Updated Checked by the Tax-Services.ca editorial team How we check
A good bookkeeping package in Canada covers the monthly basics: recording and categorizing transactions, reconciling your bank and card accounts, and preparing the numbers for your GST/HST return. Payroll, year end support and cleanup of old records are extras, so ask whether they’re in the price or billed apart.
What should a bookkeeping package cover every month?
Three things, and they should be spelled out in writing. First, entering and sorting your income and expenses. Second, matching those entries to your bank and credit card statements so nothing is missing or doubled. Third, a report you can read, usually a profit and loss statement and a balance sheet.
If the package doesn’t name those, ask. “Full service” means different things to different firms. No official source defines a standard package or sets bookkeeping prices, so this page tells you what to look for, not what to pay.
Which tax tasks belong in a bookkeeping package?
Sales tax is the main one. If you’re registered, someone has to add up the tax you collected, subtract the tax you paid on business purchases, and produce the figure for your return. Ask who files it and who pays the CRA.
Take a shop in Ontario with $10,000 of sales in a month. At 13% HST it collects $1,300. If it also bought $4,000 of supplies with $520 of HST, the net is $780 to remit. That’s simple arithmetic, and a bookkeeper should get it right every month without being asked. You can check a single invoice in the GST/HST calculator.
The CRA says you must register once your taxable sales pass $30,000 in a single quarter or over four quarters in a row, and then within 29 days of that day. Its general information for GST/HST registrants has the details. Some packages only cover the registered case, so check that yours matches your situation.
Is payroll part of the package?
Often not. Payroll means calculating deductions, paying the CRA and issuing slips, and many firms sell it as a separate service. If you have employees, decide who does it before you sign.
The numbers add up fast. For an Ontario employee paid $4,166.67 a month, the payroll remittance calculator shows $821.26 held back from pay, plus $325.65 of employer CPP and EI, so $1,146.90 to remit each month. Under the CRA’s rules, late remittances draw penalties from 3% to 10%. And T4 slips are due by the end of February for the previous year.
What else might a package include?
| Service | Usually in the monthly fee? | What to ask |
|---|---|---|
| Transaction entry and categories | Yes, in most packages | How many transactions are covered |
| Bank and card reconciliation | Yes, in most packages | Monthly or quarterly |
| Financial reports | Often | Which reports and how fast |
| GST/HST return | Sometimes | Prepared only, or filed too |
| Payroll and T4 slips | Often extra | Price per employee or per run |
| Year end for the accountant | Often extra | Who hands over the file |
| Catch up on old books | Extra | Fixed fee or hourly |
The middle column reflects how the work is commonly split, not a rule and not a price list. Each firm decides for itself.
What should you check before you sign?
Read the scope line by line. Find out who does the work, who backs them up when they’re away and how you’ll receive reports. Ask how you get your files if you leave. You own your records, and you have to keep them for six years from the end of the last tax year they relate to.
Ask about the corporate side too. A business that files a corporate return needs year end numbers in a form the accountant can use. The corporate tax calculator shows how the tax on business income swings by province.
Bookkeeping isn’t tax advice. A bookkeeper records what happened, and an accountant tells you what to do about it. If you work for yourself and wonder what your books should add up to, the self-employed tax calculator gives a rough picture.
What are the signs a package isn’t working?
Reports arrive late, or not at all. Questions about odd transactions pile up unanswered. The bank balance in the books doesn’t match the bank. You find out about a GST/HST deadline from the CRA instead of from your bookkeeper. Any one of those is worth a conversation, and two means it’s time to look around.
Say Tess runs a small salon in Saskatoon and pays for a monthly package. For a year she never saw a report. When she finally asked, the books were four months behind. A simple rule would have caught it: ask for the monthly report by the 15th, every month, and treat a missing one as a problem on the 16th.
Where we got these figures
The registration limit, remittance penalties, T4 timing and six-year record period come from Canada Revenue Agency pages checked in autumn 2026. The examples use the calculators on this site with 2026 rates. We found no official guide to bookkeeping fees or package contents, so the table is a checklist and not a claim about any firm. This site has no link with any government body or bookkeeping company.
Frequently asked questions
Does a bookkeeping package include tax filing?
Not always. Some prepare the GST/HST figures, some file the return, and personal or corporate income tax usually goes to an accountant.
Is payroll usually included?
Often it's a separate service. Ask who calculates deductions, pays the CRA and issues T4 slips.
When do T4 slips have to be filed?
By the end of February for the previous calendar year. Check the CRA's page for any relief in a given year.
What does a bookkeeping package cost?
We couldn't confirm typical fees from an official source. Get written quotes and compare what each one covers.
How long do I keep my records?
Six years from the end of the last tax year they relate to, unless the CRA allows you to destroy them earlier.
- 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