Payroll services in North Vancouver

Payroll covers the source deductions for CPP, EI premiums and income tax, the remittances to the CRA, the year-end T4 and T4A slips, and the payroll account in My Business Account. Monthly bookkeeping from $300 a month includes GST and PST filing, and payroll is added to the same fixed fee. For a trades corporation, bookkeeping, payroll and the year-end T2 together usually run $450–$650 a month.

Hiring for two seasons a year

Many North Shore businesses have two busy seasons rather than one. Guides, bike mechanics and rental staff come on for the trail and paddling months, then a different group arrives for lessons and rentals once the local mountains have snow. Each wave means new TD1 forms, new payroll records and, at the end, records of employment.

The work is front-loaded. Set each hire up correctly on day one, with a start date, pay rate and vacation arrangement in writing, and the season-end is routine. Reconstruct it from text messages in September and every ROE becomes a project. The record of employment guide covers what each one needs.

Final pay, vacation pay and the 48-hour rule

BC Employment Standards set the floor. Vacation pay accrues at 4% of wages, rising to 6% after five years of employment. When employment ends, all wages owing, including unpaid vacation pay, are due within 48 hours if the employer ends it. A seasonal layoff in the last week of the season is still a termination for that purpose.

For a business letting a dozen people go on the same weekend, that is the deadline that bites. Final pays prepared in advance, from a payroll that already shows each person’s accrued vacation balance, meet it without strain. Our guide to final pay on termination sets out the steps.

Statutory holidays across a short season

A qualifying employee who gets a BC statutory holiday off receives an average day’s pay. One who works it is paid a premium on top. Seasonal staff raise the question of who qualifies, because the rule looks at how recently and how often the person has worked. Summer holidays fall in the middle of the North Shore trail season, so this comes up every year. The BC stat pay calculator does the sums.

Tips in Lonsdale kitchens and taprooms

Restaurants, cafés and the craft breweries of Lower Lonsdale take most tips on cards, so the money passes through the employer’s bank account first. How it is shared then decides the treatment. Tips the employer pools or allocates are generally employment income that runs through payroll with withholdings. Tips that pass directly from guest to server are treated differently. Writing the policy down and matching the payroll to it is what keeps source deductions right. The North Vancouver restaurant page goes further.

WorkSafeBC for crews and guides

Every BC employer registers with WorkSafeBC and pays premiums on assessable payroll, at a rate set by the business’s classification unit. A renovation crew and a café sit in very different units, and a business doing both kinds of work needs that reflected properly. Trades employers also want clearance letters before paying contractors, because an unregistered contractor’s premiums can fall back on the business that paid them. See workers’ compensation registration in BC and the North Vancouver trades page.

Employer Health Tax as the team grows

BC Employer Health Tax starts once annual BC remuneration passes $1,000,000. Associated employers share that exemption, so an owner with a restaurant company and a catering company tests the two together. Most small North Shore employers sit below the line. The ones that grow towards it should know a year ahead rather than find out at filing. The bands are on the BC tax facts page, and the Employer Health Tax guide explains the return.

Paying the owner through the same payroll

An incorporated owner can take a salary, dividends or a mix. A salary runs through payroll like anyone else’s pay: CPP is deducted and matched, income tax is withheld, and a T4 is issued. It also creates RRSP contribution room. Dividends skip payroll entirely and are reported on a T5, which suits some years and not others.

For a North Shore business with a strong summer and a thin winter, the choice is often made late in the year, once the season’s profit is known. That works if the payroll account is already open and the remittance schedule is understood. A salary declared in December still needs its source deductions remitted on time. The salary versus dividends calculator shows the trade-off for your numbers.

How payroll fits North Vancouver’s five industries

Trades crews bring WorkSafeBC classification and clearance letters for subtrades. Restaurants and taprooms bring tips, turnover and statutory holiday shifts. Consultants and realtors who incorporate usually have a payroll of one: themselves, paid a salary that has to be remitted on time. Tech startups add salaries that can feed an SR&ED claim, and option records for early hires. Many North Shore staff cross the Lions Gate or Second Narrows bridges to work, but they report to a BC workplace, so BC tables and BC standards apply either way.

Remote payroll from Abbotsford

EverStone is based in Abbotsford and runs North Vancouver payrolls online. There is no North Shore location and no local staff. Timesheets, TD1 forms and approvals come in through a secure upload link and e-signature, and questions go by email. The same CPA who sets up a hire in May signs off the T4 in February, so the decisions made at hiring show up correctly on the slips.