Bookkeeping guides
Free bookkeeping guides and templates for bookkeepers and small business owners: the month-end close, payroll, sales tax and engagement letters.
These guides are for bookkeepers, and for small business owners who keep their own books. Each one covers a whole job, in the order you do it, and each step ends with what "done" looks like. You can check the steps off yourself, or hand them to an agent working in your QuickBooks or Xero file.
Every rule in them comes from the government's own page, with the date we read it. Where a guide covers the US and Canada differently, it branches. Where we haven't written up a state or province yet, the guide says so and links you to the authority that sets the rule.
What's here:
- The month-end close, from bank reconciliations to locking the period. It links to its own pages for payroll and sales tax, and to a worked example for a client in British Columbia.
- An engagement letter template for a bookkeeper and a new client, with one numbered clause per topic, so you can point to the right one when a client disputes the scope.
If you're deciding who to pay for your bookkeeping, start with the comparisons instead.
- Bookkeeping engagement letter template for BC bookkeepers
A free bookkeeping engagement letter template for BC bookkeepers: one clause per topic, from scope and close date to fees, privacy and handover.
- CRA Voluntary Disclosure Program and GST late-filing penalties since October 2025
How the CRA Voluntary Disclosure Program works since October 2025, what it relieves, and what late GST filing costs if you wait. Dated, CRA-sourced.
- Month-end close checklist for bookkeepers
A month-end close checklist for bookkeepers, in order, with what done looks like for each step. Payroll and sales tax for the US and Canada.
- Shareholder loans in Canada: the one-year rule, the series rule and deemed interest (2026)
Shareholder loans in Canada: when a loan becomes income (the one-year rule), the series rule, and deemed interest. Worked example, CRA-sourced, 2026.