How we think about holding companies
Two companies, one owner, one set of decisions. Say the operating company sends $20,000 to the holding company, and the HoldCo uses it for a strata special levy. Both ledgers have to record that transfer with the same date, the same amount and the same label. When they don't, the gap sits in an intercompany account until year-end, and your CPA bills hours to untangle it.
The structure fits a city that keeps building condo towers around City Centre and Burquitlam along the Evergreen Line. The operating company might be a clinic, a renovation firm or a consulting practice. It earns the income. A separate holding company owns one or more rental units and the cash set aside for the next purchase. The bookkeeping job is to keep both sets of books honest about each other.
What makes the books different
- Intercompany entries on both sides. Every movement between OpCo and HoldCo is recorded in both ledgers with matching details and a clear label: loan, dividend, management fee or rent. Each month we confirm the two balances mirror each other exactly.
- Each condo tracked as its own unit. Rent, strata fees, property tax, insurance, mortgage interest and repairs are coded by suite, so you can see which unit carries itself. Repairs that might be improvements are flagged for the CPA rather than guessed at. Our post on rental property bookkeeping for Coquitlam condo owners covers the unit-level records in more depth.
- The shareholder account kept current. Money you put in or take out, and any personal costs paid by either company, posts to your shareholder loan account as it happens instead of being rebuilt in March. How and when that balance gets settled is a decision for you and your CPA.
- Dividends documented as they're paid. When a company pays you a dividend, we record the declaration and the payment and keep the figures your CPA needs for the T5 slip. T5 returns are due by the last day of February after the calendar year the dividend was paid.
What a monthly close looks like for you
Per company, then across both:
- Reconcile each company's bank accounts, credit cards and mortgage statements on its own
- Post rent by unit, and match it to the property manager's statement where there is one
- Record intercompany transfers in both ledgers and confirm the balances mirror each other
- Bring the shareholder loan account up to date
- Prepare a one-page summary: cash in each company, what each owes the other, and rental results by unit
By the 10th you get both sets of statements plus that summary. When a third company or a second property portfolio enters the picture, fractional controller support adds cash planning across the group. Before year-end, our checklist for Tri-Cities owner-operators lists what each entity needs ready.
Tools we commonly use for holding company clients
- Ledger: one QuickBooks Online or Xero file per company, never a combined one
- Receipts: Dext, with each bill routed to the entity that owes it
- Rental statements: the monthly reports from your property manager's portal, filed by unit
- Intercompany schedule: a simple shared workbook listing every transfer, checked against both ledgers each month
Partners we work with
By type only; ask and we'll point you to a starting place:
- CPA firms, for each company's corporate return and for decisions about structure, dividends and the shareholder account
- Real estate lawyers and notaries, for condo purchases in the HoldCo's name and its corporate records
- Lenders and mortgage brokers, who will ask for statements from both companies when financing a unit held in a corporation
- Insurance brokers, for rental condo and landlord policies
A good fit if
- You own an operating business and a separate company holding one or more rental condos
- Money moves between the companies regularly, and you want each transfer recorded once, correctly, in both places
- You want your CPA to receive reconciled books for every entity at year-end, through our year-end preparation