Trades accountant in Vancouver

Knowing who the customer actually is

On a strata building the party that signs, the party that pays and the party that benefits are frequently three different things. A repair authorised by a strata corporation, funded from a contingency reserve and performed inside an individual unit produces an invoice that has to name someone, and getting that wrong creates a receivable nobody accepts and a tax treatment that does not match the transaction. The same problem appears in a different costume on rental and mixed-use buildings, where a property manager instructs the work but the owner is the contracting party. Establishing the contracting relationship before mobilising is not administrative caution — it is what determines who is liable for the money and how the revenue is recorded.

Renovation, and where GST gets complicated

Most renovation work is a straightforward taxable supply of services. What is not straightforward is the point at which work on residential property becomes extensive enough to change the tax character of the property itself, which is a real distinction in the federal legislation and one with meaningful consequences for a builder who is renovating to resell rather than renovating for an owner-occupier. A trades company that only ever invoices a homeowner for services rarely has to think about it. One that takes an interest in a property, or performs work for a client who is developing rather than living, does. The dividing line is fact-specific, which is precisely why it should be raised before the structure of a deal is fixed rather than after.

Progress billings across a year-end

A Vancouver renovation contract routinely runs longer than a quarter and often longer than a fiscal year. That makes the year-end cut-off the number that decides the tax bill. Work performed but not yet billed still represents earned revenue; amounts invoiced in advance of work do not. Because GST generally becomes payable on the earlier of invoicing and payment, a deposit collected in one year can put remittable tax in a company's hands well before the corresponding revenue exists. Companies that treat deposit money as available cash create their own shortfall, and it usually surfaces in a quarter when nothing else is going right.

Holdbacks in a lien province

BC lien legislation contemplates money retained on a project and released after a defined period. Two accounting consequences follow. First, receivables include amounts that are earned but not yet collectible, which is a working-capital fact worth knowing before committing to the next job. Second, holdbacks a company retains from its own subtrades represent costs already incurred, and leaving them out of the period means overstating the margin on the very job that generated them. On the multi-trade projects common in Vancouver renovation, both sides run at once, and only a schedule keeps them straight. The construction holdbacks guide goes deeper.

Subtrade slips and classification on dense sites

Renovation on occupied buildings tends to use many specialised subtrades for short durations. That multiplies the number of parties a company pays for construction services, and with it the T5018 reporting obligation and the risk that someone in the mix is functionally an employee. Short engagements do not make classification less important; they make the records harder to reconstruct later. A payables structure that separates subtrade labour from materials at entry is worth more than any amount of year-end effort. See subcontractor or employee.

What is covered

One Chartered Professional Accountant handles the whole file:

• Contract and receivable structure on strata and managed-property work
• Progress billing, deposit and year-end cut-off treatment
• Holdback schedules on both the receivable and payable side
• GST filing, reconciliation and input tax credit review
• T5018 information returns and worker classification review
• T2 corporate return and year-end financial statements

Remote, and there is no Vancouver office

EverStone has one office and it is in Abbotsford, not Vancouver. Every engagement is delivered online — video meetings, e-signature and secure document exchange — which in a city where an hour of driving buys very little distance is a practical advantage rather than a limitation. The same CPA prepares the return and answers questions during the year. For the provincial context, see construction accounting in BC.