FAQ

Every transaction gets categorized and entered using double-entry accounting. Entries are backed by source documents — receipts, invoices, bills, statements, etc. Bank and credit card accounts are reconciled monthly against source statements, so every dollar in your books is tied back to a real, confirmed transaction. Every month you get financial statements that reflect what actually happened, so you can make educated decisions on behalf of your company.

As a sole proprietor, you and your business are the same legal entity — but your books shouldn't be. Mixing personal and business transactions makes it far harder to produce accurate financial statements, and much easier for legitimate business expenses to get lost, miscategorized, or missed entirely at tax time. A dedicated business account keeps the line clear from the start, and makes reconciliation faster and more reliable every month. Credit Unions and Banks offer varying options worth researching before making a decision.

The indicator is not what account was used during payment. The thing to ask yourself is: What was the expense for? A professional membership or software subscription are business expenses. A personal purchase run through the business account is still personal. 

Meals work the same way. A coffee grabbed on your own during a shift is personal, while coffee or a meal with a client, referral source, or potential business contact is a business expense. The purpose of the purchase makes the difference, not the item itself. 

Keeping a separate business account makes this distinction easy to maintain in practice, but the underlying rule is about purpose, not which account the money moved through. 

Whether your services are GST/PST-exempt is a determination your CPA makes — that's not something I decide. Once that's settled, tracking it accurately in your books month to month is part of the regular work. I'll also flag it if your revenue is approaching or has already surpassed the mandatory GST registration threshold. That is a quick, one time setup that gets sorted in just a few hours.

All client data is handled under PIPA (BC's private-sector privacy law). In practice, that means: no banking credentials are ever requested or stored. You provide statements directly or set up secure view-only access yourself if your bank supports it. Records are retained only as long as required and stored securely. And I only ever pull aggregate monthly totals from your practice management software (e.g. JaneApp) — never individual patient records or identifying details.

Bank and credit card statements (PDF and OFX/QFX, or view-only access if your bank supports it), receipts for anything beyond routing day-to-day business purchases, and your monthly summary report from whatever invoicing or practice management software you use. A full breakdown of accepted formats is in the onboarding document you'll receive when we start working together.

For small, routine business expenses, a receipt isn't generally necessary. For larger purchases, equipment, or anything above $100, a receipt is needed. If one's genuinely missing, that doesn't automatically mean the expense can't be claimed — but without documentation, it's at risk of being denied if the CRA ever audits it. 

In that case, the expense gets flagged rather than dropped, so you and your CPA can decide together whether to claim it and what, if any, alternative proof (a bank or credit card statement showing the transaction, for example) might help support it. That's a risk call for you and your CPA to make, not something I decide. 

My job is making sure it doesn't just quietly disappear from your records unflagged. Getting a copy of the real receipt is always the better outcome whenever that's possible.

The silver lining is that in the digital age, there's a higher probability of being able to recover a large purchase's receipt with minimal effort. 

Rates are based on the complexity of your books — transaction volume, number of accounts, number of income streams, etc. If complexity goes up, rates go up. If your volume drops due to a reduction in clientele, for example, and stays lower for a few months running, that's reflected in any rate above base rate. Rate changes are not a one-way ratchet: if your books get simpler, your rates can too.