What is year-end preparation?
Year-end preparation is the bookkeeping that closes your fiscal year and readies it for your CPA: every balance sheet account supported by a schedule, the year's adjusting entries posted, and one organised file the accountant works from. The CPA then prepares the financial statements and the corporation's T2 return.
The deadlines run from your fiscal year-end, not from April. A corporation must file its T2 within six months of the end of its tax year, but tax owing is due sooner: generally two months after year-end, or three months for a Canadian-controlled private corporation that meets the CRA's conditions. That payment date is easy to miss, so we aim to get the file to your CPA in time to estimate the bill first.
What does Coquitlam Bookkeeping include in year-end preparation?
- Every bank, card, loan and payment-processor account reconciled to the last day of the fiscal year
- Accruals, prepaid expenses and deferred revenue adjusted, each entry with a short note explaining it
- Shareholder loans and intercompany balances between an OpCo, a HoldCo or a PREC agreed in both sets of books
- A trial balance, general ledger and backing schedules delivered in whatever layout your CPA prefers
- Your CPA's questions answered, and their final adjusting entries posted back into your ledger
What software do we use for year-end preparation?
The ledger stays in QuickBooks Online or Xero. Once your CPA signs off, we set a lock date so nothing posted later can quietly change a filed year. Schedules are built in Excel or Google Sheets and tie to the ledger line by line. Receipts and bills live in Dext, attached to the transactions they support. Your CPA gets the file through a shared folder, their portal or accountant access to the ledger.
What does the bookkeeper prepare, and what does the CPA prepare?
The bookkeeper makes the numbers complete and supported; the CPA turns them into financial statements and tax filings and owns the judgement calls. A typical split for a small BC corporation:
| Year-end item | Coquitlam Bookkeeping | Your CPA |
|---|---|---|
| Bank, card and loan reconciliations | Prepares | Reviews |
| Accruals, prepaids and deferred revenue | Drafts and posts | Reviews and adjusts |
| Capital cost allowance | Lists additions and disposals, with invoices | Calculates and claims |
| Shareholder loans and dividends | Reconciles balances and keeps the paperwork | Advises on timing and tax treatment |
| T4 and T5 slips | Prepares from payroll and dividend records | Reviews, or prepares if they run your payroll |
| Financial statements | Supplies the trial balance and schedules | Prepares |
| T2 corporation income tax return | Supplies the supporting detail | Prepares and files |
| Typical fee (CAD) | Within your monthly tier, or a fixed quote (see below) | Set by the firm; commonly $2,000 to $6,000 for one small corporation, more for a group |
T4 and T5 slips follow the calendar year, whatever your fiscal year-end: both are due by the last day of February following the year they cover. A clean handover also tends to cut CPA hours.
What is not included in year-end preparation?
We prepare the books. We don't prepare or file the T2, sign financial statements, or decide between salary and dividends. Tax questions on presale assignments, property flips or the GST new housing rebate also go to your CPA; our part is having the purchase agreements, deposit records and statements in the file.
Audits and review engagements need a CPA firm. If you don't have an accountant yet, we can suggest firms that take on owner-managed corporations. And if months of the year were never reconciled, that work starts as catch-up and clean-up before the year-end file.
What does year-end preparation cost in Coquitlam?
For monthly bookkeeping clients, year-end builds on twelve closes already done, so the extra work is scoped and quoted before we start. Monthly bookkeeping begins at $500 to $750 per month CAD on the Steady tier.
| Tier | Monthly transactions | Monthly fee (CAD) | Typical shape |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steady | 0 to 50 | $500 to $750 | Monthly bookkeeping for single-entity businesses with straightforward transaction volume. |
| Considered | 50 to 150 | $800 to $1,200 | Monthly bookkeeping with payroll, AP, and quarterly review calls for businesses with more moving parts. |
| Bespoke | 150 or more | $1,250 to $2,000 | Holding companies, multi-entity structures, and fractional controller engagements. |
If you come to us for year-end only, we look at the ledger first and give a fixed quote. The price moves with the number of entities (an OpCo plus a HoldCo plus a PREC is three files), inventory, the count of accounts and loans, whether we prepare T4 and T5 slips, and how current the books are. All fees are plus applicable taxes.
What do Tri-Cities owner-operators need ready before year-end?
Statements for every account to the last day of the year, the paperwork behind anything unusual, and a note of what changed. We send this list about eight weeks out:
- Statements to the year-end date for each bank account, credit card, line of credit, loan and payment processor, plus Square, Stripe or delivery-app payout reports if you sell through them
- Brokerage commission statements for realtors, matched to the deposits into the PREC's account, with any personal spending from that account flagged
- For a HoldCo holding rental condos: each unit's rent records, strata fee statements, property tax notices, mortgage statements splitting interest from principal, and repair or upgrade invoices so your CPA can sort current from capital
- For presales and assignments: the purchase agreement, deposit receipts with dates, and any assignment agreement; how they're taxed is your CPA's call
- For Burke Mountain builders and renovators: contracts, progress billings, holdbacks owed in both directions, and jobs still in progress at year-end
- Assets and owner decisions: invoices for vehicles or equipment bought or sold, dividends declared, and any money moved between you and the company
Keep all of it after filing. The CRA generally requires records and supporting documents to be kept for six years from the end of the last tax year they relate to.
Further reading
For how year-end fits the whole bookkeeping year, start with The Coquitlam owner-operator's guide to bookkeeping.
- A year-end checklist for Tri-Cities owner-operators: an eight-week run-up for a BC corporation, with extra lines for PRECs and HoldCos.
- Bookkeeping for a personal real estate corporation (PREC) in BC: running PREC books monthly and what your CPA needs at year-end.
- Rental property bookkeeping for Coquitlam condo owners: strata fees, repairs versus improvements, and records for the rental schedule.
A good fit if
- You run a corporation, a PREC or a HoldCo, and a CPA files your T2
- You want the file with your CPA early enough to know the tax bill before the balance-due day
- You carry shareholder or intercompany balances that need agreeing every year
Probably not the right fit if
- You're a sole proprietor whose year is one bank account and a folder of receipts
- You need an audit or review engagement, which only a CPA firm can provide
- The books haven't been touched all year and the T2 is due within days