Explore Small Business Finance Topics
Discover our most popular topics for Canadian solopreneurs and small business owners. From income tax and GST/HST to QuickBooks tutorials and managing your business finances, these guides are designed to help you move from financial uncertainty to financial confidence.
Click on any topic and scroll down to see related articles.
📑Canadian Income Tax
Guidance on filing and planning your Canadian taxes, from T1 and T2 returns to instalments
📊Managing Business Finances
From cash flow to pricing and metrics — learn to manage your business finances with confidence.
🏢 Canadian Business Structure
Should you incorporate? Stay informed on sole proprietorships, corporations, and registrations.
💰 GST/HST & QST
Understand how to register, file, and maximize input tax credits while avoiding common mistakes.
🧾 Guides and Tutorials
Practical accounting processes like reconciliations, journal entries, and reporting.
📝 Deductions & Expenses
Learn which expenses are CRA deductible and how to track them for maximum tax savings.
Quebec Taxes & Business
QST, Revenu Québec filings, Quebec payroll, and provincial rules every entrepreneur should know.
👤 Paying Yourself
Salary vs dividends, management fees, and how to pay yourself from your corporation or small business.
💻 QuickBooks Online & Tools
Tutorials, guides and time-saving tips for using QuickBooks Online effectively.
🏦 Money & Personal Finance
Personal finance strategies for entrepreneurs, from RRSPs to saving for taxes.
How to Prepare a Business Budget
One of the primary challenges facing a small business owner is uncertainty about the future. (It is also what makes entrepreneurship exciting). We may have an amazing product or service, but we can’t be sure whether this will actually translate into a profitable business model. A budget is an excellent tool to manage uncertainty and, contrary to popular belief, can actually be fairly straightforward to prepare, particularly for small businesses that do not have to worry about different departments, product lines and geographic areas .
A budget, very simply, is a tool that helps you predict your sales, expenses and profitability as well as your cash flow needs. It is based on estimates, which in turn are based on a combination of experience, history and industry knowledge. In terms of presentation, a budget should essentially mirror your financial statements and will include the following main categories:
The Importance of Breakeven Analysis for Business Owners
When embarking on your new business venture, one of the first and most important concepts that you will be introduced to is break-even analysis which, very simply, is the amount of revenues you need to generate to cover your direct and indirect expenses. A good grasp of this is essential for business owners since even businesses with significant sales revenues can incur losses if they are not able to cover their costs. While break even analysis tends to be used more for businesses that sell physical products, it can also help to the determine the price for services
Accounting for Non Accountants : Debit, Credits and Financial Statements
When people hear the term accounting, there is an involuntary reaction whereby the comprehension centres (the medical term) of their brains tend to shut down, and sleep mode is activated. This is unfortunate, as accounting, especially to a small business owner, can actually be quite interesting. It is one of the primary tools by which business owners and other interested parties can gage the success of their business, as well as identify areas that require attention andneed improvement. To understand accounting, business owners need to have a basic understanding of how it works (debits and credits) and it's results (financial statements), explained below:
4 Metrics to Help Improve Your Small Business Cash Flow
n a recent study by TD Bank Financial Group it was determined that one of the primary challenges facing small business was cash flow (The other two were managing clients and government red tape). This probably comes as no surprise to most small business owners, especially in the early stages. The simple answer to this problem would be a limitless source of cash. