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by Janet Barclay and Jennifer Kubilis

When starting out, it’s not uncommon to personally handle all the work involved with running your business, but if all goes well, you’ll reach a point where it makes more sense to pay someone else to perform some of the administrative functions, so you can devote more time to serving customers and generating more income. In many cases, bookkeeping is the one of the first tasks to be delegated.

Unless you’ve been well trained, a qualified bookkeeper will be able to process your paperwork more efficiently than you and make sure that all income and expenses are recorded appropriately for income tax purposes. Keep in mind, however, that for your bookkeeper to do his or her job accurately, it’s up to you to provide all required information. Since you are likely paying for the service by the hour, it is also in your best interest to make sure that your paperwork is organized in a way that your bookkeeper doesn’t have to spend a lot of time going through it all to figure out what everything is.

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by Gust Lenglet

Have you ever felt that your hard-earned cash is slipping through your fingers? Are you genuinely surprised by how much money you and your family spend? Do you regularly run out of money before the end of the month? Are you racking up credit card debts to fund the difference between what you earn and what you spend? Do you wish that you had more control over your personal budget or your household budget?

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By Jennifer Kubilis

Sales are up and the money is flowing into your bank account. Think all that money is yours? Think again! If you’re tracking any taxes such as GST or PST, a portion of those funds belong to the CRA (Canada Revenue Agency).

On the one hand it’s easy to remember GST and/or PST when we include it on our invoices and when making purchases. But it’s another thing to remember when we’re making deposits or looking at our bank balance and thinking that it’s all ours. A second bank account to hold those funds can be a great help and it’s as easy as making a transfer on your bank’s website.

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By Rich Chappo

As we move into April, tax deadlines are on the horizon. Since getting taxes prepared is pretty low on most people’s list of things to do, you might need some last minute tips.

This year, you need not fear the fifteenth. Instead, the seventeenth is the day of loathing. Why? Well, the traditional filing deadline falls on a Saturday, which means the filing date is bumped to the following Monday. Two whole extra days!

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By Janet Barclay, MVA

Every week you introduce more paper into your home, in the form of newspapers, magazines, flyers, coupons, schoolwork, correspondence, bills, and other documents. It may or may not be difficult for you to ensure that reading material and advertising is discarded when you are finished with it, but when it comes to financial documents, it can be much more challenging to determine what you need to keep, and what you can toss. Here are a few simple guidelines.

Discard credit and debit card receipts and bank slips once the item has cleared your account, except in the following circumstances.

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