CPA-led accounting for Ontario construction and trades
Know what every job is really making.
Books, HST, payroll and tax handled by a CPA who understands how contractor cash moves, with the WIP schedules and year-end statements your bank and bonding company will accept.
One hour, by video or at your office. You keep the written findings either way.
| Job | Complete | Earned | Over (under) | Margin |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 24-031 Sheridan Ave. | 71% | 292,500 | 3,500 | 17.5% |
| 25-004 Bayview plaza | 38% | 152,800 | (22,800) | 12.1% |
| 25-011 Newmarket school | 92% | 588,600 | 21,400 | 9.4% |
| 25-019 Vaughan clinic | 15% | 41,300 | 13,700 | 21.0% |
| Net over billing | 1,075,200 | 15,800 | 13.6% |
Sound familiar?
- Your surety asked for a WIP schedule and the bookkeeper went quiet.
- Holdbacks are sitting in receivables, and the HST on them was remitted months ago.
- The T5018 deadline passed and nobody is sure who should have been on it.
- The income statement says profit. The bank account disagrees, and nobody can explain the gap.
- You want to bid the bigger job, but you don't know if your bonding capacity will follow.
- Someone keeps the books. Nobody runs the numbers.
None of these is a bookkeeping problem. They are what happens when a contractor outgrows once-a-year accounting. Running the numbers is the job I take.
What I take off your plate
One CPA, all of your accounting, in one place.
The monthly file
Bookkeeping with job costing in QuickBooks Online. HST filed with holdback timing done right. Payroll, WSIB and worker classification. T5018 slips. A monthly job profitability report and a review call to go through it.
Year-end and tax
Financial statements under ASPE, compiled with the working papers behind them. The corporate T2 and the owner's personal T1, filed here. CRA and WSIB letters answered before they become problems.
Bonding and the bank
The WIP schedule with over and under billings. Surety and covenant reporting delivered on their calendar, not after it. Credit-line and bonding-capacity models when you are going after more room.
Review and audit readiness
When your surety or lender asks for reviewed or audited statements, a licensed public accounting firm performs that engagement. I prepare the file, reconcile the schedules and work the request list so it is fast and clean.
How I work
The diagnostic
One hour, free, at your office or by video. I go through the books, the filings and the last year-end. You get a written action plan: what is exposed, what it is costing you, and what I would fix first.
Before you commit to anythingThe build
Cleanup and catch-up filings, job costing set up properly in QuickBooks, the WIP schedule built from your estimates and contracts.
Usually four to eight weeksThe rhythm
A monthly close with the job report and a review call. Numbers by the fifteenth. HST, payroll and slips filed on time, every time.
Ongoing, fixed monthly feeThe handover
Your office manager learns what a clean file looks like, so it stays clean between visits and you are never dependent on one person.
Built into the first year
Is this a fit?
This is for you if
- You are a general contractor, subtrade, mechanical, electrical, restoration or specialty contractor doing roughly $1M to $10M a year.
- You are incorporated and have staff on payroll.
- You are bonded, want to be, or are negotiating a credit line.
- You want one accounting firm that handles all of it, not another vendor to manage.
This is not for you if
- You need a return filed and nothing more.
- You want to hand over a shoebox once a year.
- You are pre-revenue or not yet incorporated.
No hard feelings on any of these. I would rather say so on the first call than three months in.
Packages
Fixed monthly fees, set after a 30-minute discovery call. Every package includes the year-end, the T2 and the owner's personal return.
Foundation
Stay compliant, no surprises.
Fixed monthly fee, quoted after the call
Contractors who need books, HST, WSIB and taxes done right by a CPA.
- Contractor bookkeeping, CPA-reviewed, job numbers current within 30 days
- Job profitability report every quarter
- HST filed with holdback timing
- T5018 slips, WSIB clearances, worker classification
- Payroll for the owner
- Year-end statements and T2 filed; the owner's T1 and pay-mix plan
- Annual tax planning session
- CRA and WSIB letters, reviews and audits handled
- Quarterly check-in, two-business-day response
Most clients choose this
Framework
Know what every job is making.
Fixed monthly fee, quoted after the call
Owners who want monthly job margins and a clean year-end.
- Everything in Foundation, job numbers current within two weeks
- Job profitability report every month
- Payroll for the owner and crew
- Compiled financial statements with a compilation engagement report, the ones you can hand to a bank or surety, plus the T2; T1s for all shareholders
- WIP schedule at year-end
- Contractor KPI scorecard, reviewed quarterly
- Get-paid management: progress billing, holdback receivables, prompt-payment deadlines
- Tax planning twice a year
- Monthly strategy call, next-business-day response, one site visit a year
Blueprint
Build bigger with the numbers to back it.
Fixed monthly fee, quoted after the call
Contractors going after bonding, financing or larger contracts.
- Everything in Framework, job numbers current weekly with a live QuickBooks Projects view
- Mid-year interim statements; T1s for shareholders and spouses
- WIP schedule every quarter; KPI scorecard monthly
- Bill pay for subs and vendors, approved from your phone
- 13-week cash-flow forecast and annual budget
- Bank and surety reporting package: covenant monitoring, lender and surety packages, review-readiness prep
- Quarterly tax planning
- On call, same-day response, quarterly site visits, direct line by text
Pricing is discussed after the discovery call, once I know your volume, your trade and what you want to win next. You get a written quote for one package, the price you sign is the price you pay, and nothing starts until you've approved it. Already have a bookkeeper? Keep them. Every package comes two ways: I keep the books, or your bookkeeper keeps them and I review the file each month and take everything above it. Cleanup and catch-up work is quoted as a one-time project before anything starts.
