Trades accountant in St. Albert

Bookkeeping for tradesmen in St. Albert is kept monthly, so the AT1 and the T2 come out of a reconciled, job-costed file rather than a shoebox in March.

Two kinds of trades business

A renovation company, a plumber or an electrician working in St. Albert homes has many small jobs, customers who are consumers, and a payroll that grows in spring and shrinks in winter. A commercial or industrial contractor working in Campbell, Riel, South Riel or the newer Lakeview Business District, or on projects in Sturgeon County and the Industrial Heartland, has fewer, larger jobs, general contractors as customers, holdbacks, progress billing and subtrades below it. The accounting tools are the same; the emphasis is different. The first needs tight job costing on small jobs and clean GST on consumer sales. The second needs holdback tracking, prompt payment discipline and T5018 reporting across several tiers.

No provincial sales tax on the purchasing side

Alberta levies no provincial sales tax, so materials carry GST only, and a registered contractor recovers that GST through input tax credits. Sales tax on materials is therefore not a cost buried in a St. Albert bid the way provincial tax is in BC, Manitoba or Ontario. Estimating is cleaner, and the GST paid on a large material order comes back. A contractor that bids work in a PST province needs to know its estimating template no longer gives the right number there.

A city business licence, even if you are based nearby

The City of St. Albert requires anyone carrying on business in the city to hold a business licence, and its licensing pages say this applies even where a business is not physically located in St. Albert but provides services to St. Albert residents or businesses. The city says licences expire on December 31 each year. A contractor based in Morinville, Gibbons, Bon Accord or Legal who takes jobs in St. Albert should check this before starting work. The fee is a deductible business expense.

Two corporate returns, not one

Alberta administers its own corporate income tax. A trades corporation with a permanent establishment in Alberta files the federal T2 with the CRA and a separate AT1 with Alberta Tax and Revenue Administration. Missing the second is a common, avoidable failure for a company that incorporated elsewhere or moved, because completing the federal return feels like the whole job. Where a crew works an extended stretch outside Alberta, income may need to be allocated between provinces, which is easier to track during the year than to reconstruct.

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 a contractor the amount payable within 28 calendar days of receiving a proper invoice, and a contractor must then pay each subcontractor within 7 calendar days of receiving payment from the owner. A subcontractor who is not paid on time can start an adjudication. For a St. Albert contractor that is not a legal footnote. It means invoicing has to be proper and on time to start the clock, and payables have to release subtrade payments when owner funds arrive. Holding subtrade money after being paid is a dated, defined exposure.

WCB-Alberta and the subtrade check

Workers’ compensation in Alberta is administered by WCB-Alberta, with premiums set by industry classification and charged on assessable earnings. A company that pays a subtrade without confirming its WCB-Alberta account standing can find the gap becomes its own liability. Build the check into the release of final payment and file the confirmation with the invoice. It also forces the question of whether a long-term “subcontractor” is really an employee into the open while it can still be answered.

T5018 slips and job costing

The federal T5018 obligation applies in Alberta as it does everywhere. A business whose main activity is construction, and which pays others for construction services, generally reports those payments. The slips are only as good as the payables coding beneath them. Separating subtrade labour from materials at entry, and tagging both to a job, produces the T5018s as a by-product, and something more useful besides: an answer to which jobs actually made money. The T5018 reporting guide sets out the mechanics.

Trucks, tools and CCA

Pickups, trailers, skid steers and tools are a large part of a trades company’s spending. Each goes into a capital cost allowance class, and the deduction starts when the asset is available for use, so the timing of a purchase relative to the year end matters. A vehicle log separating business from personal kilometres is what supports the claim for a truck the owner also drives home. Where the corporation provides a vehicle the owner uses personally, there is a taxable benefit to report on the owner’s T4. CCA classes covers the common ones.

Seasonal payroll

Exterior trades in St. Albert slow down in winter. Spring hiring and fall layoffs mean records of employment, vacation pay paid out on departure, and general holiday pay calculated on Alberta’s 4.2% formula on hours that change from week to week. Payroll in St. Albert covers it.

What is covered

• Federal T2 and Alberta AT1 corporate returns
• GST registration, filing and input tax credit reconciliation
• T5018 information returns and subtrade classification review
• Job-costed bookkeeping and holdback schedules
• Payroll, WCB-Alberta reporting and ROEs
• Year-end financial statements for bonding and the bank, and owner pay planning

Remote, and there is no St. Albert office

EverStone is fully virtual and has no St. Albert location. Receipts come in from the truck by phone photo, bank feeds arrive automatically, and returns are signed electronically. See accounting for Alberta businesses and contractors in Alberta for the wider provincial picture.