Trades accountant in Lethbridge

Bookkeeping for tradespeople in Lethbridge is kept monthly, so the AT1 and the T2 come out of a reconciled file rather than a shoebox in March.

A season-shaped business

Most Lethbridge trades businesses earn the bulk of their year between spring and late fall, then carry trucks, equipment, insurance, shop rent and a core crew through winter. That shape drives most of the accounting decisions. Instalments built on a strong year keep falling due in the slow months. Year-end chosen as December 31 lands after the season’s cash has been spent and before next year’s deposits arrive. Owner pay taken in a lump in the fall leaves nothing to draw on in February.

The answer is not complicated, but it has to be deliberate: a fiscal year-end that suits the season, instalments revised when the year is clearly different from last year, and a cash forecast that shows the winter before it arrives. See cash flow in a seasonal business.

No provincial sales tax changes the purchasing side

Alberta does not levy a provincial sales tax. Materials carry GST only, and because GST is fully recoverable by a registrant through input tax credits, the sales tax on lumber, steel, pipe or wire is not a cost buried inside a Lethbridge bid the way provincial tax is elsewhere. Estimating is cleaner, because there is no separate judgement about whether a contract improves real property. Cash flow is smoother, because the tax on a large material order comes back on the next return.

The flip side is that a company used to Alberta pricing needs to adjust when it bids work in a province with PST. A crew working across the border into British Columbia, or east into Saskatchewan, is working under a different sales tax system, and the estimating template should know it.

Two corporate returns, not one

Alberta administers its own corporate income tax. A corporation with a permanent establishment in the province files the federal T2 and, separately, the Alberta AT1. Missing the second one is a common and entirely avoidable failure, especially for a company that was set up by a bookkeeper using software that only produces the federal return. Where a company works across provincial lines, income also has to be allocated among the provinces where it has a permanent establishment, which turns the question of where the crews worked into a question of which government gets the tax.

The payment clock runs on a statutory schedule

Alberta’s construction lien legislation sets prompt payment timelines through the contracting chain. Under the province’s published rules, an owner must pay the amount payable to a contractor within 28 calendar days of receiving a proper invoice, and a contractor must pay each subcontractor within 7 calendar days of receiving payment from the owner. A subcontractor not paid within the required timeline can start an adjudication.

For a general contractor, that makes invoicing discipline a cash matter: the 28-day clock starts with a proper invoice, so a late or incomplete invoice delays everything behind it. For a subtrade, it gives a defined date to chase. For both, a payables process that releases subtrade payments against the receipt of owner funds, and a receivables listing reviewed weekly in the season, is the operational answer. Holdbacks need their own schedule, recognized on their own timing rather than when the invoice goes out; see accounting for construction holdbacks.

WCB-Alberta and the subtrade check

Coverage in Alberta is administered by WCB-Alberta, with premiums set by industry classification on assessable earnings. A hiring company that pays a subtrade without confirming its account standing can find that gap becomes its own liability later. Building the confirmation into the release of final payment, and filing it with the invoice, keeps the exposure inside the job it belongs to. It also forces the worker-classification question into the open while it can still be answered, rather than after a crew has worked a full season under an arrangement nobody documented.

Subtrade slips and job costing

The federal T5018 obligation applies in Alberta exactly as it does elsewhere. A business whose main activity is construction, and which pays others for construction services, generally reports those payments. The reporting is only as good as the payables coding underneath it. Separating subtrade labour from materials at entry, and tagging both to a job, produces the slips as a by-product, and something more useful besides: a defensible answer to which jobs actually made money. On a mix of city renovations, county farm buildings and plant maintenance work, those answers are often different from what the owner expects. The T5018 reporting guide sets out the mechanics.

Trucks, equipment and the CCA schedule

Trades companies are capital-heavy for their size: service trucks, trailers, skid steers, lifts and tools. Each significant purchase goes on the capital cost allowance schedule by class, and timing a purchase before or after year-end changes the first-year claim. Trading in a unit can trigger recapture. A vehicle used partly for personal driving needs a log, both for the deduction and for any taxable benefit to the owner or an employee.

What is covered

One Chartered Professional Accountant handles the whole file:

• Federal T2 and Alberta AT1 corporate returns
• Income allocation where work crosses provincial lines
• GST registration, filing and input tax credit reconciliation
• T5018 information returns and subtrade classification review
• Job-costed bookkeeping and holdback schedules
• Payroll for seasonal crews, with records of employment
• Year-end financial statements and owner remuneration planning

Remote, and there is no Lethbridge office

EverStone works online and has no Lethbridge location. Alberta engagements run entirely online — email, video meetings, e-signature and secure document exchange — and receipts can be photographed from the truck. See accounting for Alberta businesses for the wider provincial picture.