Bookkeeping & General Ledger
Clean, current books maintained on your cloud accounting platform — so you always know exactly where your business stands, without the admin.
Bookkeeping for contractors & trades
Bookkeeping for Contractors & Trades in Canada
Bookkeeping built around jobs, materials, subcontractors and equipment — so you know what each project actually made and your books are ready for tax season.
Discuss Your Books Take the Health Check
If you run a trade or contracting business, your bookkeeping has a particular shape: work comes in jobs, costs come from materials and subcontractors, and the busy season is exactly when the paperwork piles up. Generic bookkeeping advice doesn’t quite fit — you need books that can tell you what each job actually made and that stay current even when you’re flat out on site.
Avora keeps the books for contractors and trades the way the work actually happens: income and costs traced to jobs where it’s useful, materials and subcontractor payments recorded cleanly, vehicles and equipment handled consistently, and GST/HST kept reconciled and ready. When the books fall behind during a busy stretch — which is normal — we catch them up and keep them from slipping again.
The result is simple: you know which jobs make money, your costs are complete, and tax season isn’t a scramble to reconstruct a year from a glovebox full of receipts.
What to keep an eye on
Bookkeeping considerations for contractors & trades
Job and project tracking
Knowing what each job cost and earned means recording income and expenses so they can be traced back to the project — not just lumped into one pile. It's the difference between "we were busy" and "that job made money."
Materials and supplier costs
Materials bought for jobs, supplier invoices, and deposits all need to be recorded and matched to receipts, so your costs are complete and your margins are real.
Subcontractors
Payments to subcontractors need to be tracked cleanly and separated from employee payroll, with the right records kept for each.
Vehicles and equipment
Trucks, tools and equipment — purchases, fuel, repairs and financing — should be recorded consistently so they're handled correctly at year-end.
GST/HST
If you're registered, sales tax on what you charge and what you pay on materials has to be tracked and reconciled. Rules and rates vary by province — we keep the records straight and flag anything unusual.
Sound familiar?
Common problems we help with
- Not knowing which jobs are actually profitable
- Materials and subcontractor costs recorded inconsistently
- Receipts lost between the truck, the site and the office
- Books that fall behind during busy season
- GST/HST records that aren't ready at filing time
How we help
Services that fit
Bank & Credit Card Reconciliations
Every account reconciled and tied out to the statement — so your balances are trustworthy and your reporting holds up to scrutiny.
GST/HST Return Preparation
Organised GST/HST records, reconciled to your books and prepared for filing — so your returns are accurate and on time, every period.
Bookkeeping Cleanup & Catch-Up
Behind on your books or unsure they're right? We bring months of backlog current, fix what's wrong, and reconcile every account — then keep you current going forward.
Common questions
Good to know
Can you track profit by job?
Yes — we can set up your bookkeeping so income and costs are tracked per job or project, so you can see what each one actually made. How detailed depends on your software and how you want to work.
We fall behind every busy season. Can you help?
That's the most common thing we hear from trades. We'll catch the books up (see cleanup & catch-up) and then keep them current month to month so busy season doesn't bury you again.
Do you handle subcontractor payments?
We record and track subcontractor payments as part of your bookkeeping and keep them separate from payroll. Specific tax-slip questions are best confirmed with your accountant.
Other business types
Consultants · Professional Services · Marketing & Creative Agencies · E-commerce · All business bookkeeping
Bookkeeping for your contractors business
Tell us where your books stand and we'll suggest a sensible next step — no pressure, no obligation.