rooftop
Level 2

Starting a new accounting practice in Canada

Hi,

I did read the discussion here: https://quickbooks.intuit.com/community/Do-more-with-QuickBooks/Starting-a-new-accounting-business/m...

 

The catch with the responses in that thread are that they indicate that the choice of software 'depends on your client base'.  Now here is the thing:  I am a CPA, CMA in Ontario, Canada.  I want to set up my own practice mostly to provide tax services, but I would also offer bookkeeping services - in fact I would prefer to keep the books for business clients so the tax filings are easier.  My target market is sole proprietorships, individuals with rental properties and CCPCs with a small number of employees.  There are many articles about administrative tasks - registering a business name, obtaining liability insurance, registering for HST, filing articles of incorporation, and so on.  

 

What about the actual DOING, when you don't have a client base yet?  What is the chicken and what is the egg?  On which software package do you roll the dice?  Is the assumption that your business customers will have their own accounting software, and send you an extract monthly or quarterly?  If it's an extract, how do they send it?  Do you use dropbox?  Do you drive to their site and pick up a USB drive?  If business customers do not have their own accounting software, do you get their bank and credit card statements and impute statements?   Do you create a separate company file for each of your clients?  How many company files do the different versions of Quickbooks Accountant programs support?

 

What about tax software?  The two most prevalent appear to be ProFile and TaxPrep.  I would probably opt for ProFile because I do have experience with Intuit products.  I already use Quickbooks Desktop Pro to keep books for a single CCPC with 2 employees.  I only use journal entries and reports.  I use NONE of the other features in QB.  There are only 30-35 transactions per month all in, so I have never been compelled to set up a bank download, for example.   I did not buy the payroll module, so I track payroll/EI/CPP and remittances due offline, and simply remit monthly.   I have filed a fairly basic T2 for a different CCPC in which I am non-arms-length using Intuit TurboTax Business so I do know my away around, but running a practice is different.

 

So, can any of you with your own accounting practices help me out?  What does your infrastructure look like?  How do you handle IT security and privacy, what does your workflow look like, and so on?  Ideally I need you to think back to when you got started.  Thank you in advance.