How to choose a bookkeeper in Ontario: the buyer's checklist

The short answer

Choosing a bookkeeper comes down to five questions: what software do they use, who actually does the work, what's included in the fee, how do they handle HST, and how do they hand off to your accountant at year-end. Ask all five before you sign anything. Vague answers to any of them — especially on price — are the clearest predictor of problems later.

"Bookkeeper" isn't a licensed title in Canada, so the interview does the work a credential check would do in a regulated profession. That's not a reason to be suspicious of every bookkeeper — it's a reason to ask better questions than "are you good at this."

Questions to ask before you hire

What software do you work in, and do I get access?

You want a direct answer naming a specific platform, not a vague "we have our own system." A QuickBooks ProAdvisor certification is worth asking about specifically: it signals the person has been tested on the software, not just clicked around in it. Whatever the platform, you should get your own login. Books you can't log into are books you don't actually own.

Who does the work — and who do I talk to when something's wrong?

Some firms route your file through whoever's available; others assign a consistent person or team. Neither is automatically better, but you should know which one you're getting, and you should know whether there's a path to someone with deeper expertise — a CPA, specifically — when a transaction or a CRA notice needs more than routine categorization.

What exactly is included in the monthly fee?

Get this in writing before you commit. Reconciliation of every account, monthly categorization, and HST filings are the baseline — if HST filing is an add-on rather than included, that's worth knowing up front, not on your first invoice. Ask what happens with payroll, receipts, and reports, and ask what's explicitly not included.

How do you handle HST?

A competent bookkeeper should be able to tell you, unprompted, how they track HST collected and paid, and how they prepare your filings. If your business isn't yet registered, they should be able to explain the registration trigger in plain terms — worldwide taxable supplies over $30,000 in a single calendar quarter, or over four consecutive quarters combined, is when registration stops being optional (details on our HST registration threshold guide). A shrug in response to an HST question is a bad sign regardless of what else they say.

How does hand-off to year-end work?

Ask what happens every year when your accountant needs your books for a T1, T2, or year-end statements. The clean answer is a defined package — reconciled accounts, categorized transactions, and a clear cut-off date — handed over on a schedule, not assembled under deadline pressure. If the bookkeeper and your accountant are different firms, ask who owns fixing discrepancies between them. If they're the same firm, ask what changes at year-end versus a normal month.

How is pricing structured, and what happens if I'm behind?

A trustworthy answer to "what if my books are a mess" is a clear pricing method quoted before work starts — not "we'll figure it out and bill you." If you're catching up from a backlog, ask specifically how that's priced versus a normal month, and get the number before they touch your books, not after.

Red flags worth walking away from

• No mention of reconciliation. If a bookkeeper can't describe how or how often they reconcile your bank and credit card accounts against your books, categorization alone isn't enough to trust the numbers.
• Shoebox-friendly, with no follow-up. "Just send us everything" sounds convenient, but a bookkeeper who never asks clarifying questions about your transactions isn't actually building an accurate picture — they're filing paper.
• Pricing you only learn after the fact. Invoices that surprise you, especially for catch-up work, mean the pricing model was never actually explained. Ask for it in writing before you start.
• No path to a CPA for hard questions. Most months don't need one. But a firm with zero access to CPA-level expertise leaves you exposed exactly when a CRA letter or a genuinely ambiguous transaction shows up.
• Vague or unverifiable credential claims. If someone states a specific designation, that's a good sign — as long as it checks out. Take it further in the next section.

Credentials in Canada: what's actually regulated

Here's the part most buyers get wrong: in Canada, only CPA (Chartered Professional Accountant) is a protected title, governed provincially — in Ontario, by CPA Ontario. "Bookkeeper" and "accountant" are not protected titles. Anyone can use either one, regardless of training or experience. That doesn't mean every unregulated bookkeeper is unqualified — plenty are excellent — but it does mean the title itself tells you nothing, and it's on you to verify what's actually being claimed.

In practice: if a firm claims a CPA is on the team, that's a specific, checkable claim — CPA Ontario maintains a public registry. If someone claims a certification like QuickBooks ProAdvisor, that's also checkable. Vague credentials ("years of experience," "certified professional" with no body named) aren't verifiable, which is exactly why they're common. Ask for the specific name of the designation and who issues it, every time.

Where AccruBooks fits

We built our setup around most of the questions above by default. Monthly bookkeeping starts at $200/month, with HST filings included in the fee — not billed separately. The team holds QuickBooks ProAdvisor certification and is certified in bookkeeping and payroll management, with CPAs on the team for the questions that need one. Catch-up bookkeeping is priced up front: backlog months are billed at the monthly rate plus 40%, with 20% credited back if you move to ongoing monthly service afterward — netting out to roughly 12% more than a regular month, quoted before we start. We're based in Kitchener–Waterloo–Cambridge and serve clients Canada-wide, plus bookkeeping-only for U.S. clients.

If you'd rather skip the interview process and just ask us these questions directly, get in touch — or read what a bookkeeper actually costs in Ontario before you start comparing quotes.