Frequently Asked Questions

A - Bookkeepers are known as the "eyes and ears" of an organization. We are involved in the books on a regular basis and we enter and reconcile every transaction on the business bank and credit card statements.

Bookkeepers provide monthly financials and are in constant contact with the business owners or delegated authority. At the year-end, we wrap up the file and perform year-end bookkeeping where we close the year and provide the necessary accounting reports to the corporate accountant, who will them prepare and file the year end corporate taxes.

Accountants are generally less involved in the daily/monthly operations in a company's books, however, they do have the final say on the ledgers/accounts and the accuracy of the books for tax filing.

A - As a boutique bookkeeping firm, we take the bookkeeping experience to a higher standard. Our clients fit our model and vision and as a result, they have seen how monthly reports change their lives. Monthly bookkeeping makes a very big difference and we require our clients to provide their bookkeeping on time.

Our bookkeepers are seasoned and have worked at other bookkeeping and CPA firms and we have collected the best practices from our experience to create our boutique firm.

Once we have brought their files up to date and have set up the monthly routine, all of our clients have experienced the "bookkeeping relief" of not having that weight on their shoulders and they can sleep at night.

Better Reporting: Monthly bookkeeping allows the bookkeeper to be continuously involved in your file and since reconciliations are performed more frequently, we can better advise on questions you may have, advise on strengths and weaknesses, and help monitor areas of concern.

Cheaper Rate: GCA provides a discount on clients who sign up with our monthly bookkeeping services, instead of cramming everything together during the busy tax season.

Better Cash Flow: Ever missed paying a utility bill to later receive two months total owed? Monitor your accounts payable using Quickbooks Online.

Monthly Financial Reports: Probably the most valuable benefit - have access to your monthly income, balance sheets, and aging summaries to help you understand where your money is going, and how to manage your budget more efficiently.

Helps Catches Duplication and Fraud: Monthly bookkeeping help catch fraud! Computer hackers have become so sneaky that they can withdraw funds or make purchases on your account. Or unless you have a detailed accounts payable ledger, sometimes bills are paid twice (and unless your supplier is honest, you may not ever know). Monthly bookkeeping help catches these errors and corrects them sooner, rather than later.

Bank Errors: Did you know that you typically have 30 days to report any errors on your bank statement? For some Canadian banks, it says so right on the statement! Why take the chance of having a banking errors that you cannot correct due to time restrictions?

For many years we have had clients in Canada and abroad whom we never met face-to-face and we have equally as strong of a relationship in comparison to clients who we meet with monthly.

COVID-19 has changed in-person meetings due to safety reasons and it seems as if this change will persist in the future.

We are fully equipped to perform your bookkeeping remotely and this includes the safe guarded transfer of documents and financials.

If need to bring your bookkeeping up to date and don't want to expose yourself to hiring a part-time bookkeeper, give us a call and let us discuss how we can perform your monthly bookkeeping in a new contact-less world.

We have seen a shift from Quickbooks desktop to Quickbooks online over the past few years and anticipate this to be the future trend. We are certified Quickbooks Proadvisors for both the desktop and Online versions.
Most of our clients want to use their QB to bill clients and to control their payables while having GCA in the background performing the bank reconciliations and tax preparations. So with the QBO version, you can have continuous access while we oversee your books.
As QBO Proadvisors, we may offer a discount off the monthly subscription fees! Some conditions apply.

A- Bookkeeping isn't easy. Plain and simple. There are many rules that apply to transactions that we have seen many entry level bookkeepers miss (Google T4001 and T4002 Guide so you can see how complex the rules are). As a result the CRA has flagged the company's books. Once you are flagged, they will always have eyes on your books.

Bookkeeping takes many years of experience (especially with working with the CRA) to gain an understanding on the complexities of bookkeeping.

You may save money by paying someone $18/hour for bookkeeping but we have saved our clients thousands of dollars and provide a piece of mind so they can sleep at night - see our Client Testimonials on our Home page.

A- Absolutely! Whether you have fixed salary or variable hourly employees, we will prepare paystubs at the end of every pay period so you can pay them on time. We will prepare the monthly source deduction report on the first week of each month so you may pay the remittances well before the 15th.

