Bookkeeping & Payroll
Accurate, current records with bookkeeping, payroll, GST/QST reporting and financial reporting built around your operations.
Bookkeeping keeps the transaction record behind every filing; payroll withholds and remits source deductions on schedule. In Québec both feed the combined GST/QST return, the monthly or quarterly remittance, and the February T4 and RL-1 deadline.
Last reviewed:
Key facts
| Sales tax filing | One combined GST/QST return, administered by Revenu Québec for most Québec registrants |
|---|---|
| Source deduction frequency | Quarterly, monthly or accelerated — set by the CRA from your average remittance |
| Year-end slips | T4 and RL-1, due the last day of February |
| Record retention | Generally six years from the end of the last tax year the records relate to |
| Director exposure | Directors can be personally liable for unremitted source deductions |
Good decisions start with clean books. A&S Financials keeps your day-to-day bookkeeping current, reconciles your accounts, and produces reporting you can rely on. We also run payroll end to end — pay runs, source deductions, ROEs and year-end T4/RL-1 slips. We work in the cloud accounting tools you already use, so your numbers are always up to date and audit-ready.
Book a consultationWhat we offer
- Transaction entry and bank reconciliation
- Accounts payable and receivable tracking
- Payroll processing and source deductions
- T4 / RL-1 and ROE preparation
- GST/QST reporting and remittances
- Cloud accounting setup and support
Reconciled books, or books you cannot rely on
Cloud accounting imports transactions; it does not confirm they are complete or correctly classified. The test of whether a set of books can be relied on is reconciliation — every bank and credit card account agreed to a statement, and the sales tax accounts agreed to what was actually filed and remitted. Unreconciled books fail in predictable ways. A duplicated bank feed overstates expenses. A capital purchase coded as an expense misstates both the deduction and the CCA pool. Sales tax collected but posted to revenue understates the remittance, and it surfaces on audit with interest attached. Most of the year-end cleanup we do comes from books that were technically in software but never reviewed by anyone.
Payroll in Québec is four withholdings, not two
A Québec employer withholds federal income tax, Québec income tax, QPP rather than CPP, employment insurance at the reduced Québec rate, and QPIP — then remits the federal and provincial portions to two different authorities on their own schedules. Remittance frequency is assigned by the CRA and Revenu Québec from your average remittance and can change from year to year. A business that grows into a more frequent schedule and keeps paying on the old one is late every single period without knowing it. Source deductions are money held in trust, which is why the penalty regime is harsher than for ordinary tax debt and why directors carry personal liability that survives the corporation's insolvency.
Contractor or employee is the expensive question
The label on the contract does not decide it. Control over how the work is done, ownership of tools, chance of profit, risk of loss and integration into the business are what the CRA and Revenu Québec weigh. A worker reassessed as an employee makes the payer liable for both the employer and employee shares of the deductions that should have been withheld, plus penalties and interest — often across several years at once. Reviewing the arrangement before an audit is materially cheaper than defending it afterwards.
Frequently asked questions
Which accounting software do you work with?
Can you run payroll for my employees?
How often do I need to remit source deductions?
My books are behind. Can you catch them up?
Do I need a bookkeeper if I only have a few transactions?
How long do I have to keep records?
Speak with a Montréal CPA
Contact us to discuss your accounting and tax needs — in the language you prefer.