Bookkeeping Automation And SaaS Businesses

There are not many businesses who can hold their hands up and say they enjoy bookkeeping.  SaaS businesses can find this a difficult and time consuming process, and as a result, there are many pitfalls which can become a business unknowingly. These types of pitfalls can end up being expensive, both in money and time.

A good way to streamline your bookkeeping endeavors and save yourself both time, and the risk of mistakes, is to ensure that your booking is automated. That sounds complicated, but when you break it down, you’ll see how easy it can be.

Research And Choose Apps For Cloud Accounting

Cloud accounting is beneficial in many different ways, and there are several high quality apps on the market which makes the process much easier overall. Cloud accounting allows you to access your financial information at any time, and you can easily complete many different tasks in half the time as a result.  

If you are keen to implement bookkeeping automation, cloud accounting, and choosing the right app, is a vital step. Look for apps which have something called an ‘open API’. This will allow the app to utilize third party services, to enhance your accounting. 

Research And Choose Apps For Subscription Billing

The very nature of SaaS companies is that they are going to have several profitable transactions which recur over the space of the month. This can be hard to keep track of, but an app which utilizes subscription billing, working well with your cloud accounting app, will take the hard work out of it all.

The idea is that the two apps work side by side, and this handles the tax side of things also. When a client is billed, the two apps will kick in together, and an invoice for the sale will be sent from the app handling subscription billing, over to the app handling the general cloud accounting. Nothing gets missed in the middle as a result. This will also apply the correct amount of tax on the sale, depending on where the client is based.  

Research And Choose Apps For Managing Expenses

A third app you need to obtain is one which will record receipts and invoices pertaining to expenses. Again, this needs to work seamlessly with your cloud accounting app, to ensure everything pushed from one to the other. As a result, you have less paper, rendering you finally paperless, and everything will update itself, via the apps working together, without you having to input and calculate various figures.

Automated bookkeeping is about all areas of your accounting services running together and updating accordingly. This creates a more streamlined, easier to use service for any business, but for a SaaS business especially.

Of course, it’s important to ensure you choose the right apps, and to utilize advice from regular bookkeeping companies, to help you establish your tech bookkeeping system. Setting everything up from scratch can take time, and there can be mistakes made. By taking advice and choosing apps carefully, you minimize these risks and ensure you have an automated and successful process in place. 

Contact your Accountants today click on this link —> https://capexcpa.com/contact

- The Capex Team

The Big Question - When Are my Taxes Due?

For any business, there is one question that needs to be asked, and the advice adhered to - when are my taxes due? 

In Canada especially, tax deadlines can be confusing. There are personal tax issues, and there are corporate tax issues. You also need to identify the type of business you are:

•   Corporation

•   Employee

•   Self-employed person or sole proprietor

Understanding which group you fall into will give you a faster answer to your question. 

If you are a corporation, and you are a CCPC, which stands for Canadian Controlled Private Corporation), then you need to adhere to the following tax information:  

•   Your taxes will be due three months after the tax year ends

•   But, filing your taxes is but six months after the tax year ends

Confusing? Yes! 

Remember, corporations can choose the date their tax year ends, but by the time the taxes due date arrives (three months after the end of the year), it could very well be that your records aren’t up to date and completed yet. This can make knowing how much tax you owe difficult. You have two answers to this - you can either work hard to ensure everything is up to date by that time, or you can simply estimate what you think you’re going to owe, pay the CRA by the deadline date, and then submit an amendment to rectify the numbers once your records are up to date.

If you are either a self-employed person or a sole proprietor: 

•   Filing of your taxes is due on the 15th of June, for the previous year

•   Payment of your taxes is due on the 30th of April 

The same situation as above may arise, but the same solutions apply.

A regular employee’s tax filings and owed tax are both due on 30th of April, and the employer generally deals with this side of things.  

Miscellaneous Tax Dates to Bear in Mind

There are a few other tax filing and owed dates which don’t really fit into specific situations, but may be pertinent to you:

 •  Corporations to complete HST Annual Filing by the 31st of March

•   Self-employed individuals to complete HST Annual Filing by the 30th of April

•   Self-employed or corporate HST Quarterly Filing to be complete by the final day of the month, after the quarter was filed

•   Self-employed or corporate HST Monthly Filing to be completed on the last day of the month, following the filing of the month’s figures

•   T4 and T5 payroll slips (Payroll Filings) – 28th of February, for the year before

The above information should make knowing when your taxes are due much clearer. Of course, if you have any issues or you’re not sure about any aspect of your business, you should talk to a registered and experienced accountant. Simply guessing is not a good idea, and could lead to an expensive mistake, which costs time and money in penalty payments. Every business is different, and whilst dates should be adhered to at all times, there are anomalies which crop up from time to time.

