Bookkeeping & Accounting

Bookkeeping in Hamilton is the steady, unglamorous work that sits under every tax return and every set of financial statements a business produces. Infoetax (E-Tax & Business Services) offers monthly bookkeeping, financial statements, bank reconciliations and accounting support from our office at 537 Queenston Rd. in east Hamilton, with one aim: keeping your records organized from one month to the next.

This page is also the starting point for our services. It explains what monthly bookkeeping involves, how reconciliations and statements fit together, and how long records are generally kept. Further down is a short tour of everything else we do.

What monthly bookkeeping involves

Each month, the transactions from your bank and credit card accounts are recorded and sorted into categories such as sales, supplies, rent, vehicle costs and wages. Receipts and invoices are matched to those entries so that each one has a document behind it. When the month closes, the books show what came in, what went out, and what is still owed in either direction.

• Recording transactions from bank and card statements, sales records and supplier bills.
• Categorizing each entry so income and expenses land in the accounts they belong to.
• Tracking receivables and payables, so you can see who owes the business and whom the business owes.
• Keeping sales tax separate from revenue and costs, which matters when an HST return comes due.

Working monthly, rather than in one push at year-end, means questions get asked while the details are still fresh. A missing receipt from last week is easier to track down than one from last spring.

Bank reconciliations

A bank reconciliation compares the balance in your books with the balance on the bank statement for the same date, then accounts for every difference between them. Some differences are only timing: a cheque written on the 29th that the bank cleared on the 3rd. Others point to something that needs correcting, such as a duplicated entry, a missed deposit or a service charge nobody recorded.

Reconciling each bank and credit card account every month is how the books stay tied to what actually happened. When the reconciled balances agree, the reports built on top of them can be read with more confidence.

Financial statements

Financial statements summarize the books for a period. The two most owners meet first are the income statement, which shows revenue, expenses and the profit or loss between them, and the balance sheet, which lists what the business owns, what it owes and the owner’s equity on a given date. Lenders, landlords and partners sometimes ask to see them, and a corporation’s year-end statements feed directly into its T2 corporate tax return.

How long records are kept

The CRA’s guidance says that, in general, required records and supporting documents must be kept for six years from the end of the last tax year they relate to, with different periods for some situations. The details are on the CRA’s page about where to keep your records and for how long. Books kept monthly make that easier to manage, because each year’s documents are already gathered and labelled. If the CRA ever writes with questions about a past year, organized records are where CRA audit assistance begins.

Everything we do

Bookkeeping connects to almost every other part of our work. Here is the full list of services, briefly:

• Bookkeeping & Accounting (this page): monthly books, reconciliations, financial statements and accounting support.
• Payroll Services: payroll processing, CRA remittances, T4 and T4A slips, ROE support and payroll setup.
• Business Registration & Incorporation: registering a business, federal or Ontario incorporation, and CRA business number, HST, payroll and WSIB registration.
• Personal Income Tax: returns for individuals, the self-employed, landlords, investors, seniors and students, including previous years.
• Corporate Tax Returns: T2 returns, year-end reporting, financial statements, tax planning and CRA compliance support.
• HST Reporting: monthly, quarterly and annual HST filing support.
• WSIB Reporting: WSIB registration, reporting, premium calculations and payroll reconciliation.
• CRA Audit Assistance: CRA correspondence, audit preparation, document organization and guidance through a review.

All of them are listed together on the services page, and our guides cover common questions in more depth.

Who we work with

For over 15 years, Infoetax has worked with individuals, families, self-employed professionals and businesses. Bookkeeping clients range from sole proprietors who want their year’s records in order before tax season to incorporated businesses that need statements every year-end. The office is on Queenston Road, close to the Stoney Creek line, and we serve Hamilton, Stoney Creek and the Greater Toronto Area.

Getting started

Phone 905-393-7664 between 10:00 AM and 5:00 PM, Monday to Friday, or email ravi@infoetax.ca with a short note about your business and how its records are kept today. If a form suits you better, request a consultation; sending the request costs nothing.