E-commerce accountant in Montreal
A Montreal online store can ship to a customer in Laval and one in Halifax on the same afternoon, and the two orders carry different sales tax. Add payouts that arrive net of fees and refunds, and inventory spread across a warehouse and a fulfilment centre. EverStone is an e-commerce accountant and Montreal small-business CPA handling all of it at fixed fees, online and in English.
Quick answer: Montreal e-commerce businesses reconcile marketplace and payment-processor payouts back to gross sales, and track inventory that drives cost of goods sold. They register for GST and QST once taxable sales pass $30,000 in four consecutive quarters. They charge QST to Quebec customers and HST at the customer’s rate on sales into HST provinces. EverStone handles registration, sales tax, bookkeeping and the T2 and CO-17, remotely and in English.
The e-commerce accounting hub indexes the general guides on sales tax, inventory and reconciliation that apply to any online seller.
A payout is not a sale
The money that lands in a store’s bank account is the least useful number in the business. A marketplace or payment processor pays out after deducting its commission, processing fees, refunds, chargebacks, advertising charges and sometimes a reserve it holds back. Recording that net deposit as revenue understates sales, hides the fees, and makes the GST and QST collected impossible to prove.
The bookkeeping works the other way round. Each payout is broken back into gross sales, tax collected, fees, refunds and reserves, using the platform’s own settlement report, and the pieces are posted separately. The gross sales then reconcile to the sales tax returns, and the fees become visible as the deductible expenses they are. Monthly, that reconciliation takes an hour; done once at year-end across several platforms, it can take weeks.
Currency adds a layer for sellers on US marketplaces. A payout in US dollars is converted when it reaches a Canadian account, and the rate on that day is rarely the rate on the day of the sale. Sales are recorded at the rate when they happened, and the difference on conversion is a foreign exchange gain or loss, not a change in revenue. Returns and refunds get the same care: a refund reverses the sale and the tax charged on it, and the returned unit goes back into inventory only if it can be sold again.
Registration: GST and QST together
GST registration becomes mandatory once taxable sales pass $30,000 in four consecutive calendar quarters, and a Montreal seller registered for GST is normally registered for the QST at the same time. For most Quebec businesses both are administered by Revenu Québec. Many sellers start below the line and cross it without noticing in a good holiday season; tax that should have been charged from that point is owed whether it was collected or not.
Selling through a large marketplace changes some of this. Under the marketplace facilitator rules, the platform may be responsible for collecting and remitting tax on sales it facilitates, and those sales are handled differently in the books from sales on your own storefront. Knowing which channel collects what is the first thing to establish.
Customers in other provinces
Canadian sales tax generally follows the customer. A Montreal store charges 5% GST and 9.975% QST on an order delivered in Quebec. An order shipped to Ontario or the Atlantic provinces carries HST at that province’s rate instead, and no QST. An order to a province without a harmonised tax generally carries GST alone from a Quebec seller, though some of those provinces have their own registration rules for out-of-province sellers once volumes grow.
The store has to be configured to apply the right tax by destination, and the returns have to report it that way. The place-of-supply rules decide the rate; getting them wrong across thousands of small orders is how a small error becomes a large assessment. Exports outside Canada are generally zero-rated, which is favourable, provided the shipping evidence is kept.
Inventory and cost of goods sold
For a product business, inventory decides the tax. Stock held in your own space, at a third-party warehouse or in a marketplace’s fulfilment centre is all your inventory, and all of it has to be counted or reconciled at year-end. Its cost includes the purchase price, inbound freight and any duties, and closing inventory directly sets cost of goods sold and therefore taxable income on both the T2 and the CO-17. A platform’s inventory report is a starting point; reconciling it to your own records is what catches lost, damaged and returned units. The year-end count sets out what is needed.
What EverStone handles for you
One CPA, one fixed fee quoted up front, everything below covered:
- T2 and CO-17 corporate returns and year-end financial statements
- GST and QST registration and destination-based tax setup
- Marketplace and processor payouts reconciled to gross sales
- Inventory and cost-of-goods-sold bookkeeping
- Sales tax returns filed with Revenu Québec
- Correspondence with the CRA and Revenu Québec handled for you
Fixed fees, fully online
EverStone is an Abbotsford CPA firm, and every engagement runs online — video calls, e-signature and a secure upload link, with direct read access to your store and ledger where you allow it. You are not billed by the hour or the phone call: your fee is a fixed amount agreed before any work starts. The same CPA handles your file all year. See what it costs or book a free, no-obligation consult and leave with a written quote.
Prepared and reviewed by a Chartered Professional Accountant at EverStone CPA, an Abbotsford CPA firm working with small businesses and incorporated contractors across the Fraser Valley and Canada. Updated September 2026. About the firm
What an online seller has to get right
| Item | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Payouts | Gross sales and payouts differ, and only one of them is your revenue |
| Inventory | Cost of goods sold depends on how inventory is counted and valued |
| Sales to other provinces | The customer’s province decides whether QST, HST or GST alone applies |
| Marketplaces | Facilitator rules can move tax collection to the platform for some sales |
| Sales tax where you operate | 5% GST and 9.975% QST, both administered by Revenu Québec |
Source: E-commerce accounting hub. General information, not advice.
Montreal e-commerce accounting FAQ
When does my Montreal online store have to register?+
Do I charge QST to customers outside Quebec?+
Why don’t my payouts match my sales?+
What can an e-commerce business deduct?+
How should I account for stock in a fulfilment centre?+
Do you work with Montreal sellers in English?+
Do you work with businesses outside Montreal itself?+
Related services and local guides
Nearby cities, the rest of what we do for Montreal businesses, and the reference pages behind this one.
Selling online from Montreal?
GST, QST, HST by destination, payouts, inventory and both corporate returns handled by a CPA, in English. Book a free consult.
Remote ecommerce accounting from Abbotsford
EverStone is a sole practitioner CPA firm at 32615 South Fraser Way in Abbotsford, working with Montreal clients entirely online. There is no Montreal office and no local staff. Meetings are held by video or phone, documents are exchanged by secure upload link and e-signature, and no visit is required at any point. EverStone works in English. Platform and processor reports arrive electronically, which makes physical proximity irrelevant to the work.
Talk to a CPA about this
One Chartered Professional Accountant, start to finish. Fixed fees, quoted in writing before any work begins, and no obligation from a first conversation.
