Business Advisory
Why This Exists
We Already Have
Your Numbers
Once we're preparing your books and your T2, we're looking at twelve months of your business in detail: what it earned, what it cost, and where the money actually went. Most of that never gets discussed. It should.
This is a review of what your own records already show, with the tax consequences attached. It isn't a forecast, and it isn't investment advice.
A structured read of a full year of your records, delivered as a written summary and a working session. We start from the books and the return we already prepare, so there is no discovery phase and nothing to reconstruct.
Scope depends on the size of the business and the state of the records, so the fee is quoted before any work begins, the same way our corporate returns are.
- Twelve-month review of revenue, costs, and margins
- Comparison against your two prior years
- Written summary of what changed and why
- A working session to go through it properly
- Specific items to act on before year-end
Costs rarely jump. They creep, one renewal at a time, until a category has doubled and nobody ever decided it should. We break your expenses down and show you which ones moved, by how much, and against what revenue.
- Expense breakdown by category, year over year
- Gross and net margin across periods
- Subscription, service, and vendor cost drift
- Revenue concentration: how much rides on one client
- Deductible costs currently being missed
Salary or dividends is not a preference question. It changes your corporate tax, your personal tax, your RRSP room, and your CPP contributions, and the right mix moves as your income does. We run it on your actual figures, not a rule of thumb.
- Salary versus dividend mix modelled on your real income
- Effect on RRSP contribution room and CPP
- Corporate and personal tax consequences side by side
- Timing of draws across the calendar year
- Where the current mix is costing you money
Before you hire, buy equipment, or take on space, the question is whether the business can carry it and what it does to your tax position. We work that through against your own numbers.
- What a new hire actually costs, fully loaded
- Equipment purchases and their CCA treatment
- HST registration thresholds as revenue grows
- Cash flow through the commitment, not just at the start
- When incorporating starts to make sense
For clients who would rather not wait for year-end. Quarterly check-ins against the same figures, so decisions get made while there is still time to change the outcome.
- Quarterly review of results against the prior year
- Instalment planning before the CRA sets them for you
- Decisions reviewed as they come up, not in hindsight
- Priority access during filing season
- Continuity with the person who prepares your return
Two questions come up often enough to have a price before the estimate: whether to incorporate or stay a sole proprietor, and how to pay yourself from a corporation. Each is a written review worked on your own figures, delivered with the numbers behind it, for a fixed $449.
- Incorporate or stay sole proprietor: the deferral, the running costs, and the point on your income where one outweighs the other
- Owner pay plan: salary against dividends on your real figures, with RRSP room, CPP and what the corporation keeps
- A written summary you can act on, and a short session to go through it
- Anything the review turns up beyond its question is estimated separately, in writing, before any more work
Advisory work is billed at $150 an hour, with a written estimate before any work begins, so you know the likely cost before you commit to it. If the work looks like running past the estimate, we tell you before it does. Two reviews are fixed at $449 each: incorporate or not, and the owner pay plan. Prices are before tax — we add 13% HST to each invoice. GST/HST No. 75896 0975 RT0001. Every price we charge, for every service, is on the pricing page.
Working Together
What we need,
and what you get
What we need from you
Nothing we do not already hold, if we keep your books and prepare your T2: the review starts from those records. If someone else does, the last two years of financial statements and returns, and read access to the books. Then an hour with you on what you are deciding this year: a hire, a purchase, a lease, a change in how you pay yourself.
What happens next
A written estimate before any work begins, at $150 an hour, and a word from us if the work looks like running past it. We read the year against the two before it, model the decisions you named on your own figures, and write it up before we sit down together.
What you get back
A written summary of what changed and why, with the numbers behind it; a working session to go through it; and a short list of specific things to do before year-end, each with its tax effect. It is a read of what your own records show. It isn't a forecast, and it isn't investment advice.
Common Questions
Three Things People Ask
Is this financial planning or investment advice?
No. It is a review of what your own books and tax return already show, with the tax consequences attached: margins, costs, owner pay, and what the next decision does to your position. It is not a forecast of what the business will earn, and it is not advice on where to put money.
How much does an annual review cost?
It is billed at $150 an hour, with a written estimate before any work begins, so you know the likely cost before you commit. Scope depends on the size of the business and the state of the records. A review that starts from books we already keep has no discovery phase, which is what keeps the hours down. Two questions have a fixed price instead: incorporate or stay sole proprietor, and the owner pay plan, $449 each as a written review on your own figures.
When does incorporating start to make sense?
When the business earns more than you need to live on, so profit can stay in the corporation at the small business rate instead of being drawn out and taxed at your personal rate, or when liability or a future sale of the business is in view. Below that, incorporating adds a T2, a separate set of books and annual filings without the deferral that pays for them. It is one of the decisions the review works through on your real figures.