Bookkeeper in Surrey

Yes, and it's one of the most common things Surrey contractors come to us for. If you pay sub-contractors more than $500 in a calendar year for construction services, you're required to file a T5018 information return with CRA. We track every sub-contractor payment through the year, collect the right business numbers up front, and file the T5018 by the deadline (six months after your fiscal year-end). Get this wrong and CRA can disallow the expense — we make sure that doesn't happen.

WorkSafeBC classifies workers by activity, not just employer. So your office admin shouldn't be paying the same rate as your framing crew. We set your payroll up with separate classification units, allocate each worker's hours correctly, and file your quarterly WorkSafeBC return based on the actual classified payroll. For most Surrey trades clients this means a meaningful reduction in WCB premiums versus a single-rate setup. We also handle the annual return and any classification changes when you add a new service line.

Yes, and we see this often with Surrey trades businesses where the work just kept coming and the paperwork didn't. Our cleanup service reconstructs your books from bank statements, credit cards, and any invoices you have, year by year. We'll work through the backlog, file the missed GST and PST returns, prepare the late T2s, and get you onto a clean monthly cycle. CRA late-filing penalties are real but capped — the longer you wait, the worse it gets, so the sooner we start the cleanup the less it costs you.

Almost always GST (5%), and PST (7%) gets complicated. PST in BC applies to materials but not to your labour to install them — so a contractor invoice for a renovation needs the materials and labour split clearly. If you're a real-property contractor, you generally pay PST on materials when you buy them and don't charge PST to your customer on the install. If you're selling and installing tangible goods (cabinets, appliances), the rules flip. We set your invoicing up so this is handled automatically and you're not over-charging customers or under-remitting to BC.