Monthly bookkeeping for owner-run businesses in Gatineau
One river, two provinces
A business in Gatineau sits a bridge away from Ontario. Some of its customers may be in Ottawa, some of its suppliers may invoice from there, and some of the people it pays may live on the other side. All of it matters to the books, because a transaction with an Ontario party does not always follow the same rules as one with a neighbour down the street.
Which rules apply is your accountant's call, and it is asked with the facts attached: who the other party is, where the work was done, what was invoiced and how it was paid. The bookkeeping makes sure each cross-river transaction is recognised as one, recorded with that detail, and treated the same way as the last one like it once the answer is known.
Québec terms, on the Québec side
Your books are kept on Québec terms. The sales tax your business collects and pays is recorded on every transaction as it happens, in the accounts your accountant expects. Payroll is entered as your provider processes each run, with the CNESST figures recorded alongside the wages they belong to, and every run is reconciled to the bank afterwards. Your accountant files from the package we prepare, and Revenu Québec questions go to them.
Kept in one language, read in the other
A business here can end up working in two languages without ever deciding to. A French invoice, an English supplier, an accountant who reads one and an owner who prefers the other. The books can be kept in French and the quarterly package handed over in English, or the reverse, without a translation step, because the same person works in both.
What is kept, each month
- Every transaction categorized weekly, with the Ontario ones marked as they come in.
- Receipts matched while the month is open.
- Every bank and card account reconciled to its statement.
- Payroll recorded and reconciled to the bank each run.
- A quarterly package assembled for your accountant, in the language they read.
Who is doing this
One operator, with over 20 years of experience in bookkeeping, accounting and financial analysis, for-profit and non-profit, across a wide range of sectors, in English and in French.
Questions Gatineau business owners ask
Our accountant is in Ottawa. Does that cause a problem?
That works. The package goes to them in the form and the language they ask for, and the Québec-side detail is laid out so they can see what it is without having to reconstruct it.
Some of our clients are in Ontario. Who decides how those are handled?
Your accountant does, once, with the facts in front of them. The books then apply that decision consistently, so the same kind of transaction is never decided twice.
Can the books be in French if I read reports in English?
Yes. The language the books are kept in and the language a report is read in do not have to match.
One next step
A fifteen-minute call about your month, at no cost. Ask for a call.