Quick answer
For most small businesses, monthly: every bank and card account reconciled to its statement once the statement arrives, with sales, bills and receipts kept up as they happen in between. The dates the CRA sets decide the rest: a monthly or quarterly GST/HST return is due one month after the period ends, and a regular payroll remitter pays by the 15th of the following month.1,2 Books kept less often than the deadlines they feed mean every return starts from books that are not finished.
Why is monthly the usual answer?
Because most of what bookkeeping is checked against arrives monthly. Bank and credit card statements close once a month, and a reconciliation, matching every line on the statement to the books, is what proves the records are complete. Done monthly, each one covers a few weeks the owner still remembers.
The filing calendar runs on the same beat. A regular payroll remitter pays the month’s deductions by the 15th of the next month,2 and a GST/HST return for a monthly or quarterly period is due, with any payment, one month after the period ends.1 Books that are never more than a month behind are ready for both.
What should be done weekly, monthly, quarterly and yearly?
| How often | What gets done |
|---|---|
| As it happens, or weekly | Send invoices and record sales; photograph or scan receipts; enter or approve bills; check the bank balance against what is expected |
| Monthly | Reconcile every bank, card and loan account to its statement; follow up unpaid invoices; review the month’s profit and loss; remit payroll deductions for a regular remitter2 |
| Quarterly | File GST/HST for a quarterly period;1 remit payroll for a quarterly remitter;2 pay any quarterly instalments the business has3,4 |
| Yearly | Close the year; file T4 slips by the last day of February;5 file an annual GST/HST return, for most businesses three months after year-end;1 file a corporation’s T2 within six months of year-end6 |
What sets your own calendar?
Three things the CRA assigns, which is why two businesses of the same size can keep different calendars:7,2,4
- Your GST/HST reporting period. The CRA assigns an annual, quarterly or monthly period based on your annual taxable supplies, and a business on an annual or quarterly period can choose to file more often.7 An annual filer whose net tax for the previous year reached a set amount may also have to pay quarterly instalments.3
- Your payroll remitter type. It generally follows your average monthly withholding from two calendar years earlier. Many employers remit monthly; new and small employers with a perfect compliance record can remit quarterly, and the largest remit up to four times a month.2
- Your corporation’s instalments. Corporations generally pay income tax instalments monthly; a Canadian-controlled private corporation that meets size limits and has a perfect compliance history can pay quarterly.4
Whatever the calendar holds, the books need to be finished before the earliest date on it.
When does weekly make sense?
When money moves faster than a month. A weekly reconciliation and review suits a business that:
- issues many invoices and needs to know who has paid before the next job starts
- runs close to its overdraft or line of credit
- tracks costs job by job, such as a contractor billing progress draws
- remits payroll more than once a month as an accelerated remitter2
Is once a year enough?
Nothing forces a monthly rhythm on a very small business with no GST/HST registration and no payroll. A year at a time still has costs:
- Receipts go missing. Every figure has to be backed by documents,8 and a receipt is easiest to keep the week it is printed. A scan or photo can replace the paper when it is made to the national standard the CRA points to.9
- Deductions get forgotten. The CRA notes that transactions left unrecorded are how expenses and input tax credits are missed when the return is prepared.8
- The year is invisible while it happens. Profit, cash and what is owed are known only after the year is over.
- The calendar can change overnight. Registering for GST/HST, or hiring a first employee, adds dates that do not wait for year-end. Our guides to when you have to register and to whether you need a bookkeeper walk through those turning points.
What if the bookkeeping has already fallen behind?
Catch it up month by month from the statements, oldest first, then keep it monthly. A GST/HST return is still due for every reporting period, even one with no business activity,1 so the periods that were missed are part of the catch-up. Our guide to what happens if you fall behind walks through it step by step.
Keeping a monthly rhythm without doing it yourself
With monthly bookkeeping, every account is reconciled to its statement each month and the GST/HST, payroll and instalment dates are tracked against your own calendar, so each filing starts from finished books. If you have employees, managed payroll runs the pay, the remittances and the year-end slips on the schedule the CRA assigns to you.2
Frequently asked questions
Is quarterly bookkeeping enough?
It can be for a business with few transactions, a quarterly or annual GST/HST period and no payroll. Reconciling three statements at once for each account takes longer, though, and a mistake has had three months to repeat.
Can I change how often I file GST/HST?
A business assigned an annual or quarterly period can choose to file more often. Moving to a less frequent period is possible only after twelve months, and only if its taxable supplies have fallen below the threshold for the period it was assigned.7
Do I need to keep paper receipts?
Not if you keep proper images instead. The CRA accepts electronic images of paper documents made to the national standard it points to; if the images do not meet it, the originals have to be kept.9
How long do I keep the records?
Generally six years from the end of the last tax year they relate to.10
What if a GST/HST period had no sales?
You still file a return for it, known as a nil return.1
Sources
- Reporting requirements and deadlines – File your GST/HST return, Canada Revenue Agency. Accessed .
- When to remit (pay), Canada Revenue Agency. Accessed .
- Find out if you need to pay GST/HST by instalments, Canada Revenue Agency. Accessed .
- Due dates for payments – Corporate income tax payments, Canada Revenue Agency. Accessed .
- When to file information returns, Canada Revenue Agency. Accessed .
- When to file your corporation income tax return, Canada Revenue Agency. Accessed .
- Make changes to your GST/HST account, Canada Revenue Agency. Accessed .
- What are records, who has to keep them, and why it is important, Canada Revenue Agency. Accessed .
- Acceptable format, imaging paper documents and backing up electronic files, Canada Revenue Agency. Accessed .
- Where to keep your records, for how long and how to request the permission to destroy them early, Canada Revenue Agency. Accessed .
This article is general information about how things usually work in Canada, current as of the date it was last updated. It isn’t advice about your own tax or accounting position, which depends on facts we haven’t seen.