Paperless Bookkeeping

So it’s that time of the year again. What is the saying… “Nothing is certain but death and taxes” lol According to the Phrases Finder: This phrase draws on the actual inevitability of death to highlight the difficulty in avoiding the burden of taxes.

But there is still hope!

If you are trying to shuffle through and sort that shoe box jammed full of receipts and paperwork then you may want to talk to us…

Can you imagine just simply making a receipt digital, tossing the shoe box away and calling it a day??? Imagine, this time next year, there is NOTHING you have to do with any receipts or documents!

Believe it or not this is actually possible!

Hubdoc is a program that allows you to free up the time and minimize the stress of gathering and going through all your receipts. All you have to do is take a photo of the receipt and Voilà! Let the program and Cloud Accounting do the rest! Using a quickly growing technology (OCR), the photo of the receipt is automatically deciphered for the date, amount and vendor, uploaded into Quickbooks Online and stored in the clouds. The best part is that it is fully audit-proof so you can literally toss that receipt in the trash!

Do you get receipts in your e-mail? Many stores now offer receipts to be e-mailed so save paper... this works too! Do you have bills and statements that you need to enter on a regular basis? Hubdocs takes any size documents and with just a snap of a photo, it's done! Even better, ask for those bills and statements to be e-mailed and you will save the step of taking a photo! 

As a Hubdocs Certified Quickbooks Online ProAdvisor, we can easily set up and manage (if required) the system to help you refocus your energy and give you time to do other things you want in your business! 

To find our more about Hubdoc and how it works, visit the Hubdoc website! Or just give us a call and we blow your mind away with how easy this whole process can be!

Christmas is right around the corner!

It’s time to spend and make special memories with the ones we love. One thing you may not want to do over the holidays is call your accountant. Don’t worry, we’re not offended! However, businesses still buy and sell, file their HST and pay their workers so entrepreneurship never really goes silent. But, things slow down and we find ourselves (hopefully you have finished all your holiday shopping and preparations by now!) with some extra spare minutes.

The following suggestions will not take too long but will make a big impact and you won’t have to think about them for the rest of the year!

1. RRSP’s: Call your bank or go online and starting in January, set up a regular monthly contribution, by automatic transfer. Making automatic monthly contributions (amounts are different for each individual) allows you to forget about making the payments. You may not even notice them coming out of the bank!

2. Emergency Records: You don’t often think about it, or want to think about it but it does happen. Fires, floods, an death or illness… If any of this would happen, would you or your loved ones know where all your accounts were, who you were insured with, what credit cards you have available? And the account numbers for all of these? Heres what to do:

   • Go through your filing drawer.

   • Photocopy the latest statement/ renewal for each account/ policy you hold, or grab an old one if the account details haven’t changed.

   • Photocopy your passport, driver’s licence, OHIP and SIN card.

   • Repeat for each household member.

   • Put in a sealed envelope and write contact details for your executor, lawyer, and accountant on the front.

   • Give to someone you trust that doesn’t reside in the same location to keep safe.

   • You can also create a digital copy of all of the above and store in a password protected folder in the clouds and give the password to a few select people.

   • Do the same next year.

   Done!

3. As you know, the tax year ends on December 31 – for all individuals, and for many corporations too. All the big firms publish “Year-end guides for tax planning”, although many of them are broader tax planning documents, rather than what to do in December. These guides are worth reading at some point however they me be a little heaver of a read… Here are some pointers to get you started:

   • If you need to take money out of savings – say, to pay holiday bills – take it out of your Tax Free Savings Account (TFSA) in December. That way, you can put it back in 2019. If you wait to 2019 to withdraw, the headroom isn’t topped back up until 2020. [Flip side: Money taken out from RRSPs are taxable withdrawals. Push these withdrawals back to January, so they’re taxable in 2019.]

   • Review your debts. The interest paid on money used to earn business or generate investment income can be used as a tax deduction.

   • If you need to purchase a car or musical instrument for work, do so at the end of the year to enjoy the benefit of accelerated capital cost allowance claims.

   • Donate shares instead of cash. Not only do you get the charitable donation deduction, but by donating the shares you’re not subject to capital gains tax.

   • Check out this year-end tax planning checklist via pwc Canada.

From our family to yours, we would like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Sync Hubdoc with Quickbooks Online

Do you still have a shoe box jammed full of receipts and paperwork that you dread having to go through every quarter or when tax season comes around? Can you imagine just simply making a receipt digital, tossing the shoe box away and calling it a day???

Believe it or not this is actually possible! Hubdoc is a program that allows you to free up the time and minimize the stress of gathering and going through all your receipts. All you have to do is take a photo of the receipt and Voilà! Let the program and Cloud Accounting do the rest! The photo of the receipt is automatically deciphered for the date, amount and vendor, uploaded into Quickbooks Online and stored in the clouds. The best part is that it is fully audit-proof so you can literally toss that receipt in the trash!

Do you get receipts in your e-mail? Many stores now offer receipts to be e-mailed so save paper... this works too! Do you have bills and statements that you need to enter on a regular basis? Hubdocs takes any size documents and with just a snap of a photo, it's done! Even better, ask for those bills and statements to be e-mailed and you will save the step of taking a photo! 

As a Hubdocs Certified Quickbooks Online ProAdvisor, we can easily set up and manage (if required) the system to help you refocus your energy and give you time to do other things you want in your business! 

To find our more, visit the Hubdoc website! 

AI and Accounting

Artificial intelligence and accounting are perhaps not the first two things you think would go together... However, with the rising speed of new technologies we are in a time in our lives where we can experience amazing changes in the way we do things. The heart of any business lies in the financial bones and managing the money coming in and out. 

"Rather than eliminate the human workforce in accounting firms, the humans will have new colleagues—machines—who will pair with them to provide more efficient and effective services to clients." - Bernard Marr, Forbes

How exciting is this! We all want our business to run smoother and we will try a variety of methods to make things easier. If your accounting and bookkeeping processes can be more efficient and streamlined, it free's up your time and mind space allowing for your focus to grow your business or simply have more time for yourself. 

"As machines infiltrate accounting tasks to take over the more mundane and repetitive tasks, it will free up accountants and bookkeepers to spend more time using their professional knowledge to analyze and interpret the data to provide recommendations for their clients." - Bernard Marr, Forbes

We are excited to be part of this new growth in technology and would love to share with you all the ways we can help you improve your processes and workflows when it comes to accounting and bookkeeping. The heart of your business lies within money management. When you put your books in the cloud you can easily review and control your cash flow, and keep tabs on your open invoices, customer balances, and past due amounts. You can get insight into cash flow projections and get a budget analysis. You will always be able to see the big picture at a glance, all in one place and at anytime, anywhere! This is the tip of the iceberg when it comes to technology and accounting. Contact us anytime to find out all the ways cloud accounting can help you! 

"As accounting firms and departments begin to rely more heavily on machines to do the heavy lifting of calculating, reconciliations and responding to inquiries from other team members and clients about balances and verifying info, accountants and bookkeepers will be able to deliver more value to their clients..." Bernard Marr, Forbes