Accountant for Fort St. John construction contractors

For an incorporated Fort St. John trade or general contractor, monthly bookkeeping, payroll and the year-end T2 with statements usually run $450–$650 a month all-in. Bookkeeping on its own starts from $300 a month with GST and PST filing included. A sole-proprietor tradesperson’s T1 with a T2125 is commonly $250–$450. Every fee is on the pricing page.

Building in an energy city

The City of Fort St. John’s community profile shows construction overtaking oil and gas as an employer in the most recent census period, and that matches what contractors see on the ground. Fort St. John construction comes in a few distinct shapes. Residential builders, framers and finishing trades build and renovate houses in the city, in Taylor and around Charlie Lake. Commercial trades fit out shops, restaurants and offices. Civil, earthworks and industrial contractors build lease roads, well-site pads, facility foundations and camp infrastructure for energy companies across the region. Each shape bills differently, and the books have to match.

A residential builder may hold houses as inventory. A renovator bills small jobs quickly. An industrial contractor bills progress claims against a master service agreement, often through the operator’s own invoicing system, and waits for approval. A one-size chart of accounts fits none of them well.

Most also carry equipment: a work truck, a trailer, an excavator, a dozer or a skid steer, often financed. Each unit goes on the CCA schedule in its own class, with loan payments split between principal and interest. Northern winters and spring breakup change what work can be done and when, which is one more reason to keep enough cash back for remittances in the slow weeks.

T5018, if you pay anyone else to do the work

If construction is your main business activity and you pay subcontractors for construction services, you report those payments on T5018 slips. The slips and summary are due six months after the end of the reporting period, which can be the calendar year or your fiscal year. The CRA matches them against the subcontractors’ own returns, so names, business numbers and totals need to be right. Collecting each sub’s details before the first payment is far easier than chasing them in the spring. The T5018 subcontractor tracker helps keep the list current.

Payments that are not for construction services do not go on the T5018. A bookkeeper you pay, an engineer’s fee or equipment rental without an operator are treated differently, and some may belong on a T4A instead. Equipment rented with an operator, which is common on earthworks jobs in the Peace, is generally a construction service. Sorting payments into the right bucket as they are made saves rebuilding the year in February.

PST on the materials you install

BC PST works differently for contractors than for most businesses. A contractor who supplies and installs materials into real property, such as lumber, drywall, roofing, piping or fixtures, is usually treated as the consumer of those materials. You pay 7% PST when you buy them and do not charge PST to the owner on the installed price. Equipment and tools you use are taxable to you as well.

It changes when you sell goods without installing them, or when you fabricate items in a shop. A contractor who also sells materials or supplies separately may need to register and collect PST on those sales. The BC PST guide covers the registration test.

Holdbacks sit on both sides of the ledger

On larger jobs, the owner or general contractor holds back part of each payment until the work is complete and lien periods have passed. That money is earned but not yet received, so it belongs in a holdback receivable, not in revenue that never shows up in the bank. If you hold back from your own subs, the mirror image is a holdback payable. Both need tracking job by job and releasing when due. Construction holdbacks explains the entries.

WorkSafeBC, and the clearance letter

Every Fort St. John contractor with workers needs a WorkSafeBC account, and construction classifications carry higher premiums than most. When you hire a subcontractor, ask for a WorkSafeBC clearance letter before paying them. If the sub is not in good standing, you can be held liable for their unpaid premiums. A clearance letter on file for each payment period closes that gap. WorkSafeBC registration covers the setup.

Business licences across the Peace

The City of Fort St. John requires every business operating in the city to hold a valid business licence or a valid inter-community business licence. The inter-community licence is aimed at mobile businesses, such as trades, with their main office in Fort St. John that also work in partner municipalities, which the city lists as Dawson Creek, Chetwynd, Hudson’s Hope, Taylor, Tumbler Ridge and Pouce Coupe. The city also states that a business operating without a valid licence faces a fee increase for each month it operates unlicensed. It is not a tax filing, but the licence fee is a deductible cost and the renewal belongs on the same calendar as your remittances.

GST on progress billings and new housing

GST is generally due when you invoice, not when you are paid. On a progress-billed job, each draw invoice triggers GST even if the payment, or the holdback, arrives months later. That can strain cash, so the GST account needs to be watched alongside receivables.

A builder who constructs and sells a new house, or substantially renovates one, is in a different position. The sale is taxable, and the builder may need to account for GST on the selling price and deal with new housing rebates. Get advice before the first spec house is listed, not after.

Jobs over the line in Alberta are a third case. The GST position on construction services depends on where the work is supplied, so a Fort St. John contractor working in Alberta needs the invoice set up for that place of supply before it goes out.

Job costing, or a year you cannot explain

Without job costing, a contractor finds out at year-end whether the year made money, and cannot say which jobs did. Labour, materials, equipment time and subcontractors coded to each job as they happen turn the books into a quoting tool. On larger contracts, work in progress at year-end needs measuring too, so revenue lands in the right year. We set up the job structure in your software and keep it current monthly. Construction accounting in BC goes into more detail.

Fully virtual

EverStone is a one-CPA firm that works online. There is no Fort St. John office. Invoices, receipts, field tickets and contracts come in through a secure upload link, often straight from a phone on site. Questions go by email first, with a video meeting when one helps. The fee is fixed in writing before work starts. For the books themselves, see bookkeeping in Fort St. John; for crews, see payroll in Fort St. John; for the owner’s return, see personal tax in Fort St. John.