The monthly bookkeeping checklist, built around CRA's calendar

Most month-end checklists you will find for this were written for a business in Ohio or Manchester. They are not wrong about reconciling a bank account, but they are silent on the two dates that actually govern a Canadian month: when your payroll remittance is due and when your GST/HST return is due. This one is built the other way round.

The part of the month that never changes

Work through this before you look at a single report. A reconciled set of accounts is the difference between a number you can act on and a number you are guessing at.

• Reconcile every bank account to the statement. Not "the transactions imported." Reconciled means your closing balance in the books equals the statement balance, and you know what every difference is. A feed that silently stopped importing on the 14th looks fine on screen and is wrong by thousands.
• Reconcile every credit card the same way. Cards are where duplicates and personal spending hide, because nobody looks at a card statement the way they look at a bank statement.
• Chase the missing receipts while people still remember. A supplier charge from three weeks ago gets identified in ten seconds. The same charge in February is a forensic exercise, and an expense you cannot support is an expense you may not get to keep.
• Review accounts receivable and send the invoices you forgot to send. Unbilled work is the most expensive thing in a small business, and it only ever surfaces at month-end.
• Review accounts payable and the bills sitting in someone's inbox. You want your payables complete before you look at profit, or the month will look better than it was and next month will look worse.
• Post the payroll journal entries and agree them to what you actually remitted. Gross pay, each source deduction, the employer's share, and the net cash that left the bank should all tie out. If they don't, that gap turns into a CRA notice months later.
• Code owner's draws, shareholder loans and dividends properly. Money the owner takes out is not an expense. Sorting it monthly keeps the shareholder loan account meaningful; sorting it once a year means someone reconstructs a year of personal transfers from memory.
• Look at the GST/HST payable account. Whatever sits in there should look like the tax you have collected less the input tax credits you are entitled to for the period so far. A balance that drifts in a direction you cannot explain is the earliest warning that something is coded wrong.
• File the month's source documents where you can find them again. Not because it feels tidy — because an organised file is the entire difference between a cheap CRA review and an expensive one.

The dated items depend on two things you have to look up

This is the part generic checklists cannot do for you, because the answer is specific to your business. Look both of these up once, write them on the wall, and your month-end has actual dates in it.

One: your payroll remitter type

If you have employees, CRA has assigned you a remitter type, and that type sets your due date. A regular remitter pays by the 15th of the month following the pay. An accelerated remitter pays several times a month. A quarterly remitter pays four times a year. Same payroll, completely different calendars.

Your type is driven by your average monthly withholding amount — roughly, what you have been withholding and remitting per month, averaged over a past calendar year. It is not something you choose. Finding your CRA remitter type and its due dates has the full table, including why quarterly status is not automatic just because you are under the dollar threshold.

Getting this one wrong is expensive fast: CRA's late-remitting penalty starts at 3% when you are one to three days late, and it is charged on the amount, not prorated by how sorry you are.

Two: your GST/HST reporting period

If you are registered, you file monthly, quarterly or annually, and that period determines both your filing date and your payment date. Monthly and quarterly filers file and pay one month after the period ends. Most annual filers have three months after their fiscal year-end. An annual filer who is an individual with a December 31 year-end and business income has two different dates — payment and filing are not the same day.

Working out your GST/HST reporting period and your real due date sets out which period you have been assigned, when you can choose a different one, and how CRA calculates the late-filing penalty.

Once you know both answers, the dated half of your month-end is just a recurring calendar entry, and it stops being something you rediscover in a panic.

What to look at in the numbers, not just the process

A checklist that only covers process produces tidy books nobody reads. Once the month is closed, spend ten minutes on the numbers themselves. You are not looking for perfection; you are looking for anything that moved and shouldn't have.

• Gross margin, compared with the last three months. A margin that slides two or three points a month for a quarter is usually pricing that never moved when costs did, or job costs landing in the wrong account. Either way, you want to know in month two, not at year-end.
• Any expense category that jumped. Open the account and look at the actual transactions. Most jumps are a legitimate annual charge or a timing quirk. The ones that aren't are a duplicated payment, a subscription nobody cancelled, or something coded to the wrong place — and all three are recoverable while they are recent.
• Accounts receivable ageing. Not the total — the buckets. A total that holds steady while the over-90 column quietly fills up means your collections have stopped working and your cash is about to.
• Your cash position against what is due. Payroll remittances and GST/HST are money you are holding for someone else. Knowing the bank balance without knowing what is committed out of it is how businesses get surprised by a remittance they can afford in theory.
• The balance sheet accounts nobody looks at. Shareholder loan, suspense or "ask my accountant", undeposited funds. Balances that only grow are a sign that something is being parked rather than posted. The specific signs your books are wrong goes through what each of those balances is telling you.