Contact your Accountants today click on this link —> https://capexcpa.com/contact

- The Capex Team

Tax Time is Almost Upon Us - Should You File Your Own Taxes?

Whenever the time arrives, when we’re all thinking about filing our taxes and making sure everything is submitted on time, there are many questions that crop up. You might be thinking about filing your own taxes this year, and in that case, here are some things you may want to know in advance.

There are many online calculators and different methods of help which can allow you to file your own taxes. Of course, this shouldn’t replace the idea of having an accountant to help you throughout the year, but by submitting and filing your own taxes online, you are giving yourself a large amount of control over your accounting tasks and money management for your business.

You might be wondering why we’re talking about self-filing of taxes, when it is a job which an accountant has traditionally done. Surely this is a negative thing for the world of accounting? No! There are many reasons why self-filing online is actually a good thing.

For instance, filing your own taxes online isn’t difficult, and it really is just about giving information, and submitting it in the right place on the form. It’s very self-explanatory and won’t take very long to complete. You will use your T4 slips from employment salaries you have received, and your T3 or T5 slips for any income you have received from investment, as well as slips for RRSP cash paid and contributed, and anything else you need to claim.

The information you need to enter is contained very clearly on these slips, and by doing this yourself, you have control over your filing. If you do this yourself, you know exactly what you’re doing, when you’ve done it, and how much tax you need to pay. It is a peace of mind thing, and one in which can give you a greater overview of your tax situation.   

How is This a Good Thing For Accountants? 

Don’t worry, you’re not putting your friendly accountant out of a job, you’re actually helping them. At the end of the tax year, accountants are wrapped up with work, mostly filing tax returns which could be done by the business themselves. This is easy work, something which you can easily do without highly skilled knowledge, e.g. the skills of an accountant. This frees them up to concentrate on the more complex work, which is also in demand at the end of the tax year.

As a result, accountants can also give their clients much more in-depth and specialized advice, because they’re not bogged down with inputting information into tax return forms. Of course, you can always ask your accountant for quick advice if need be, but this is certainly a task you can do yourself, without much hassle.

The only thing you need to bear in mind when submitting your own tax return is to ensure that everything is in order for when the time comes. This will make everything easier, and reduce stress. If you plan well throughout the year and keep your records in order, this should be a simple task. 

Contact your Accountants today click on this link —> https://capexcpa.com/contact

- The Capex Team

Thinking About Paying a Salary to Yourself?

If you want to take money out of a business, specifically a corporation, you might be wondering whether it is a better choice to utilize dividends, or to pay a salary. It’s important to look carefully at what is best for your company, and then learn about how to go about paying yourself a salary, if that is the route you choose to go down.

Why would you want to pay yourself a salary? If you simply take cash out of your corporation, this isn’t classified by the CRA as either a dividend or a salary. It is considered to be something called a shareholder loan. This means you are supposed to pay the cash back, because you are literally borrowing money.  

How to Pay Yourself a Salary

If you are opting to pay yourself a salary, you will need to issue a T-slip by the end of February every year. This tells the CRA that a salary has been taken. You should do the same if you want to withdraw a dividend. The types of slips vary for each payment, e.g. a T4 is for a salary, and a T5 is for a dividend.

The work doesn’t stop there. You also need to record the remittance on the payroll system. This ensures the correct amount of tax to be taken from the salary. This will usually be CPP and income tax.

There are a few ways you can declare that a salary has been paid:  

•   Bonus at the end of the year - when you do your year-end taxes, you’ll declare that you have given yourself a bonus as a lump sum. Use a payroll calculator (there are many online) to work out how much of a remittance you need to pay, and how it will affect your personal tax return.

•   Remittances at periodic times - If your business would struggle to make lump sum payments, you can make remittances throughout the year, e.g. quarterly. This ensures you are paying yourself at regular times and manages your companies finances.

•   A regular monthly remittance - This is very similar to regular payments to employees and you will need to use a monthly payroll system, with an online calculator to help you in terms of how much tax to pay. This will automatically be deducted every month, and your year-end taxes will be much clearer as a result.

If you’re not sure which option is best for you, or how to really work it out to your own benefit, it’s a good idea to talk to an experienced and registered accountant to get the best advice. We all have different circumstances, and an accountant will be able to advise you the best.

You should also make sure you are using high quality payroll software, which will automatically work out how much remittance on tax you need to make and transfer the amount without you having to lift a finger. Remember to shop around for the best package to suit your needs.

Contact your Accountants today click on this link —> https://capexcpa.com/contact

- The Capex Team