Job costing, subcontractor payments, T5018 filing, holdback tracking, progress billing, and CRA compliance. We understand how trades businesses in Canada actually operate.
Construction and trades businesses do not operate like a typical office-based company. Your revenue comes in through progress billings, holdbacks sit in limbo for months, subcontractor invoices need to be tracked for T5018 reporting, and every project has a different cost profile. A bookkeeper who does not understand construction accounting will either lump everything together or create a tangled mess that takes months to sort out.
Job costing is where most general bookkeepers fall short. If you are a general contractor running three projects at once, you need to know the profitability of each job — not just your company overall. You need to see how much you have spent on materials, labour, subcontractors, and equipment rental for each project compared to what you bid. Without this, you are guessing on future bids and potentially taking on money-losing work without knowing it.
Subcontractor management adds another layer. CRA requires you to file T5018 forms for any subcontractor you pay more than $500 in a year. If you work with dozens of subtrades over the course of a year, tracking all those payments and ensuring proper documentation is a real administrative burden. Miss a filing and CRA will come asking questions.
Then there are the BC-specific requirements: WorkSafeBC coverage and premiums (which vary significantly by trade classification), the BC Employer Health Tax if your payroll exceeds the threshold, and proper GST/PST handling on new construction versus renovations (which have different PST rules in BC). These are not edge cases — they are everyday realities for contractors in this province.
We configure your accounting software for construction from day one — proper job tracking, subcontractor management, holdback accounts, and progress billing. Your books tell you exactly how each job is performing so you can bid smarter and manage cashflow with confidence.
We set up your QuickBooks Online with classes or projects for every active job. Every expense — from lumber purchases to subcontractor invoices to equipment rental — gets coded to the right project. Every progress billing gets matched to the corresponding job. Your monthly reports show you the gross margin on each project, and we flag any jobs where costs are running ahead of budget.
We maintain a clean subcontractor register with proper documentation — business number, GST registration status, WorkSafeBC clearance letters, and payment history. At year-end, we prepare and file your T5018 Statement of Contract Payments with CRA. We also flag any subcontractors who might be considered employees under CRA guidelines, which is an increasingly common audit trigger in construction.
BC construction holdbacks are typically 10% of each progress billing, released after a deficiency-free period. We track holdback receivables (what your clients owe you) and holdback payables (what you owe your subtrades) as separate line items. This keeps your balance sheet accurate and your cashflow projections realistic — you always know how much holdback money is out there and when it should come in.
Trades payroll is rarely straightforward. Different crew members may work on different projects (we track the labour cost allocation), overtime rules apply differently depending on the situation, and WorkSafeBC premiums vary significantly by trade classification — a framer and an electrician have very different rates. We handle all of this, including proper remittances to CRA and WorkSafeBC.
Trades we work with: General contractors, electricians, plumbers, HVAC technicians, framers, roofers, painters, landscapers, concrete contractors, and specialty trades. Whether you are a one-person operation or managing a crew of 50, we scale with you.
Book a free 30-minute call. We will review your setup and recommend the right plan for your contracting business.