Small Business Accountants: directory of firms

Onboarding starts with access and history: the prior year's return and statements, the bookkeeping file, bank and card statements, sales tax and payroll account numbers, and any CRA correspondence. If the business has never been through a proper year-end, expect a clean-up phase before anything can be filed, and ask for that to be scoped and priced separately so it does not surprise either side.

Then a rhythm settles in. Bookkeeping is kept current through the year, sales tax and payroll filings happen on their own schedules, and the year-end pulls it together into statements and a return. A good accountant will tell you, in writing, which tasks are theirs, which are yours and which belong to a bookkeeper, because most problems in small business accounting come from a task nobody thought they owned.

Anyone can offer to keep books or prepare a return in most of Canada, but the CPA designation is granted and regulated by the provincial bodies and is protected by provincial legislation. CPABC, for example, explains that the practice of professional accounting is restricted to members it authorises, and that this covers audit engagements, other assurance engagements, compilation engagements and certain certifications and opinions on financial statement information.

That distinction matters when somebody else needs your numbers. A bank, an investor or a franchisor may ask for statements prepared by a CPA, or specifically for a compilation, review or audit report. If that is likely, say so at the start. CPA Ontario, like other provincial bodies, publishes public directories of members, firms and public accounting licence holders so you can verify what a firm is entitled to do before you engage it.

The CRA's rule is straightforward: generally you must keep all required records and supporting documents for six years from the end of the last tax year they relate to, and longer in some situations, such as records about acquiring and disposing of property or where an objection or appeal is outstanding.

Location matters as much as duration. Records must be kept at your place of business or your residence in Canada unless the CRA gives written permission to keep them elsewhere, and electronic records stored outside Canada need that approval, with copies made available in Canada on request. Paper and electronic formats are both acceptable, and the CRA sets out the conditions for imaging paper documents and backing up electronic files. Agree with your accountant who holds the originals and how you get everything back if you change firms.

A bookkeeper records transactions, reconciles accounts and often runs payroll and sales tax filings. For many small businesses that is the bulk of the monthly work, and it is the part that keeps everything else cheap and quick.

An accountant is brought in for the year-end, the return, and the decisions with tax consequences. A CPA firm adds the engagements only an authorised member can issue, and the professional oversight that goes with a regulated designation. Plenty of small businesses use a bookkeeper through the year and a CPA firm at the year-end, which works well as long as both know what the other is doing.

Ask for a written engagement that lists the filings covered, the fiscal periods included, what you supply and by when, and how out-of-scope work such as a CRA review or a catch-up year is handled. Clarify who files what: an accountant may prepare a return that you are still responsible for authorising.

LokalMatch shows small business accountants as a directory: we don't sell requests for this service, so you contact firms yourself, and we don't screen, match, rank or recommend any of them. Verify a firm's standing in the provincial CPA register before you share financial records. This guide is general information, not legal or tax advice, and your own obligations depend on your business and where it operates.