What is year-end preparation?
Year-end preparation is the final close of your fiscal year: every balance-sheet account checked and supported, accruals and prepaid amounts adjusted, inventory and work-in-progress counted or confirmed, and the results packaged for the accountant who prepares your tax return. Done well, it turns the accountant's job into review rather than reconstruction.
It is also the moment to catch what twelve monthly closes can miss, such as an equipment purchase coded as repairs or a shareholder loan that has quietly grown.
What does Abbotsford Bookkeeping include in year-end preparation?
- A final reconciliation of every account, with statements on file to support each balance
- Year-end adjustments for accruals, prepaids, inventory and work-in-progress, each with a note
- A fixed-asset listing showing additions and disposals for the year, ready for your accountant's capital cost allowance work
- A shareholder and intercompany loan summary for owner-managed and family groups
- A year-end package sent straight to your CPA, and answers to their questions afterwards
Which software do you use at year-end?
QuickBooks Online or Xero, with supporting schedules in spreadsheets your accountant can open. Most CPA firms work directly in the client's QuickBooks Online or Xero file, so we invite them in rather than exporting copies back and forth.
How is year-end preparation different from filing a tax return?
Year-end preparation produces the books; the tax return is prepared from them by your accountant. The deadlines belong to the return, which is why the books need to be finished well before them.
| Return | Who prepares it | Filing deadline | When tax owing is due |
|---|---|---|---|
| Corporation (T2) | Your CPA | Within six months of the end of the tax year | Generally two months after year-end; three months for some small CCPCs |
| Self-employed individual (T1) | Your CPA or you | June 15 of the following year | April 30 of the following year |
| Construction contract payments (T5018) | Us or your CPA | Six months after the end of the reporting period | Not applicable (an information return) |
The three-month balance-due date applies only to Canadian-controlled private corporations that claimed the small business deduction and meet the Canada Revenue Agency's income tests, so confirm it with your accountant each year.
What is not included in year-end preparation?
The corporate or personal tax return, tax planning, and audits or review engagements. Those are your CPA's work. If you need an accountant who works with farms, carriers or family groups in the Fraser Valley, we can suggest some.
What does year-end preparation cost in Abbotsford?
For clients on monthly bookkeeping, year-end is part of the engagement and costs less than a standalone job because the months are already closed. Monthly engagements run $500 to $750, $800 to $1,200 or $1,250 to $2,000 a month CAD depending on the tier. For a business that comes to us only at year-end, we quote a fixed fee after seeing the books, and if the year was never recorded, the catch-up work is scoped first.
When should an Abbotsford farm or carrier set its fiscal year-end?
Ideally in a month when the work is quiet and stock is low, because that is when counts are easiest and you have time to answer questions. For a berry or vegetable grower that often means after the harvest has been sold; for a carrier it may be the slowest stretch of the hauling year. That choice is only open to some businesses, so the rules matter:
- A new corporation can choose any year-end, as long as its first tax year is no longer than 53 weeks. After that the year-end stays the same unless the Canada Revenue Agency approves a change.
- Sole proprietors, and partnerships with an individual partner, generally report on the calendar year. An individual, or a partnership of individuals only, can elect a different year-end by filing Form T1139 each year.
- Farmers may report income on the cash method or the accrual method, which changes how a late-year crop sale or input purchase lands. That is a decision to make with your accountant, and we keep the books to match it.
A good fit if
- You run a corporation, farm or family group with a CPA who files your returns
- You want your accountant to receive a finished file, not a box of statements
- You would rather hear about a problem in month nine than at the filing deadline
Probably not the right fit if
- You want us to prepare and file the T2 or T1 itself
- You need an audit or a review engagement
- You want year-end work but nothing recorded during the year, every year