Accountant for Burnaby manufacturers
Burnaby’s light-industrial land runs along the Big Bend beside the Fraser River and up the Lougheed corridor: fabrication shops, food production, electronics assembly and distribution warehouses, with Highway 1 a few minutes away. EverStone works with Burnaby businesses that make things, at fixed fees, online.
Quick answer: A Burnaby manufacturer’s taxable profit turns on three things a service business never meets. They are the value of closing inventory and work in progress, the CCA classes its equipment sits in, and which purchases carry PST it cannot recover. EverStone handles inventory, equipment schedules, GST and PST alongside the T2, remotely and at a fixed fee agreed up front.
For a one-owner Burnaby manufacturer, monthly bookkeeping, payroll and the year-end T2 with statements usually cost from $450 to $650 a month all-in. Bookkeeping on its own starts from $300 a month, and a fractional controller from $1,500 a month suits a plant that needs monthly costing reports. The year-end covers the T2 with Schedule 1 and Schedule 50, the CCA schedule, the small business deduction, T4 or T5 slips for the owner’s pay, and the instalments for the year ahead. See the published fees.
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Closing stock is a tax number
Cost of goods sold is opening inventory plus purchases, less closing inventory. Every dollar added to the closing count adds a dollar of profit, and every dollar missed takes one away. For a shop in the Big Bend holding steel, resin, packaging or ingredients, the count at year-end is therefore one of the largest numbers on the T2.
Raw materials, work in progress and finished goods are valued separately, at cost including freight and duty. Stock that is obsolete or damaged can be written down, but only with evidence. A count planned weeks in advance, with cut-off on the last receiving and shipping documents, is worth far more than a rushed one. See inventory accounting in BC.
Equipment, CCA and when you buy
Production machinery, forklifts, racking, trucks and computer hardware each fall into a CCA class with its own rate. The half-year rule usually limits the first-year claim, and some classes now allow faster write-offs for a period. When a large machine arrives a week before year-end, or a week after, the first year’s deduction changes. That makes the purchase date a decision worth discussing first. See equipment CCA classes and the update on manufacturing buildings.
Selling or scrapping equipment has consequences too. Proceeds above the class balance create recapture; a class left empty can produce a terminal loss. Both belong in the plan for replacing a line.
PST on what you buy and what you sell
BC PST applies to most equipment and supplies a business buys for its own use, and it is not recoverable. Manufacturers, however, can often buy qualifying production machinery and equipment exempt from PST, and materials that become part of a product made for sale are generally not taxed on purchase. Claiming those exemptions needs the right documents with suppliers. Without them, the business pays tax it did not owe.
On the sales side, goods sold to another business for resale are usually exempt from PST with the buyer’s number on file, while sales to end users in BC generally carry 7% PST alongside 5% GST. GST paid on materials and equipment comes back as input tax credits. The BC PST guide covers the categories.
Costing a job before you quote it
A quote that covers materials and direct labour but not overhead loses money slowly. Rent on industrial space, equipment depreciation, supervision and the hours a machine sits idle all have to be recovered somewhere. Allocating them to jobs, by machine hour or labour hour, shows which products carry the plant and which ones ride on it.
The monthly books should produce gross margin by product line, not just a single profit figure at year-end. The pricing and margin analysis page shows how that work is set up.
Where materials prices move quickly, as steel, aluminium and packaging often do, a quote built on last quarter’s invoices can be wrong before the job starts. Comparing quoted cost with actual cost on each finished job is the simplest early warning there is. A gap that repeats on one product line usually points to a pricing problem rather than a production one, and it shows up months before the annual statements would reveal it.
Shift payroll, larger customers and exports
Plant payrolls carry shift premiums, overtime and WorkSafeBC rates that reflect the work, and a growing payroll eventually meets the Employer Health Tax. See payroll services in Burnaby. Larger customers often pay on long terms, so receivables need watching as closely as stock. Goods shipped outside Canada are generally zero-rated for GST, which keeps the input tax credits on materials intact, but the export documents have to support it. See GST on exports.
What EverStone handles for you
One CPA, one fixed fee agreed up front:
- Inventory and work-in-progress valuation, with a planned year-end count
- Equipment register and CCA schedule, with purchase timing reviewed
- GST and BC PST returns, including exemption documents
- Gross margin by product line in the monthly reports
- Payroll, WorkSafeBC and year-end slips
- T2 corporate return and year-end financial statements
Fixed fees, fully online
EverStone is an Abbotsford CPA firm serving Burnaby manufacturers entirely online. Purchase invoices, count sheets and payroll reports come in through a secure upload link, and questions go by email first, with a video call when it helps. The fee is fixed in writing before work starts. For lender conversations about a new line, see lender readiness.
Prepared and reviewed by a Chartered Professional Accountant at EverStone CPA, an Abbotsford CPA firm working remotely with small businesses and incorporated owners across British Columbia. Updated . About the firm · Send an enquiry
What an equipment-heavy business has to get right
| Item | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Closing inventory | Sets cost of goods sold, and so taxable profit |
| Work in progress | Partly finished goods are valued at cost, not left out |
| Equipment | Larger purchases are capitalized and claimed through CCA |
| PST exemptions | Production equipment and materials need the right documents |
| Sales tax where you operate | 5% GST plus 7% BC PST: two registrations, two returns |
Source: Year-end inventory count. General information, not advice.
Burnaby accounting for small manufacturers and fabricators FAQ
Why does my inventory count change my tax bill?+
Do I pay PST on production equipment?+
Should I buy a machine before or after year-end?+
Do I charge GST on goods shipped to the United States?+
How often should we count stock?+
Do you work with manufacturers outside Burnaby?+
Related services and local guides
Nearby cities, the rest of what we do for Burnaby businesses, and the reference pages behind this one.
Fees are fixed and agreed in writing before the work starts; the published fee page shows the starting points.
Manufacturing in Burnaby?
One CPA for your corporate tax, books and planning. Fixed fee, fully online. Send an enquiry.
Remote accounting for manufacturers from Abbotsford
EverStone is a fully virtual, one-CPA firm based in Abbotsford, working with Burnaby businesses entirely online. There is no Burnaby office and no local staff. Questions go by email first, with a video call when it helps, documents are exchanged through a secure upload link and e-signature, and no visit is required at any point. Inventory and capital cost tracking are maintained through the year rather than counted once.
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.