What to escalate rather than sit on

Some things are month-end housekeeping. Some things need your accountant this month, while there is still room to do something about them. Sitting on the second group is how a small problem becomes a year-end problem with interest attached.

• A shareholder loan account that keeps climbing in the owner's favour. There are timing rules attached to that balance and they need a professional's eye.
• GST/HST that was collected but not filed, or a return filed on an estimate.
• A payroll remittance that was missed, short, or sent under the wrong account number.
• Personal expenses that have been running through the business for months.
• Anything that changes your structure or your obligations — a new province, your first employee, your first sale over the registration threshold, an asset purchase big enough to matter.
• A CRA letter. Any CRA letter. They come with deadlines and they do not improve in a drawer.

We keep books and we prepare a clean year-end package. Salary versus dividends, structure and tax planning are your accountant's work, and a bookkeeper who tells you otherwise is doing you a disservice.

Keep the records, and keep them in Canada

Two record-keeping rules sit underneath everything above. First, you have to keep your source documents — the invoices, receipts, contracts and statements behind every number — for six years from the end of the last tax year they relate to. If you filed that return late, the six years runs from the date you actually filed. Second, records have to be kept at your place of business or your residence in Canada, unless CRA has given you written permission to keep them somewhere else.

That second one catches people who assume a cloud folder settles the question. It doesn't, on its own, and it is worth reading CRA's wording rather than a summary of it.

Source: CRA, Where to keep your records, for how long, and how to request permission to destroy them early — CRA page updated 2026-08-03. Payroll penalty rate from CRA, Late remitting or failure to remit — CRA page updated 2026-06-11.

If your books are already several months behind, start with what catch-up bookkeeping costs and what waiting costs instead — a monthly routine only works from a file that is current. And if you are closing the year, what your accountant needs from you at year-end is the list that follows this one.

Questions people actually ask

What should be on a monthly bookkeeping checklist in Canada?

Every month, reconcile every bank and credit card account to the statement, collect the receipts that are missing, review your receivables and payables, post payroll entries and agree them to what you remitted, code owner's draws and shareholder loan movements properly, and review the GST/HST payable account. Then handle the dated items, which depend on your CRA payroll remitter type and your GST/HST reporting period. Finish by looking at the numbers themselves — gross margin, any expense category that jumped, and your receivables ageing. The process half is the same for everyone; the dated half is specific to your business.

How do I know when my payroll remittance is due?

It depends on your remitter type, which CRA assigns based on your average monthly withholding amount rather than on anything you choose. Regular remitters pay by the 15th of the month following the pay period. Accelerated remitters pay more often than that, and quarterly remitters pay four times a year on set dates. The full breakdown is on the page covering payroll remittance due dates and late penalties, including why quarterly status is not automatic at the dollar threshold.

How long do I have to keep receipts and records in Canada?

Generally six years from the end of the last tax year the records relate to. If you filed the return for that year late, the six years runs from the date you actually filed it instead. CRA also requires records to be kept at your place of business or your residence in Canada unless it has given you written permission to keep them elsewhere. That applies to the source documents behind the numbers, not just the summarised accounts.

Do I really need to reconcile every month, or can I do it at year-end?

Monthly, and the reason is money rather than tidiness. A duplicated supplier payment or an overcharge found in April can usually be recovered; the same error found the following February often cannot. Monthly reconciliation also means your GST/HST and payroll numbers are built on accounts that actually tie out, instead of on a feed that quietly stopped importing halfway through a month. Once a year is not bookkeeping, it is reconstruction, and it costs more.

What should I escalate to my accountant instead of handling myself?

A shareholder loan balance that keeps climbing, GST/HST collected but not filed, a missed or short payroll remittance, personal expenses running through the business, anything that changes your obligations such as hiring your first employee or crossing the GST/HST registration threshold, and any letter from CRA. Those all have timing rules or deadlines attached, and they are cheaper to deal with in the month they appear. Bookkeeping records what happened; tax planning and structure are an accountant's work.

What numbers should I actually review at month-end?

Compare gross margin against the last three months, because a slow slide usually means pricing that never followed costs or job costs landing in the wrong account. Open any expense category that jumped and look at the transactions behind it. Check the accounts receivable ageing buckets rather than the total, since a steady total can hide a filling over-90 column. Then look at your cash position against what you owe in remittances, because payroll deductions and GST/HST are money you are holding for someone else.