What Is Bookkeeping?

What bookkeeping means

Bookkeeping is the day-to-day record of income, expenses, what customers owe and what the business owes. Accounting uses those records to produce the income statement, balance sheet, statement of retained earnings and cash flow. The old site’s bookkeeping page lists exactly those four statements.

Where to find bookkeeping

The record lives in a book or in software such as the file you already keep. Bank statements, invoices and receipts are the source papers. A monthly close means the bank was reconciled and the statements can be read. A year-end shoebox means the tax return waits.

Why bookkeeping matters

The firm keeps books monthly, quarterly or yearly for a business, a not-for-profit or a charity. There is no published monthly price. Toronto clients who want this framed as a city service can use the Toronto bookkeeping page. The Scarborough service page is the engagement itself.

Keeping bookkeeping records for tax

Bookkeeping feeds the tax return. A business’s income statement, balance sheet and bank reconciliation come from the same records the T2, or the owner’s T1, is built from. Keep invoices and receipts with the books so a CRA letter can be answered from the file. The firm quotes a six-year retention period for tax records, counted from the end of the last tax year they relate to.

Work with the Scarborough office

Kennedy Tax & Accounting Inc. prepares the return from its only office in Scarborough, near Kennedy Station. You can visit or send the slips. English, Bengali and Tamil are spoken. A CPA has led the firm since 2010. A simple personal return starts at $49.99 + HST. Other work is quoted first.

The personal return is prepared on the personal income tax page. A corporation uses the T2 service. Books are on the bookkeeping page.