# Accounting Referral



## BC Eddie (Feb 2, 2014)

For the last 20 years my wife and I had been doing computer consulting work through our incorporated company. Much of this work was done for US clients while living in the US. More recently it was done remotely from British Columbia, where we now live. 

As of January, 2016 we have just completed our first year of retirement. We have virtually no corporate expenses and foresee paying ourselves out in shareholders’ dividends for another four or more years, at which point we would expect to wind-up the corporation. We use Quicken to record all our business transactions and provide very complete records to our accountant (remotely in Ontario) for yearend paperwork processing and T5 production. 
My questions are:
1.	What would be a reasonable annual rate for this level of accounting service?
2.	Can anyone recommend an accountant who could provide similar quality service and what their expected annual rate would be?


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## jdc (Feb 1, 2016)

It sounds like your situation is similar to mine. If you're in Vancouver, I suggest that you give Hermann Schindler a call. His office is on West Broadway. Tell him Doug sent you.


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## rim27 (Mar 11, 2016)

Well, annual rates may varies according to the experience of the accountant. For reputable American and Canadian based accountants, explore "SlickPie" or Google "SlickPie trusted accountants"


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## BC Eddie (Feb 2, 2014)

Thanks for the reference but it does not look like this site/software is set up to do accounting for incorporated companies. I can find no reference to T2 corporate filings and this is a must have for me.


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## Charlie (May 20, 2011)

Why not stay with your Ontario accountant?


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## BC Eddie (Feb 2, 2014)

Charlie said:


> Why not stay with your Ontario accountant?


Now that we are retired there are very few transactions going through the company. We are keeping the company open as we slowly draw down corporate dividends. We are quite meticulous in our paperwork and provide our accountant everything they need in Excel spreadsheets and a Quicken file. It costs about $2100 a year in corporate tax accounting so I was hoping to save money.

I just found out I could buy a corporate version of Turbotax (about $230) to do the T2 corporate filing. I would really be interested to hear from anyone who has actually used this product to do their own accounting of an incorporated business. I would like to know if it is relatively easy to use assuming one is willing to invest the time to learn it. I have past year's T2 filings to use as models.


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## Charlie (May 20, 2011)

I sole proprietor or small firm should be able to do your corp for about $1K. Maybe a bit less. Up to you whether it's worth $500-$800/y to do it yourself.


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## Micvanlen (Apr 14, 2016)

*3329*

Have you considered working with a bookkeeper vs an accountant? I own a number of businesses only always use bookkeepers vs accountants for day-to-day finances. I only use the accountant at the end of the year to generate "notice to ready" statements and file tax. 

Based on your situation, I'd bet you're looking at $4500 if you use an accountant for it all (they usually charge out at $100/hour). I know a few bookkeeping companies that would charge between $30 and $50 per hour, so you'll save a bundle. Here's a company that's offering a special right now. Check out Calgary Bookkeeping and their spring special.


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## BC Eddie (Feb 2, 2014)

I appreciate the responses but not sure they will be a savings in the long run. As I say above, right now the total annual fee is about $2100 and that covers a very few questions to accountant over the year, production of the "Notice to Reader", financial statements and the production of the T2 report and creation of T5's. So maybe my accountant is not such a bad deal.


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