The last quarter of the year can feel chaotic for small business owners. Tasks are piling up, year-end reporting is looming, and it’s tempting to stick with what you know just to get through. But this is also the time many stop to ask: is it time to switch payroll providers? Staying in your comfort […]

As an employer, there are many decisions that you’ll have to make when it comes to hiring and paying your employees. Minimum wage, AKA the lowest hourly pay rate that an employer can pay an employee? That’s not one of them. In Canada, minimum wage by province or territory falls under the domain of the […]

For Canadian bookkeepers, year-end payroll season feels like preparing for a marathon at spring pace. T4s, subcontractor payments, taxable benefits, and CRA deadlines all converge — usually accompanied by clients scrambling to send last-minute information.  But it doesn’t have to be chaos. We caught up with our community of bookkeepers, to dig into their battle-tested […]

Year-end payroll preparation can feel overwhelming for Canadian small business owners, making them feel like castaways adrift in a sea of payroll paperwork with the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) looming on the horizon. It’s like being stuck on an island, Tom Hanks-style—frazzled, isolated, and just waiting for a volleyball named Wilson to show up for […]

Sometimes, you just need a straight answer to a payroll question that doesn’t sound like an accounting textbook (no offence, accounting textbooks). So, to empower you with the knowledge and confidence you need to tackle tax season for your small business, we’ve done the digging and teamed up with Wagepoint’s friendly payroll tax experts to […]

Most small business owners find themselves trapped in a cycle of duplicate data entry, messy reports, and endless reconciliation. You run payroll in one system, then spend hours manually entering the same information into your accounting software. Sound familiar? Here’s the reality: when your payroll and accounting systems don’t talk to each other, you’re not […]

Payroll might look easy at first glance. Calculate hours, pay employees, and you’re done. But if you’ve been running a business for a while, you know the reality: payroll comes with a lot of moving parts, CRA deadlines, and compliance rules that can quickly make it feel overwhelming.  Choosing to outsource payroll to a bookkeeper […]

Picture this: It’s Monday morning and a bookkeeper in Halifax is already fielding calls from clients who forgot to submit their payroll hours again. Meanwhile, across the country, a bookkeeper in Saskatchewan is manually calculating stat holiday pay while simultaneously trying to remember which deduction codes apply to their newest client. Sound familiar? You’re not […]

Ontario payroll compliance comes with its own rules, from provincial Employer Health Tax to daily overtime and statutory holiday eligibility. This checklist keeps your business compliant and your team paid accurately. Prefer paper? Click Download as PDF on the lefthand menu to get a printable version. Let’s get started. Step 1: Obtain a Payroll Account […]

Running payroll in British Columbia comes with its own rules, from provincial Employer Health Tax to daily overtime and statutory holiday eligibility. This checklist keeps your business compliant and your team paid accurately. Prefer paper? Click Download as PDF on the lefthand menu to get a printable version. Let’s get started. Step 1: Obtain a […]

Payroll changes don’t wait for convenient timing. Whether it’s a raise partway through the month, a new hire starting mid-cycle, or a CRA rate adjustment during the quarter, changes happen. For small businesses, this is a normal part of payroll—not the exception. But normal doesn’t mean easy. Mid-cycle changes leave small businesses scrambling with manual […]

Summer’s winding down, and the busy fall season is just around the corner. Before year-end chaos kicks in — with ROEs, T4s, client questions, and compliance deadlines piling up — now’s the time to reset how you manage payroll.  Whether you’re juggling a few clients or dozens, streamlining and automating your workflows can help you […]

Clayton Achen, Managing Partner at Achen Henderson CPAs as well as leader of the firm’s Guru service line, which delivers fractional controllership, CFO services, and a full suite of payroll services to small businesses. This includes getting a small business set up on a payroll provider, teaching them how to drive their system, and even […]

Trying to get in touch with the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) can feel a bit like navigating a maze, especially when you’re already juggling a dozen other tasks. Whether you’re chasing down a remittance issue, checking the status of an objection, or just trying to update a business address, knowing where (and how) to reach […]

As your business grows, having the right partners and technology in place is essential to preventing unnecessary roadblocks. We’ve seen how the right payroll provider can help your business grow — and how the wrong one can hold you back. What worked when your business was smaller might now be slowing you down with manual […]