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If you outsource accounting, you hand over the work but not the responsibility. The CRA says you’re still responsible for making sure adequate records are kept, even when a bookkeeper or accountant keeps them for you. Most of what follows is about how to hand things over without losing your grip on them.
What can you actually outsource?
Day-to-day bookkeeping is the usual start: entering sales and expenses, matching the bank account, chasing receipts. Payroll, GST/HST returns and the year-end corporate or personal return are the next layers. You can send out one of them, or all of them, or start with the pieces that eat your evenings and keep the rest until you trust the person on the other end. Your call.
We can’t tell you what any of this costs. We found no fee levels on an official page, and any figure we made up would be worthless to you. What we can do is help you ask for the right quote.
What the CRA says you must keep
Businesses keep their records for six years from the end of the last tax year they relate to, unless the CRA has agreed to earlier destruction in writing. The records go at your Canadian residence or place of business, unless the CRA gives permission for somewhere else.
That has a practical edge when you outsource. If a firm holds your files in its own system, ask two things before you sign. Can you get every document back in a usable form? And what happens to your records if you leave? Write it down at the start. Arguing about it later, when the relationship has gone sour and the files are on their server, is a miserable way to spend a month.
| Question for the provider | What a good answer looks like |
|---|---|
| Who’s on my file, and who checks their work? | Named people and a stated review step |
| What exactly is in the price? | A written list of tasks and what counts as extra |
| How do I get my records back? | Full export, any time, in a common format |
| What if the CRA writes to me? | Stated whether they respond and at what cost |
| Who has access to my bank data? | Read-only access, your name on the accounts |
A worked example with payroll
Say you pay one Ontario employee $2,500 every two weeks. The payroll remittance calculator shows $753.34 to remit each pay period. Of that, $555.55 is held back from the employee’s pay: $374.06 of income tax, $140.74 of CPP and $40.75 of EI. The rest is your share, $197.79, made up of matching CPP and an EI amount at 1.4 times the employee’s.
So a $2,500 paycheque costs you $2,697.79. Those are the numbers a bookkeeper should be producing every period. If theirs differ, ask why, because rounding is normal and a gap of tens of dollars isn’t.
Sales tax works the same way. On $45,000 of Ontario sales at 13% you’d collect $5,850 of HST. Buy $12,000 of supplies and the GST/HST calculator puts the tax at $1,560. A registrant can generally recover tax paid on purchases used in commercial activity through input tax credits, so the net would be $4,290, before any other claims. Your provider needs your receipts to make that claim, which is the strongest reason to keep them tidy.
How do you stay in control while someone else does the work?
Look at the reports every month, even when you don’t feel like it. Ask for the bank reconciliation and the sales tax summary, and check that the bank balance matches your own statement. Fifteen minutes a month is enough to notice a problem while it’s still small.
Keep the logins in your name. If the relationship ends, you shouldn’t need anyone’s permission to get your books back. That one habit is worth more than any contract clause.
Mistakes to avoid
Handing over control of the bank account is the worst mistake. Don’t. Let the provider see it, not move money in it. Another is switching provider at year end without a handover, so nobody owns the last few months.
And don’t outsource before you know what a good result looks like. Look at your own numbers first with the profit margin calculator, and check tax on profit with the corporate tax calculator if you’re incorporated. The self-employed tax calculator is the equivalent if you’re not, though it leaves EI out.
What if you outsource only part of the work?
That’s a fine way to start. Many owners send the monthly books out and keep invoicing in-house, or the other way round. Write down who does each job, because the gaps between two people are where deadlines get missed. A one page list taped next to the computer, with names and dates, does the trick.
The sources behind this page
The six-year rule and the point about responsibility are from the Canada Revenue Agency‘s guide to keeping records. The input tax credit point is from its page on input tax credits. Payroll and sales tax figures come from our calculators, using 2026 rates.
Frequently asked questions
Am I still responsible if my bookkeeper keeps my records?
Yes. The CRA says you are responsible for making sure adequate records are kept, even if a bookkeeper or accountant keeps them for you.
How long do I keep business records?
Six years from the end of the last tax year they relate to, unless the CRA agrees in writing to earlier destruction.
Where must records be kept?
At your Canadian residence or place of business, unless the CRA gives permission for another place.
What does outsourced accounting cost?
We could not confirm typical fees on an official page. Ask for a written list of tasks and prices.
Can I claim GST/HST paid on business purchases?
A registrant can generally claim input tax credits on purchases used in commercial activities. Exempt supplies are excluded.
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- Self-employed taxes in Canada: income, CPP and GST
How tax works when you are self-employed in Canada: reporting income and expenses, paying both halves of CPP, instalments and when to register for GST