quasilife
Aug 18th, 2007, 03:49 AM
On another issue...
While my firm is very young (1.5 year) and I've been handling all accounting and bookkeeping on my own (mostly by studying CRA's website and its myriad of oftentimes nearly incomprehensible guides and bulletins), I'm afraid I'll have to get professional assistance soon...
On that note I'd love to be able to find a decent & cheap accountant or an accountant/bookkeeper combination. Ideally in GTA as that's where I conduct most of my business, but anywhere would work. Here's my difficulty...
A) Since my firm deals in IT/IS consulting, it usually spans various sectors from that realm. My accountant would need to know how to efficiently handle anything from charges for all kinds of web services, Software as a Service packages, charges related to domain & hosting services, component charges, etc.,
B) While I do most of my work in GTA, I sometimes fly abroad to work there, or to study while working, or to work while on vacation - in some cases I can do all my work from a single laptop, which makes the last point possible sometimes. This usually means an assortment of bills from various hotels, airports, in various currencies, etc. I have no idea if I can ever say, claim back VAT, how to offset hotel costs if I'm there on vacations but working 8-10 hours a day, if a boat from island A to B is at least a partial business expense since I'll be working at both places. Sometimes while on vacation, working for a Cdn. client, I end up doing work locally for someone. Usually I don't claim any expenses, etc., as I believe in staying on the safe side. But there has to be a way to optimize this somewhat....
Given those loosely stated requirements, does anyone know of any accountants/bookkeepers who could help, who are knowledgeable enough to handle the above, etc? While this sounds complicated, sheer volume is very low - I usually post about 30-50 A/P entries and 5-10 A/R entries in a month. So while hiring a huge accounting firm could do the trick, neither the volume nor my income warrants it.... I'd be happy to hear any suggestions...
While my firm is very young (1.5 year) and I've been handling all accounting and bookkeeping on my own (mostly by studying CRA's website and its myriad of oftentimes nearly incomprehensible guides and bulletins), I'm afraid I'll have to get professional assistance soon...
On that note I'd love to be able to find a decent & cheap accountant or an accountant/bookkeeper combination. Ideally in GTA as that's where I conduct most of my business, but anywhere would work. Here's my difficulty...
A) Since my firm deals in IT/IS consulting, it usually spans various sectors from that realm. My accountant would need to know how to efficiently handle anything from charges for all kinds of web services, Software as a Service packages, charges related to domain & hosting services, component charges, etc.,
B) While I do most of my work in GTA, I sometimes fly abroad to work there, or to study while working, or to work while on vacation - in some cases I can do all my work from a single laptop, which makes the last point possible sometimes. This usually means an assortment of bills from various hotels, airports, in various currencies, etc. I have no idea if I can ever say, claim back VAT, how to offset hotel costs if I'm there on vacations but working 8-10 hours a day, if a boat from island A to B is at least a partial business expense since I'll be working at both places. Sometimes while on vacation, working for a Cdn. client, I end up doing work locally for someone. Usually I don't claim any expenses, etc., as I believe in staying on the safe side. But there has to be a way to optimize this somewhat....
Given those loosely stated requirements, does anyone know of any accountants/bookkeepers who could help, who are knowledgeable enough to handle the above, etc? While this sounds complicated, sheer volume is very low - I usually post about 30-50 A/P entries and 5-10 A/R entries in a month. So while hiring a huge accounting firm could do the trick, neither the volume nor my income warrants it.... I'd be happy to hear any suggestions...