Bookkeeper vs accountant in BC: who do you actually need?
Most BC small businesses need both — but not in equal amounts, and not at the same time of year. Here is the honest split.
Owners ask us this every week, usually right after an accountant sends a bill for "bookkeeping cleanup". The short answer: a bookkeeper keeps the record straight all year; an accountant interprets that record and files the tax return. Pay an accountant to do bookkeeping and you pay accountant rates for data entry.
What a bookkeeper does
- Records and categorizes every transaction, month after month
- Reconciles bank, credit card and payment-processor accounts
- Prepares and files GST/PST returns
- Runs payroll, remittances, T4s and ROEs
- Produces monthly P&L and Balance Sheet statements
- Hands your accountant a clean year-end package
What an accountant does
- Files your T2 corporate or T1 self-employed return
- Advises on salary versus dividends and tax planning
- Prepares year-end financial statements for lenders
- Handles incorporation and reorganization questions
- Represents you if the CRA reviews or audits
The cost difference is the whole point
In BC, bookkeeping typically runs $45–$85 an hour, or a fixed monthly fee. Accountant time is commonly $150–$400 an hour. Both are worth it for what they do best — the expensive mistake is buying the wrong one for the job. Rebuilding a year of unreconciled books at accountant rates is one of the most common avoidable bills we see.
Which do you hire first?
If your books are behind, hire the bookkeeper first. Your accountant cannot give you useful tax advice from numbers that have not been reconciled, and the tax return they file is only as good as the data underneath it. Once the monthly rhythm is in place, an hour of accountant planning a year usually pays for itself.
We work alongside your existing accountant — we send them a tidy working-paper package and they get to spend their time on advice instead of data entry. If you do not have one yet, we will point you to Fraser Valley accountants we trust.
Not sure where you sit?
Run our instant quote calculator for a monthly bookkeeping estimate, or book a free consultation and we will tell you honestly whether you need us, an accountant, or both.