Accountants: directory of firms

Public accounting is the regulated core of the profession, and the rules are provincial. In Ontario it is governed by the Public Accounting Act, 2004, under which CPA Ontario licenses public accountants; CPA Ontario explains that a public accounting licence is required by the lead engagement person responsible for signing a report on an assurance engagement, such as an audit or a review of financial statements. Other members of the engagement team need not be licensed, and a professional corporation offering public accounting services must have a licensed shareholder.

Quebec draws the line in a different place. The Ordre des CPA du Québec reserves audit engagements, review engagements and compilation engagements that are not intended exclusively for internal administration to members who hold a public accounting permit, who use the title CPA auditor. Someone who is not a member of the Ordre may not carry out those engagements or sign a statement about them, and the Ordre investigates and prosecutes illegal practice. That makes Quebec stricter than most provinces about compilation work in particular.

Further west, the regulation attaches to the firm as well as the person. CPA British Columbia licenses individual practitioners and registers firms, and treats public practice as covering both public accounting, meaning audit, review and compilation services, and other regulated services such as tax advice and tax or statutory filings. CPA Alberta registers professional accounting firms under a varied registration model, assessing each member who can issue services on the firm's behalf and requiring firms to confirm their professional liability insurance at renewal. The practical lesson is the same everywhere: check the provincial body's register for the individual and the firm, in the province where the work will be done.

Much of the money wasted on accounting is spent buying the wrong level of service. A bookkeeper records what has already happened and keeps the file clean; an accountant interprets it, files the returns and advises on what to do next; a tax preparer handles a personal return in season; a payroll provider runs the pay cycle and the remittances. Using a senior practitioner for data entry is expensive, and expecting a data-entry service to spot a tax problem is worse.

A common arrangement in small businesses is a layered one: a bookkeeper through the year, a payroll provider for the pay cycle, and a CPA firm that takes the file at year end, prepares the statements and returns, and gives advice. That only works if the people involved agree who does what, and if the year-end firm is happy with how the books are kept. Ask each of them how they expect to receive the file, and whether they have worked alongside the others before.

The cost and the quality of accounting work are decided largely before the accountant opens the file. Records that are complete, reconciled and supported by documents take less time to work through and leave fewer questions that only you can answer. The Canada Revenue Agency requires records and supporting documents to be kept, as a general rule, for six years from the end of the last tax year they relate to, and to be kept at your place of business or your residence in Canada unless it gives written permission for somewhere else. Some records, such as those concerning the share registry or the acquisition and disposal of property, are kept indefinitely.

A sensible rhythm is monthly rather than annual: reconcile the accounts, file the source documents as they arrive, keep personal spending out of the business accounts, and raise unusual transactions while everyone still remembers them. If the business changes shape during the year, through a new shareholder, a property purchase, a first employee or sales into another province, tell the accountant when it happens rather than at year end, when the options have usually narrowed.

LokalMatch publishes accounting firms as a directory. Accounting is a regulated profession whose rules on referral arrangements differ between provinces and are still under review here, so we don't sell requests for this service: you contact the firm yourself, on your own terms, and nothing you read on LokalMatch is a recommendation, a ranking or an endorsement of any firm. We do not screen firms, assess your situation or decide which practitioner suits you.

Use the listing as a starting point, then do the checks yourself. Look up the individual and the firm on the provincial body's register, confirm the public accounting licence if you need assurance work, ask for a written engagement letter, and compare more than one firm. The guides on LokalMatch are general information, not legal or financial advice, and the rules described here change; the provincial regulator and the tax authority are always the authoritative source for your own case.