How we think about aerospace and manufacturing suppliers
A supplier's books are only as useful as its job costs. Shops in Abbotsford price work job by job, often against a fixed quote, and the next bid depends on knowing what the last job really cost. Abbotsford International Airport has an established aerospace community, and the machine shops, fabricators and maintenance suppliers around it need the same things from their books: costs tied to jobs, work in progress counted honestly, and sales to customers outside Canada recorded the right way.
We keep the ledger built around your job numbers, so the monthly statements and the shop floor describe the same work.
What makes the books different
- Job costing. Every labour hour, material purchase and outside process, such as heat treating, plating or inspection, is coded to a job. At each close, every open job shows quoted cost against actual cost, so you can see which work made money and which did not.
- Work in progress. A long job can run for months. We post work in progress at month-end, using a method agreed with your CPA, so revenue and cost land in the same period and a large shipment in March does not make February look like a loss.
- Export sales and GST. Goods you ship outside Canada, or hand to a common carrier for export, are generally zero-rated. When a business buyer takes delivery here instead, zero-rating needs three things: the goods are not excisable, the buyer exports them as soon as is reasonable without using or processing them in Canada first, and you keep satisfactory proof of export. Certain services to non-residents can also be zero-rated. For shipments that cross at Abbotsford–Huntingdon, we keep the bill of lading and export papers with each invoice, and input tax credits on your inputs still apply.
- US-dollar customers and suppliers. With the border on the city's southern edge, some shops quote or buy in US dollars. We keep US-dollar bank accounts and receivables in their own currency and record exchange gains and losses each month, so margins on a cross-border job are not distorted by the rate.
What a monthly close looks like for you
A monthly close for a shop is a job cost report you can bid from, delivered by the 10th. Shop labour hours are reconciled to payroll, supplier bills are coded to jobs, the work-in-progress schedule is updated, and export invoices are checked for proof of export.
You get gross margin by job and by customer, a list of jobs running over their quote, and a short note on what we need from you. That matters most when you bid. A quote built on last month's actual costs, rather than last year's estimates, is more likely to win work you can afford to do.
Tools we commonly use for aerospace and manufacturing clients
QuickBooks Online or Xero as the ledger, with projects, classes or tracking categories for each job. Dext to capture supplier bills and freight invoices. Plooto to pay vendors with your approval on each run. Wagepoint for payroll, with hours coded to jobs where your time system allows it. If you quote and schedule in a shop management or ERP system, we leave it in place and tie its job totals to the ledger each month.
Partners we work with
We work alongside CPAs who know manufacturers and exporters, customs brokers for cross-border shipments, commercial lenders that finance machinery, and lawyers who review supply contracts. Your CPA handles the return, the work-in-progress method and the tax advice. We keep the records behind all three. When the shop needs budgets, cash forecasts and a regular review of bid margins, our fractional controller service adds that layer.
A good fit if
- You run a machine shop, fabrication or maintenance supply business in Abbotsford or elsewhere in the Fraser Valley
- You quote fixed-price work and want actual costs by job every month
- You ship to customers outside Canada and want export sales recorded properly