Accounting and Bookkeeping Services in Canada for Ecommerce Sellers and Growing Businesses

Om Accounting keeps the books for Canadian ecommerce sellers, importers and small corporations, and for non-resident sellers shipping into Canada through Amazon.ca. We handle settlement reconciliation, inventory and landed cost, GST/HST and provincial sales tax records, and a month-end close your Canadian CPA can file from without rebuilding it first.

Canada is the most fragmented sales tax environment any small ecommerce business is likely to meet. There is a federal tax, a harmonised tax at four different rates in five provinces, three separate provincial taxes administered provincially, and Quebec running its own system through its own agency. Layer marketplace collection rules on top and the result is a set of books where the tax lines only make sense if somebody set them up deliberately. That is most of what this page is about.

What we handle	Bookkeeping, Amazon and Shopify settlement reconciliation, GST/HST and provincial sales tax records, input tax credit tracking, inventory and landed cost, payables and receivables, payroll journals, month-end close, year-end file preparation
Who it is for	Canadian Amazon.ca, Shopify, Etsy and eBay sellers, importers and distributors, small corporations and sole proprietors, and non-resident sellers holding inventory in Canada
Platforms	Amazon.ca, Shopify, eBay.ca, Etsy, Walmart.ca, TikTok Shop, WooCommerce
Software	QuickBooks Online, Xero, Sage 50, A2X, Link My Books, Dext, Hubdoc, Wagepoint
Taxes we keep records for	GST, HST, British Columbia PST, Saskatchewan PST, Manitoba RST, Quebec QST
Reporting	Monthly financial statements, tax working papers by jurisdiction, channel-wise contribution, inventory and landed cost schedule, reconciliation pack
What we do not do	We are not a Canadian CPA firm. We do not file T2 or GST/HST returns as your representative and we do not give Canadian tax advice

The CA$30,000 test, and why it is not a sales threshold

A business stops being a small supplier once its worldwide taxable revenues exceed CA$30,000 across four consecutive calendar quarters. Two things about that sentence catch people out.

The first is the word worldwide. It is not Canadian sales. A seller whose global revenue is well over the figure has already failed the test, even if Canadian sales are modest, provided the other condition is met.

The second is that for a non-resident there is a prior question, and it is the one that actually decides the matter: are you carrying on business in Canada? That is not a bright line. The Canada Revenue Agency weighs a list of factors including where contracts are made, where assets are located, whether there are employees or agents in Canada, where the bank account is, how solicitation is done, where delivery happens, where decisions are made, and where inventory is stored.

Holding stock in an Amazon fulfilment centre in Canada is one of those factors. It is not, on its own, decisive. The answer depends on the whole Canadian footprint, and a seller who reads a forum post saying FBA inventory automatically triggers registration has been given half the rule. Getting a proper determination on this is a question for a Canadian adviser, and our job is to make sure the underlying data supports whatever conclusion they reach.

What Amazon.ca collects, and what it does not

Under marketplace facilitator rules Amazon collects GST/HST on marketplace sales whether or not the seller is registered. The mechanics differ depending on your status, and that difference changes your bookkeeping.

• If you are not registered — Amazon collects the GST/HST and remits it directly to the Canada Revenue Agency. It never passes through your books as a liability
• If you are registered — Amazon collects the GST/HST and passes it to you, and you are the one who remits it. That is a liability sitting in your books between collection and payment, and it must be visible
• Provincial taxes — for British Columbia PST, Saskatchewan PST, Manitoba RST and Quebec QST, Amazon remits directly to those provinces in either case
• Your own website — no marketplace is involved, so collection, reporting and remittance on those sales are entirely yours

Book these two situations the same way and your tax accounts will be wrong in one of them. A registered seller who treats Amazon-collected tax as if the marketplace remitted it will show no liability and then be short of cash when the return is due. This is a genuinely common error and it is entirely avoidable with a correctly structured chart of accounts.

Registration is usually about recovering input tax credits

For many sellers the strongest reason to register is not that they are compelled to, but that registration is the only way to get money back.

A registered business can claim input tax credits on the GST/HST it pays on business inputs: Amazon fees, advertising, freight, customs brokerage, import GST, software subscriptions and Canadian professional fees. For a seller with meaningful Canadian costs that recovery is real money leaving the business every month while it stays unregistered. Where documentation supports it, input tax credits can generally be claimed retroactively, which means the cost of having delayed registration is often recoverable if the records were kept.

That is the catch, and it is a bookkeeping catch rather than a tax one. Input tax credits require documentation that meets prescribed requirements, including the supplier registration number on invoices above certain thresholds. A business that has been filing receipts loosely for two years cannot simply assert the credit later. Keeping supplier tax numbers and compliant invoices from the start is what makes the recovery available.

GST, HST, PST, RST and QST: what applies where

The rate depends on where the customer is, not where you are, and there are effectively three regimes.

