Your Accountant Is in Ottawa.
Bookkeeping, payroll and corporate tax for Ottawa owner-managed businesses — Stittsville retailers, not-for-profits across the city, and anyone whose payroll crosses the river. Run from here, not from three provinces away.
What an Ottawa business runs into.
Not the parts that are the same everywhere in Ontario — the parts that aren't.
Payroll that crosses the river
Quebec runs a payroll system of its own alongside the CRA's — its own employer number, its own source deductions, its own year-end slips. Whether you land in it turns on which establishment an employee reports to rather than simply where they live, and remote arrangements have made that a genuine question rather than a formality. It is the single most common thing an Ottawa business gets wrong that a Toronto business never has to think about.
Selling into Quebec
QST is not GST/HST with a different number on it. Depending on what you sell and who you sell it to, selling across the river can mean registering with Revenu Québec, charging a second sales tax and filing a second return on its own schedule. Plenty of Ottawa businesses cross that line without noticing, because from where they sit it feels like a local sale.
Not-for-profit books answer to more people
A grant that has to be spent on one thing, a board that needs to see it, and a funder who will ask for the breakdown a year later. Restricted and unrestricted money has to be separated as it arrives rather than reconstructed at year-end, and the annual information return is a different filing from a corporate return. Ottawa has more of these organisations per square kilometre than anywhere else in the country.
Retail that lives and dies by a quiet February
A shop on a suburban main street has inventory sitting in cash, a POS system that has to reconcile to the bank every single day, and a year with a shape to it. Books that arrive in June cannot tell you anything about a season that ended in March.
Ottawa clients, not an Ottawa keyword.
Retail in Stittsville
Independent shops on the west end, where daily sales, inventory and seasonality are the whole job.
Not-for-profits across Ottawa
Organisations that report to a board and to funders, not just to the CRA.
Owner-managed businesses with staff in Gatineau
Where payroll answers to two tax authorities instead of one.
Set up properly, from the start.
Quebec source deductions, RL-1 slips and Revenu Québec remittances alongside your CRA payroll
QST registration and filing where selling into Quebec triggers it
Restricted and unrestricted funds tracked separately, and reported the way a board reads them
Not-for-profit and charity information returns, and the public service body rebate
Daily POS and inventory reconciled to the bank, not to a spreadsheet in April
Monthly financials within days of month-end, on one fixed fee
- BookkeepingBookkeeping. Done. Right.
- PayrollNever Miss a Payroll.
- Corporate taxPut Money Aside to Pay Your Taxes.
Work in a sector with its own problems? See the industries we specialise in.
You asked. We answered.
Do you work with incorporated consultants billing the federal government?
Yes. A one-person corporation invoicing a department or a prime contractor is a common file here, and we run it the way we run any incorporated business — bookkeeping, GST/HST, payroll if you pay yourself a salary, and the corporate return, each filed on time. The point of the engagement is that you stay compliant with the Canada Revenue Agency without having to think about it.
I have an employee living in Gatineau. What changes?
Possibly a registration with Revenu Québec, and a second set of payroll obligations running beside your federal ones. Which side you land on depends on the establishment the employee reports to rather than the address they sleep at, and remote work is exactly where that turns from a formality into a real question. We work out which it is, handle the registration if you need one, and run both sets of filings from there.
Do I need to be in Ottawa to work with you?
No. We are an Ottawa firm because that is where our founder lives, and the work itself is cloud-based — our clients are across Canada. If you are here, we know the ground. If you are not, it changes nothing about how we would work together. Either way, reach out and we will tell you straight whether we are a good fit.
What does bookkeeping cost for an Ottawa small business?
It depends on the scope. Transaction volume, how many accounts and platforms feed the books, whether payroll and sales tax are in, and how much catching up the first few months need all move the number. So we quote after a discovery call rather than before one — the aim is a plan built around how your business actually runs, not a tier you get squeezed into.
How we priceCan you take over from my current bookkeeper mid-year?
Yes, and mid-year is normal — most switches happen mid-year. We take the file as it stands, establish what has been done and what has not, and pick up from there. Start with a discovery call so we can work out which services you actually need and how we can help.
Let's see if we're a fit.
Thirty minutes. Tell us how your business actually works and we'll tell you straight whether we can help.