Bookkeeping, taxes and payroll: The work of day-to-day accounting
MLBS does ASPE GAAP bookkeeping using either Quickbooks Desktop PRO, Quickbooks Online or Sage 50 platforms.What does that mean? It means that we can sort out and record all of your day-to-day transactions and organize them so you can see what's going on in your business, do your payroll and file all the government taxes and forms needed to keep the Canada Revenue Agency and everyone else happy.
What does a bookkeeper cost?
MLBS is accepting new customers at $70 per hour - That's about half of what you would pay for the services of a garage mechanic or plumber.
The MLBS hourly rate is adjusted each year on April 1st, not to exceed four times the Yukon Hourly Minimum Wage in any period.
In addition, the client will need to cover any additional software licensing fees and Yukon Corporate Affairs fees that arise from the client's particular circumstance. Some small operations may only require as little as an hour or two of Bookkeeping/accounting each month. A typical small business with say, 10 employees that records its sales daily through a cash register or POS system would normally take somewhere around six to ten hours per month of bookkeeping. Most small operators with no payroll, a chequing account, credit card and a vendor account or two take two to four hours of bookkeeping per month of operation. That amount of time would usually include all of the day-to-day housekeeping, plus the production of statements that you might want for yourself, your bank manager or the tax man at some point. (The first month usually takes the longest; possibly up to double the time if we have to set up the software and chart of accounts for your business from scratch)
The initial consultation is free. It is here that we determine whether or not MLBS services would be possible, practical and cost-effective for your business
What does that 6-10 hours of accounting/bookkeeping typically include?
- The recording of sales, COGS (Cost of Goods Sold) and other expenditures & transactions
- Payroll
- Pd7a - CRA payroll remittance filings
- GST calculation and remittance filings
- Bank and credit card reconciliation
- Monthly balance sheet adjustments (consumption of prepaid insurance premiums etc.)
- GAAP ASPE financial statements (Income Statement, Changes in Equity, Balance Sheet, Cash Flow)
Invoicing your customers and collecting accounts receivable
- MLBS can create and send invoices and periodic statements directly to your customers, and see to it that you receive payment in the most timely manner practical. If you choose, this can even include initiating legal proceedings for the occasional, more difficult overdue account.
Additional accounting/bookkeeping and other services you might want from us may include:
- Accounts Payable
- Special Project/Job tracking (particularly useful for the construction industry and for non-profit organizations with restricted funding agreements in place)
- Cash flow projection
- CCA recording/Amortisation of capital property by CRA asset class
- Budgeting
- Non-GAAP accounting - Specialized analysis of your business to help you make better decisions
- Inventory costing and control
How does it work?
Pretty simple: For starters, you save ALL of the source documents (receipts, invoices and records related to your business transactions) and show them to us. To accomplish this, we can come and pick them up from you directly; Or you can pass them to us directly over the Internet using scanned images or pictures you can take with your cell phone; Or you can mail or courier them to us.We then identify how each transaction should be categorized and enter them into computerized accounting software according to ASPE (Accounting Standards for Private Enterprise) GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles).
The software we use for your business can be either Quickbooks Desktop PRO, Quickbooks Online or Sage 50 Accountant Edition (formerly ACCPAC or Simply Accounting). Of the two, Quickbooks is faster to use and cheaper to license, so we would typically recommend Quickbooks over Sage. There are numerous ways we can get things accomplished. We can tailor the details of how we operate within your company to your particular needs or desires.
Can help you with your business income taxes? Yes.
If you are a partnership/proprietorship or have a small to medium-sized corporation, MLBS can be a less expensive alternative to hiring a CPA (Chartered Accountant) or tax professional. We can either do the T2 and information return filing for/with you, or we can get your books ready to send to your favourite CPA, reducing the expense.
The first step is to bring your books and/or computer accounting database to a condition where all of the expense and revenue transactions for the year are recorded, and those transactions reconcile against your bank, credit card and vendor account statements. If your business is incorporated, the books need to be in a condition where all the assets you have are equal the sum total of the liabilities plus the equity you have in the business. If you are contracting a competent accountant or bookkeeper to keep things up-to-date then this step is probably already complete. If not, don't worry, we can sort all of this out for you.
Once that is done, the next phase is the actual filing of the Canada Revenue Agency document called the T1 or T2. It typically takes two to three hours of accounting time to fill out everything, and the purchase of a filing license is required. The filing license costs around $320 for corporations or $150 for proprietorships and partnerships.