Bookkeeper in Kelowna

BC liquor accounting is layered. Wineries pay markup to the BC Liquor Distribution Branch on direct delivery sales, charge 10% PST on sales of liquor (versus the standard 7%), apply GST at 5%, and may charge an MRDT on accommodation if you also rent out cottages or villas. We separate each stream — direct-to-consumer, wine club, restaurant wholesale, BCLDB — into its own GL account so the LDB markup, PST, and GST land in the right buckets and reconcile to your monthly returns. When auditors come (and they do), the trail is clean.

Farm income gets specific tax treatment under T2042 or the corporate equivalent, and you may qualify for the Agricultural Cost-Share program, AgriStability, or the Capital Gains exemption on qualified farm property. We separate your farm operations from your retail farm market in the chart of accounts, track inventory of fresh versus value-added product, and prepare records that flow cleanly to your accountant for the agricultural tax forms. Seasonal labour gets its own payroll cycle so harvest hands don't get tangled up with year-round retail staff.

Yes — once you cross $30,000 in worldwide revenue over four consecutive calendar quarters you have to register for GST and start charging it. For short-term rentals that's typically the moment a second cottage gets added. We register you, set up your booking platform to charge GST correctly going forward, and file your first GST return on time. We also coordinate the BC PST and 8% MRDT side, because those sit on different rules from GST and many Airbnb hosts get hit with surprise assessments years later.

Wine COGS is tricky because the cost is built up over multiple years — the grapes from year one, the barrel ageing through year two, the bottling line, labels, closures. We track inventory in three buckets — bulk in tank, bulk in barrel, bottled finished goods — and roll the production costs into each batch as it moves through. Once it's sold we move the right cost out of inventory and into COGS. The result: your gross margin per varietal or per release is actually accurate, instead of being a guess based on bottle price minus a flat percentage.