• Harmonised provinces — one combined tax, administered federally. Ontario is 13 per cent. New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador and Prince Edward Island are 15 per cent. Nova Scotia was reduced to 14 per cent with effect from 1 April 2025
• Separate provincial tax provinces — 5 per cent GST plus a provincial tax that is administered separately and follows its own rules: British Columbia PST at 7 per cent, Saskatchewan PST at 6 per cent, Manitoba RST at 7 per cent
• Quebec — 5 per cent GST plus QST at 9.975 per cent, administered by Revenu Quebec rather than the federal agency, with its own registration and its own returns
• Alberta and the territories — 5 per cent GST only

The provincial taxes are not simply smaller versions of the federal one. They have different registration rules, different treatment of services and software, and in general they do not offer an input tax credit mechanism at all, which means provincial tax paid on inputs is usually a cost rather than a recoverable amount. Booking PST as if it were recoverable overstates your assets and understates your expenses.

Import GST, the importer of record, and where recovery is lost

Goods entering Canada attract GST at the border, paid by the importer of record. The right to recover that GST belongs to the person who was the importer of record and who is registered. This is where non-resident sellers most often lose money without noticing.

If a freight forwarder or a customs broker is shown as the importer of record on the entry documents, or if the paperwork names a party who is not you, the GST paid at the border is not yours to recover, and it silently becomes a cost. The fix is upstream: the customs entries have to name the right party from the start, and the accounting has to match the entries. We reconcile import documentation to the ledger monthly precisely so that this gets caught in the month it happens rather than at year end when nothing can be done.

Customs duty, by contrast, is never recoverable. It belongs in the landed cost of the goods along with freight, brokerage and prep, not in an overheads line. Sellers who expense duty separately consistently overstate their gross margin and then wonder why the bank balance disagrees with the profit and loss account.

Your Amazon deposit is not your revenue

The reconciliation problem is the same in Canada as everywhere else. Amazon pays net: after referral fees, FBA fulfilment fees, storage, refunds already issued to buyers, sometimes advertising, and after holding a reserve.

Recorded as a single sales figure, that deposit understates revenue, hides every fee, flatters gross margin and makes the true return rate invisible. The correct treatment explodes the settlement into gross sales, each fee category, promotional rebates, refunds and reserve movement, and reconciles the net back to the bank to the cent. In Canada there is an extra layer: the tax collected on your sales has to be separated by jurisdiction, and the marketplace-remitted amounts have to be distinguished from the amounts passed to you to remit.

Settlement periods also run on a rolling fourteen-day cycle that ignores month ends, so a single file routinely covers two accounting months. Proper cut-off means splitting it at the boundary rather than posting the lot to the month it was paid. Our approach is set out on our ecommerce accounting and Amazon seller accounting pages.

Inventory, landed cost and the currency problem

Cost of goods sold has to be landed cost matched to units actually sold, not supplier payments expensed in the month the wire went out. Landed cost is the unit price plus inbound freight, customs duty, brokerage, prep and labelling, and inbound shipping to the fulfilment centre.

Canadian sellers add a currency layer that is easy to get wrong. Suppliers usually invoice in US dollars or another currency, Amazon settles in Canadian dollars, and many sellers also run a US Amazon account settling in US dollars. Inventory has to be recorded at the rate on the date of the transaction, foreign currency bank accounts revalued, and exchange gains and losses recognised as their own line rather than absorbed into cost of sales where they distort margin. A seller who cannot see the exchange effect separately cannot tell whether a bad month was operational or currency.

The physical count matters too: units in Amazon fulfilment centres, in transit, at a 3PL, in your own storage and unsellable, reconciled monthly to the ledger so inventory never becomes a plug figure.

How a month runs with us

Early in the month we pull settlements, bank and card feeds, gateway reports, supplier invoices and import documentation. Transactions are then coded, settlements exploded and reconciled, landed cost applied, tax positions worked through by jurisdiction, and foreign currency revalued. A second person reviews before anything goes out, and questions come back to you as one consolidated list rather than a trickle of emails.

• Monthly financial statements with channel-wise contribution
• Balance sheet with inventory, marketplace reserve and gateway clearing accounts substantiated
• Tax working papers separating GST, HST, PST, RST and QST, and marketplace-remitted from self-remitted amounts
• Input tax credit schedule with supporting documentation referenced
• Inventory and landed cost schedule with foreign exchange effects shown separately
• A reconciliation pack tying every settlement and payout to the bank

What we do, and what we do not

We do: bookkeeping and financial statements, settlement and gateway reconciliation, GST/HST and provincial tax record-keeping and return preparation, input tax credit tracking and documentation, inventory and landed cost, payables and receivables, payroll journals from your payroll provider, month-end close, and a year-end file your Canadian CPA can work from directly.

We do not: Om Accounting is an Indian firm. We are not a Canadian CPA firm, we do not file T2 corporate returns or GST/HST returns as your authorised representative, we do not represent you before the Canada Revenue Agency or Revenu Quebec, we do not perform audits or review engagements, and we do not give Canadian tax advice. The question of whether you are carrying on business in Canada, in particular, is one for a Canadian practitioner. We make sure the records support the answer.

Data security and handover

Your accounting file stays in your own software subscription and your documents in storage you control. We work on named user accounts you can revoke at any time rather than on a shared login, and documents move through your document system rather than personal email. Staff on your engagement are under confidentiality obligations and access is limited to the people actually doing the work. We do not claim certifications the firm does not hold.