See the full comparison
| What you get | Foundation | Framework | Blueprint |
|---|---|---|---|
| Services | |||
| Contractor bookkeeping, CPA-reviewed, job numbers current within | 30 days | 2 weeks | 1 week |
| Job profitability report (labour, subs, materials, holdbacks, change orders) | Quarterly | Monthly | Monthly, plus live QuickBooks Projects view |
| HST filings with holdback timing | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Subcontractor compliance: T5018 slips, WSIB clearances, worker classification | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Payroll, source deductions and WSIB premiums | Owner only | Owner and crew | Owner and crew |
| Year-end financial statements and T2 | Statements for the T2, T2 filed | Compiled statements and T2 | Compiled statements, mid-year interims and T2 |
| Shareholder personal returns and pay-mix plan | Principal shareholder | All shareholders | All shareholders and spouses |
| Tax planning sessions | Annual | Twice a year | Quarterly |
| CRA and WSIB representation: letters, reviews and audits handled | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| WIP / percentage-of-completion schedule | — | Annual | Quarterly |
| Contractor KPI scorecard: job margin, overhead recovery, backlog | — | Quarterly review | Monthly review |
| Get-paid and pay-out management | — | Receivables | Receivables and bill pay |
| Cash-flow forecast and annual budget | — | — | Monthly rolling forecast |
| Bank and surety reporting package | — | — | ✓ |
| Support | |||
| Your CPA, directly | Quarterly check-in | Monthly strategy call | On call |
| Response time | 2 business days | Next business day | Same day |
| In-person visits, your office or job site | — | Annual | Quarterly |
| Direct line by text | — | — | ✓ |
| Technology | |||
| QuickBooks Online Plus with job costing, and Dext for receipts from the truck | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Plooto, approve payments from your phone | — | — | ✓ |
What your bonding company actually reads
Every one of these comes straight off your financial statements. That is why the statements matter more than the bond application.
Working capital
Current assets less current liabilities, with holdbacks and over-billings treated the way the surety treats them.
Tangible net worth
Equity after shareholder loans and intangibles are stripped out. Often the number that caps your program.
The WIP schedule
Job-by-job margin and over and under billings. The first thing a surety analyst turns to, and the first thing that is usually missing.
Consistency
The same statements, on the same basis, on time, every year. Late or restated numbers cost capacity even when the business is sound.
I have never been the accountant who visits once a year.
I'm Peyman, a CPA in Aurora and the founder of PS Accounting Studio. Before starting the practice I spent fifteen years inside operating businesses closing the month, including rebuilding a company's finance function ahead of an audit and an acquisition, and leading finance at an Ontario regulator.
I have been the one waiting on the auditor's request list, and the one explaining why the income statement says profit while the bank account disagrees. That is the experience I bring to your books, and it is why I know what the bank, the surety and CRA are going to ask before they ask it.
Today PS Accounting Studio does the accounting for a bonded mechanical contractor: the monthly close, the year-end, and the WIP and covenant reporting the surety and the bank ask for, including the numbers behind their most recent credit-line increase.
My background is industry, not audit practice. I work in English and Farsi.
Two things you can use today
The Bondability Checklist
The items a surety checks before issuing a first bond or increasing a program, and how to score your own file against them. No email required, and brokers are welcome to send it to clients.
Download the checklist (PDF)The Contractor Profit Leak Checklist
The seven places margin disappears between the estimate and the bank account, and the one report that catches each of them.
Send me the checklistIt arrives by email, with one email a month after that: filing deadlines and what lenders and sureties are asking for. Unsubscribe any time.
There is more in the library. Templates, short notes and both checklists, with a new item added every month.
Browse all resourcesQuestions contractors ask
My surety wants reviewed statements. Can you do that?
A review engagement, like an audit, has to be performed by a licensed public accounting firm, and I am not one. What I do is everything up to that point: the statements, the WIP schedule, the reconciliations and the working papers, so the licensed firm's work is fast and their fee stays small. I can recommend firms I have worked with.
How do you handle HST on holdbacks?
HST on a holdback is not collectible until the holdback is released or becomes payable, which is often months after the invoice. I track holdbacks separately so the HST is neither remitted early, which ties up your cash, nor missed later, which brings a CRA letter.
Do you file T5018s, and who has to be on them?
Yes. Any subcontractor you paid $500 or more for construction services in the year belongs on the return, whether they are incorporated or not. I keep the list current through the year so February is not a scramble, and I will tell you when someone you are treating as a subcontractor looks like an employee to CRA and WSIB.
Do I have to leave my current accountant?
No. Some clients keep their year-end firm and I handle everything up to it, which usually makes that firm's job easier and cheaper. Most consolidate here after the first year. Either works.
Do you handle personal tax for the owner?
Yes. The owner's personal return is included in every package, because salary-versus-dividend and shareholder-loan decisions only make sense when one person sees both sides.
What software do you use?
QuickBooks Online, with every job set up as its own project so labour, subs and materials land on the job they belong to. If your shop already runs something that works, I'll tell you whether it's worth keeping before I change anything.
How quickly can you start?
The diagnostic is usually within a week of your call. If we go ahead, the build starts the day the engagement letter is signed, and cleanup work is quoted before it begins so there are no surprises.
Start with the diagnostic.
One hour, no charge, and you keep the written findings whether or not we work together. Pick a time, or call and we will set it up around your schedule.