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Full-cycle bookkeeping means one person or firm handles your books from the first receipt to the finished month: recording sales and bills, matching the bank, running payroll, filing sales tax and closing the period so an accountant can start on your year end. There’s no standard menu behind the label, so what’s included is whatever your written scope says. Get that scope in writing before anyone touches your bank feed.
What does full-cycle bookkeeping cover?
Think of it as a loop that repeats every month. Money comes in and goes out, someone records it, someone checks it against the bank, and the totals feed the tax filings. A provider who does only data entry is doing part of the loop. One who does all of it is doing the full cycle.
| Task | What it means in practice | How often |
|---|---|---|
| Sales and invoicing | Issue invoices, record payments, chase late ones | Weekly or as they happen |
| Bills and expenses | Code each bill, keep the receipt, schedule payment | Weekly |
| Bank and card matching | Tie every line on the statement to a record | Monthly |
| Payroll | Pay staff, remit source deductions to the CRA | Each pay run |
| GST/HST | Track tax collected and paid, file the return | Monthly, quarterly or yearly |
| Month end close | Reports, adjustments, a clean set of books | Monthly |
| Year end package | Hand the file to your accountant | Yearly |
Picture a small food truck in Kelowna. Orders come in all day through a card reader, the owner pays two part-timers, and the fuel and supply receipts end up in a glovebox. Full-cycle service means someone turns that pile into reconciled books every month, without the owner having to think about it until a report lands.
What do payroll and sales tax look like in numbers?
These two jobs are where mistakes cost real money, so it helps to see the size of them. Take one employee paid $3,000 every two weeks in Ontario. The payroll remittance calculator puts the amount sent to the CRA each pay run at about $961.03. Of that, $732.62 comes off the employee’s pay (income tax, CPP and EI) and $228.41 is the employer’s own share of CPP and EI. That’s a rough estimate. It leaves out items like Ontario’s employer health tax and workers’ compensation, which your bookkeeper should ask about.
Sales tax is smaller per item but never stops. A $2,000 invoice in Ontario carries $260 of HST, so the client owes $2,260. In Alberta the same invoice carries $100 of GST. You can test your own invoices with the GST/HST calculator.
How often you file depends on your revenue. The CRA’s page on GST/HST reporting requirements and deadlines says a business with $1,500,000 or less in taxable sales can be annual, and a monthly or quarterly return is due one month after the period ends. Annual filers generally have three months after their fiscal year end. A sole proprietor with a December 31 year end has until June 15 to file, but the payment is still due April 30. Check your own reporting period in your CRA account rather than trusting a provider’s word for it.
What should stay with you, not the bookkeeper?
Full cycle doesn’t mean hands off. You still approve payments, and you should see the bank statements yourself at least once a month. Keep the login for your CRA business account in your own name so you can add or remove people as you choose.
Records are yours too. The CRA says to keep required records and supporting documents for six years from the end of the last tax year they relate to, at your business or home in Canada unless the CRA agrees otherwise, as laid out in its guide to keeping records. The same guide says you stay responsible for adequate records even when a bookkeeper keeps them for you. Electronic copies are allowed. So ask a simple question: if we part ways in March, where are my files and how do I get them?
Where do full-cycle engagements go wrong?
The usual failure is a gap in scope. The provider assumed the payroll was yours, and you assumed it was theirs, so a remittance went late. Write down who does each line in the table above.
The second is catch-up work. If your books are six months behind, that’s cleanup, and it should be quoted separately from the monthly routine. The third is thin reporting. You should get a profit and loss and a balance sheet every month, and you should understand them. If a report leaves you guessing, say so.
Also be careful about what a provider promises about tax savings. A bookkeeper records; tax planning is a different job. Once your books are current, the self-employed tax calculator shows roughly what a year of profit costs you, though it leaves out EI and treats deductions in a simplified way.
How do you compare providers?
Prices vary with volume and how messy the books are, so there’s no typical monthly fee worth printing here. Ask each provider for a scope list, a monthly deadline for closing the books, who does the work, and what happens if a filing is late. Ask for a sample report. Then weigh those answers next to the monthly figure. A cheap plan that leaves payroll out isn’t cheap if you then hire someone else for payroll.
Checking margins is a good sanity test on the first reports. The profit margin calculator turns revenue and cost into a percentage you can compare month to month.
What should the first month look like?
Expect a setup phase. The provider will ask for read-only bank access, last year’s filed returns, your chart of accounts if you have one, and a list of recurring bills. Then they’ll usually work backwards from your last filed period, so the opening balances match what the CRA has already seen.
After that, the first monthly package is your test. Do the bank balances on the reports match your statements to the cent? Are the GST/HST and payroll amounts the same as the calculators above would suggest, within reason? If the answer is no, ask before month two, not after.
Where the numbers come from
Payroll and sales tax figures come from our calculators, which use 2026 rates from the Canada Revenue Agency and provincial sources. Record keeping and GST/HST filing rules are from Canada Revenue Agency pages on keeping records and reporting requirements. This site is not connected to any government body, and your own provider’s engagement letter is the final word on scope.
Frequently asked questions
Is full-cycle bookkeeping the same as accounting?
No. A bookkeeper records and reconciles transactions. Tax planning and financial statements for outsiders are usually accounting work, so ask who does what.
Does full-cycle bookkeeping include payroll?
Often, but not always. On $3,000 every two weeks in Ontario the estimate to remit is about $961.03 per pay run, so confirm in writing who does it.
Who files my GST/HST return?
It can be your bookkeeper if they're authorized on your CRA account, but you stay responsible. Monthly and quarterly returns are due one month after the period ends.
How long must I keep the records?
The CRA says six years from the end of the last tax year they relate to, kept in Canada unless it agrees otherwise.
Can I see the books whenever I want?
You should be able to. Ask for view access to the software and keep your own copy of the year end file.
- 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