We can assist with preparing Records of Employment reports if there are any changes in employment.

And we can file T4s at the end of the calendar year- before the February 28th deadline.

A- You should contact us immediately so we can obtain personal or business representation authority so we can speak to and negotiate with the auditor and solve any problems that exist on file.

In light of recent CRA bitcoin scams, do not provide any personal information regarding payment, especially crypto currency.

Unfortunately, Personal Income Tax and Benefit Returns filings are currently restricted to our current monthly clients.

If you are a current client of ours, we may be able to assist with your personal income taxes.

GCA primary focus is on high quality, monthly bookkeeping at low affordable fixed prices. We are certified in filing personal and small business (sole-proprietor) taxes, however we work with other partners who can file corporate T2 returns.

All you have to do is provide us your files, and we can do the rest!

Let us be your Toronto small business bookkeepers!

Contact us today for a free consultation!

A- We have clients located all over Canada and the U.S. who partake in our E-bookkeeping Services, which is essentially communication and file transfers through email or other secure file transfer services. If meeting with us is inconvenient due to your location or schedule, we can perform all bookkeeping electronically.

A GST/HST Examination Review Letter was issued most likely because you received a refund in the period, or have foreign sales and therefore did not collect exactly 13% of line 101 (for ON sales for example) and the CRA wants to validate the authenticity of the transactions and report that was filed.

The letter will most likely ask for the top ten sales and top ten expense invoices with a detail breakdown of L105 and 108, among other questions. Because you only have a short window of time to reply with accurate supporting documentation, we strongly suggest seeking professional assistance in doing so. As once they disallow a credit or an exemption and close a period after a review, it is difficult (and overall more expensive) to reopen.

According to Uber.com, sales tax will be added on top of the fare as of July 1st 2017. This means that if you are an Uber driver, you must register for a GST/HST number regardless of how much income you received. Please contact us if you require registration or filing of GST/HST.

Most businesses in Ontario must register with WSIB within ten (10) days of hiring their first employee. There are a few exemptions based on industries and these can be found on the WSIB website at: www.wsib.on.ca

GCA can help with registering and setting up online e-wsib, calculating insurable earnings and filing and remitting premiums.

Let us be your Toronto small business bookkeepers!

Contact us today for a free consultation!

A- Subcontractors usually assist with surplus work on a contract basis, and they are responsible for their own taxes and have variable schedule of work, among other things. Employees are normally on a fixed working schedule, supervised by an employer, who remits their taxes and supplies a T4 to them and the CRA.

The use of each varies based on your business needs and cyclical fluctuations or surplus work not included in your forecasted long-term growth.

We offer full payroll support, including the filing of T4s (for employees) and T5018s (for subcontractors) with a monthly bookkeeping subscription.

Let us be your Toronto small business bookkeepers!

Contact us today for a free consultation!

A- Not necessarily. CRA registration for a business number, GST/HST or Payroll account can be done by the business owner / director of the company or a representative. We represent all of our clients and can get this done for you for a small fee.

A- We recommend registering for GST/HST even if it’s voluntarily, if your business qualifies to do so. Contact us today to find out why. It may save you thousands! In one of our clients case, tens of thousands!

A- You most likely don’t have to remit the entire 13% that was collected on behalf of your customer. The CRA allows Input Tax Credits (ITCs) on valid Canadian business purchases that offsets some (or in some cases all) of the taxes that was collected in the tax period. If the ITCs are greater than the HST collected, you may be entitled to a refund! You are also allowed to bring forward unclaimed business expenses that is up to four (4) years from the current period. Contact us! We get more and more CRA reviews with regards to incorrectly assigned tax codes and ITCs. So it’s important to have an accountant who has knowledge and experience in assigning tax codes and processing and filing GST/HST.

A PD4R is a Tax Deduction, Canada Pension Plan and Employment Insurance Discrepancy Notice. This was sent because amounts reported and filed on your employees T4 did not match what was filed at source, and this form needs to be filled out to show where the discrepancy is and why it exists.