Who you are actually hiring

Om Accounting and Consultancy is based in Jaipur, India. The business was founded in 2017, and the professional experience behind it goes back to 2007. The team includes qualified chartered accountants and CPAs alongside CA-level accounting professionals, and ecommerce is the fastest-growing part of the practice.

India runs roughly nine and a half to twelve and a half hours ahead of Canada depending on your province and the season, so work sent at the end of your day is processed overnight and waiting when you start. Calls happen in the overlap, which is your morning and our evening. There is more about the firm on our about page. Our largest practice is in India, and we also serve sellers in the UAE, the United States and the United Kingdom.

Talk to us about your Canadian books

Send us a recent Amazon.ca settlement file and your latest GST/HST return, and we will tell you what is being missed, whether input tax credits are being left behind, and what a clean close would look like. Start on our contact page.

Frequently Asked Questions

I am not resident in Canada but my stock sits in an Amazon.ca warehouse. Do I have to register for GST/HST?

Not automatically. Registration turns on two things: whether you are carrying on business in Canada, and whether worldwide taxable revenues exceed CA$30,000 over four consecutive calendar quarters. Inventory stored in Canada is one factor the Canada Revenue Agency weighs in the first test, alongside where contracts are made, where employees or agents are, where delivery happens and where decisions are taken. It is a whole-footprint judgement and it needs a Canadian adviser. What we can say plainly is that many non-resident sellers choose to register voluntarily anyway, because it is the only route to recovering the GST they are paying on fees, freight and imports.

Amazon already collects the tax. Why does it matter whether I am registered?

Because the money moves differently. If you are not registered, Amazon remits the GST/HST directly to the Canada Revenue Agency and it never touches your books. If you are registered, Amazon collects it and passes it to you, and you remit it, which means it is a liability sitting in your accounts until the return is filed. Treating the second case like the first is how sellers end up short of cash on the due date.

What can I claim input tax credits on?

On GST/HST paid on business inputs: Amazon fees, advertising, freight, customs brokerage, GST paid at import where you were the importer of record, software, and Canadian professional fees. Claims need documentation that meets prescribed requirements, including the supplier registration number on invoices above certain thresholds, so the record-keeping has to be in place from the start. Provincial taxes such as British Columbia PST and Manitoba RST generally have no equivalent credit mechanism and are a real cost.

Why did I not get back the GST I paid at the border?

Almost certainly because you were not the importer of record. The right to recover import GST belongs to the registered person named as importer on the customs entry. If a freight forwarder or broker was named instead, the GST is not yours to claim and becomes a cost. It is fixed upstream by getting the customs paperwork right, which is why we reconcile import documentation against the ledger every month rather than at year end.

What are the current GST and HST rates?

GST is 5 per cent. Harmonised provinces charge a single combined rate: Ontario 13 per cent, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador and Prince Edward Island 15 per cent, and Nova Scotia 14 per cent since 1 April 2025. British Columbia, Saskatchewan and Manitoba charge 5 per cent GST plus a separate provincial tax of 7, 6 and 7 per cent respectively. Quebec charges 5 per cent GST plus QST at 9.975 per cent, administered separately by Revenu Quebec. Alberta and the three territories are GST only.

Do I need a separate registration for Quebec?

Quebec administers QST through its own agency with its own registration and its own returns, so it is a separate compliance track from the federal system rather than a rate variation within it. Whether you need to be registered there depends on your activity in the province. Amazon remits QST on marketplace sales directly, but direct sales into Quebec are a different question, and one worth settling early rather than discovering later.

Why does my Amazon deposit never match my sales?

Because the deposit is net of referral fees, FBA fees, storage, refunds already issued to buyers, sometimes advertising, and a reserve Amazon is holding back. Your sales should be recorded gross with each deduction shown separately, and the net reconciled to the bank to the cent. That reconciliation is the control that proves nothing was missed, and it is also the only way to see what FBA is actually costing you.

I sell in both Canada and the United States. Can you handle both?

Yes, and it is a common pattern. The two accounts settle in different currencies and follow different sales tax logic, so they need to be kept distinguishable in the ledger while rolling up into one comparable set of numbers. Exchange gains and losses are shown as their own line so a currency swing is never mistaken for an operational result. Our approach on the American side is set out on our United States page.

Which software do you work in?

QuickBooks Online and Xero cover most Canadian clients, with Sage 50 also common on established files. Where A2X or Link My Books is in place we use it, and Dext or Hubdoc for document capture. If you are starting fresh we will build a chart of accounts designed for ecommerce with the tax jurisdictions separated properly, because the generic default chart is why most ecommerce books cannot answer a tax question without a rebuild.

How is the fee worked out?

On volume and complexity rather than hours: number of channels, transaction volume, whether inventory and imports are involved, how many currencies and jurisdictions, and whether the file is current or needs catching up. The monthly fee is fixed and agreed in advance, and catch-up or clean-up work is quoted separately so it cannot become an open-ended bill.