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The accounting software features a Canadian business owner should look for are GST/HST and provincial tax handling, payroll that matches CRA rules, bank feeds, invoicing, and an export that lets you leave. Everything else is a bonus. If the tool gets tax wrong or traps your records, a nice dashboard won’t rescue you.
Which tax features matter most?
Sales tax comes first. Rates differ by province, and the software has to apply the right one to each invoice. On a $2,500 sale in Ontario, the GST/HST calculator shows $325 of HST and a $2,825 total. The same sale in Alberta carries $125 of GST and totals $2,625. Software that can’t tell those apart isn’t built for Canada.
Look for the ability to record tax you paid on purchases as well as tax you charged, because the difference is what you remit. And test Quebec or British Columbia if you sell there, since both have their own provincial sales taxes on top of GST. Ask the vendor how the tool treats them, and read the filing report as well as the invoice.
What if you’re under the $30,000 small supplier line? Then you may not need to charge GST/HST yet, so the software should let you switch registration on later without redoing old invoices. The CRA’s guide for GST/HST registrants defines the line as $30,000 of taxable revenue in a single calendar quarter and over the last four quarters in a row.
What should payroll support?
Skip the payroll module if you don’t pay staff. If you do, it needs to work out income tax, CPP and EI, and show what you owe as the employer. For one employee paid $2,000 every two weeks in Ontario, the payroll remittance calculator gives about $555 to remit per pay period. That’s roughly $398 held back from the employee plus about $157 of employer CPP and EI.
Use a figure like that as a test. Enter the same pay in the software and compare. A gap of a few cents is rounding. A gap of ten dollars means you need to ask why.
What else belongs on the checklist?
Here is the short reference list, with what to check and why it matters to a Canadian owner.
| Feature | What to test |
|---|---|
| Sales tax | Correct rate by province, tax on purchases, filing period reports |
| Bank feeds | Does your own bank or credit union connect, and do rules match transactions |
| Invoicing | Tax shown per line, payment reminders, your own branding |
| Payroll | CPP, EI and income tax match an outside calculation |
| Currency | US dollar invoices and exchange rates, if you sell abroad |
| Exports | A full export in a common format such as CSV |
| Access | Separate logins for you, your bookkeeper and staff |
Two rows deserve a longer look. Bank feeds are where most of the time saving comes from, but only if your institution is supported, so check before you pay. And exports matter because of the CRA. It says records must be kept for six years from the end of the last tax year they relate to, and when you change systems you should keep the ability to export the required information in a commonly used non-proprietary format.
Does the size of your business change the answer?
It does. Freelancers with a few invoices a month need tax handling and a clean export, and not much else. Shops with inventory or staff need item tracking and payroll, and a corporation wants year-end reports your accountant can work from, and may want to see what the corporate tax calculator estimates on the profit.
A sole proprietor can also check the tax figure with the self-employed tax calculator. On $80,000 of net business income in Ontario it shows $13,233.57 of income tax and $8,892.90 of CPP for both halves, $22,126.47 in all. That tool leaves out GST/HST and EI, so don’t treat it as your whole tax bill.
What does an export test involve?
The CRA circular on electronic record keeping says that when you change systems, you should keep the ability to export the required information in a commonly used format that is not tied to one product. It also asks you to back up rewritable media and to test that backups can be restored into a readable form. So an export test is more than a button click.
- Export invoices, bills, payments and the chart of accounts for one full month.
- Open the files in a spreadsheet and check the totals against the software’s own report.
- Check that tax amounts and supplier details are in separate columns.
- Save the export in a folder in Canada with the date, then try restoring one record.
Do it in week one of the trial, not the day you leave. Our pages on testing a named product and software for bookkeepers use the same test from the client and the bookkeeper side.
Which features can you safely ignore?
Quite a few. Fancy dashboards, dozens of report templates, app marketplaces with hundreds of add-ons: nice to look at, rarely used. Picture Chris, who runs a one-van plumbing business in Thunder Bay. Chris needs to invoice from the truck, snap a receipt at the supply store, and see at tax time how much HST is owed. If the tool does those three well, the other 200 features are noise, and a few bucks a month saved on a lower plan goes straight to the bottom line.
How do you compare two tools side by side?
Score each one against the checklist above, a simple yes, partly or no for every row. Be strict: “partly” means it works but needs a workaround you’d have to remember every month. Add the answer to one more question, which is whether your accountant can open the file directly. A tool with five yeses and one “partly” beats a flashier one with three. Do the scoring with a month of your own data in front of you, and you’ll rarely end up second-guessing it.
Mistakes when choosing software
Picking on price alone is the first one, and we can’t give you price comparisons anyway because we couldn’t verify any. Paying for features you’ll never open is the second. Start from a list of the five things your business does weekly.
The third is skipping the trial. Load a month of real transactions, run a sales tax report and compare it with the GST/HST calculator. If you can’t export that month cleanly, walk away.
Also ask your accountant which tools they work with. That saves you a lot of back and forth at year end.
The sources behind this page
Record keeping rules come from the CRA publications RC188 and IC05-1, and the small supplier threshold from when to register for and charge the GST/HST, all read in November 2026. Tax rates and example amounts come from our own calculators on 2026 data. We did not assess or compare any software brand.
Frequently asked questions
What accounting software features do Canadian businesses need?
Correct GST/HST and provincial tax by province, payroll that matches CRA rules if you have staff, bank feeds that connect to your own bank, invoicing with tax shown per line, and a full export of your data. Everything else is a bonus. A nice dashboard will not rescue you if the tool gets tax wrong or traps your records.
Do I need payroll in my accounting software?
Only if you pay staff. If you do, enter a test employee and compare the CPP, EI and income tax with an outside calculation. For one Ontario employee paid $2,000 every two weeks, our payroll calculator shows about $555 to remit per pay period. A gap of a few cents is rounding, and a gap of ten dollars needs an explanation.
Does the software need to handle GST/HST registration?
It should charge tax by province and let you start charging later if you pass the $30,000 small supplier threshold, without redoing old invoices. It should also record tax you paid on purchases, because the difference between tax charged and tax paid is what you remit. Test a Quebec or BC sale if you sell there.
Why does the export matter?
The CRA expects you to keep records for six years, and to keep the ability to export the required data in a commonly used non-proprietary format when you change systems. If you cannot export a clean month in the trial, walk away. Do the test in week one and keep a dated copy in Canada.
Can I compare prices here?
No. We could not verify prices, plans or free tiers for any product, so we give none. Check each vendor’s own page on the day you buy, and compare what each plan includes for tax reports, payroll and user logins, not only the monthly number.
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