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Accounting firms in Canada usually offer six kinds of work: bookkeeping, tax returns, sales tax filings, payroll, financial statements and advice. Audits and reviews are a separate, regulated tier. What a particular firm sells is up to the firm, so ask for the list in writing before you sign.
What services do accounting firms offer to small businesses?
Prices and packages vary too much from firm to firm for any general page to quote them, so this page sticks to the work itself, which stays the same wherever you go.
| Type of work | What you get | Filing it supports |
|---|---|---|
| Bookkeeping | Transactions recorded and reconciled | Everything else |
| Personal and business tax returns | T1 with business income, or T2 for a corporation | Returns due to the CRA |
| Sales tax | GST/HST return prepared and filed | One month after a monthly or quarterly period, three months after an annual one |
| Payroll | Pay runs, remittances, T4 slips | T4s by the last day of February |
| Financial statements | Year-end statements, often with a report | Lenders, shareholders, the T2 |
| Advice | Tax planning, structure, pay mix | Decisions, not filings |
Not every firm does all six, and that’s fine. A lot of small practices skip payroll, and some bookkeepers don’t prepare tax returns at all.
Take Dana, who runs a one-person graphic design business in Winnipeg. She needs the books kept (job one), a T1 with a business statement each spring (job two) and a GST/HST return once she crosses the registration line (job three). She doesn’t need payroll, because she has no employees, and she doesn’t need audited statements. Matching the list to your own situation first keeps you from paying for work you don’t use.
Who can do an audit or a review?
This is where the rules have teeth. CPA Ontario says a public accounting licence is required for the lead person who signs an assurance engagement, which includes audits and review engagements. A compilation, where the accountant assembles statements from your records without checking them, is treated differently. A licence is needed for a compilation if a third party is expected to rely on it and the prescribed report wording isn’t used.
That matters when your bank asks for “accountant-prepared statements”. Ask what level of engagement they want. A compilation is cheaper and gives the lender the least comfort, a review gives more, and an audit gives the most. Other provinces have their own CPA bodies and rules, so check with the one that covers your accountant.
Which services are worth paying for?
That turns on where your time goes. If you’re spending Sunday nights on receipts, bookkeeping is the one to hand over. If you’re a salaried employee with a side business, you might only need a year-end tax return.
Corporate tax work is where a good accountant earns the fee. Here’s a worked case: a Canadian-controlled private corporation in Ontario with $300,000 of active business income. Our corporate tax calculator shows $35,088 of combined tax, an 11.7% average rate, and that’s for a calendar 2026 year. Ontario cut its small business rate on July 1, 2026, so the calculator blends the old and new rates by days. The blend isn’t a published figure, so your own result will differ with your year-end.
Planning around numbers like that is advice work, and most owners skip it until a bill arrives that they didn’t see coming and can’t explain to their partner. It’s also where you most need someone who knows your situation, because associated companies and passive income can change the answer.
What should you expect on payroll and sales tax?
If you hire, a firm or a payroll provider can run the deductions. You can preview a pay period yourself with the payroll remittance calculator. It shows what you hold back, what you add as the employer, and the total you send to the CRA. It leaves out workers’ compensation and other levies.
For sales tax, a quick look at the GST/HST calculator tells you a $100 sale in Ontario carries $13.00 of tax. Your bookkeeper should keep that $13 apart from revenue. If they don’t, ask why.
Can you deduct what you pay your accountant?
Often, yes. The CRA’s T2125 form for self-employed people has a line for professional fees that includes legal and accounting fees.
You can deduct the fees you incurred for external professional advice, services and consulting fees.
Chapter 3, Expenses, guide T4002, canada.ca
The same chapter lists accounting and legal fees for help keeping your records and the cost of preparing and filing your income tax and GST/HST returns. A $2,000 deduction on $80,000 of net business income in Ontario cuts income tax by about $593 in our self-employed tax calculator, from $13,233.57 to $12,640.57. So the real cost is less than the invoice. That tool doesn’t include EI or business expenses, so use it as a rough guide.
The fee has to relate to earning business income. Fees to buy a capital asset are a different matter, and the CRA says you can’t deduct them as professional fees. Personal tax return fees for an employee are another question, and this page doesn’t cover them.
Accounting services, tax preparation and audit services: how firms label them
Firm websites use the same few labels for different amounts of work. Accounting services can mean bookkeeping alone or the whole list above, tax preparation usually means the T1 or T2 return and its schedules, and audit services means the regulated assurance work covered earlier. A firm that calls itself full service accounting is telling you it covers several of the six jobs under one roof, but the phrase has no legal meaning, so the list of what is included matters more than the label.
Size changes who you deal with. A one-person practice gives you one contact, while a larger accounting team splits the work between a bookkeeper, a tax preparer and a CPA who reviews the file. Neither is better in general. Ask who is on your accounting team, who signs the return and who answers when the CRA writes, and match the answers to the jobs you need.
What to ask before you hire a firm
Ask which of the six jobs above are included and which cost extra. Ask who does the work, a CPA or a junior. Ask how they’ll get into your CRA account, and say no to anything that involves sharing your password. The CRA’s Represent a Client service is the route for that, and you approve it yourself.
Ask what happens if the CRA writes to you next year, because some firms handle that inside the package and others bill it as a separate job at their usual rate, which is a nasty surprise if you didn’t ask. Get the answer in writing.
One more thing worth asking is how and when you’ll hear from them. A firm that sends a short checklist in January and a reminder before each filing date is easier to live with than one that goes quiet until April.
The sources behind this page
The licence rules come from CPA Ontario. Filing dates and the professional fees line come from the Canada Revenue Agency, read in 2026. The calculator figures use our 2026 federal and Ontario data. No official source publishes what firms charge, so there are no fees on this page. This is an independent guide, and no firm paid to be on it.
Frequently asked questions
What does an accounting firm do for a small business?
Typical work is bookkeeping, tax returns, GST/HST and payroll filings, year-end statements and planning advice. Each firm decides which of these it sells.
Who can sign an audit in Ontario?
CPA Ontario says a public accounting licence is required for the lead person on an assurance engagement such as an audit or a review.
Can I deduct accounting fees?
Self-employed people report professional fees, including legal and accounting fees, on their T2125 when they relate to earning business income.
Do I have to give my accountant my CRA password?
No. The CRA's Represent a Client service lets you authorize a representative without sharing your login.
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