ignoring it understates the year the work was done.

Progress draws cause a milder version, and GST does not always follow the invoice date. Tidy monthly books can still produce a misleading year if open jobs are not reviewed at the cut-off, so we review work in progress and holdbacks at year-end and the return reflects what was earned.

That review also makes year-end planning useful. With open jobs properly stated, you can see whether the year can absorb an equipment purchase, whether a bonus makes sense, and whether instalments still match the work ahead. Doing it in the autumn, while those choices are open, beats learning the answer after year-end.

What EverStone handles for you

One CPA, one fixed fee agreed up front:

• T2 corporate return and year-end financial statements
• T5018 subcontractor information returns
• Subcontractor-versus-employee positions documented defensibly
• Payroll remittances and year-end slips
• Equipment and vehicle CCA schedules
• GST filed and reconciled
• Instalments planned around seasonal cash flow

Fixed fees, fully online

Everything runs by video, phone and secure upload, which fits a business run from a truck rather than an office. The fee is fixed and agreed before any work starts. See what it costs.

Bidding public work means the statements are read against a prequalification threshold on a procurement deadline. See financial statements for Edmonton contractors for progress billing schedules and unapproved change orders.

Where the aim is moving up a class of work, fractional CFO support for Edmonton contractors and public-sector suppliers covers bid discipline and the progress billing cash curve.

Remote contractor accounting

The firm serves Edmonton remotely. There is no Edmonton office and no staff based there. Work runs by video, phone and secure upload, with subcontractor, equipment and vehicle costs tracked as they happen.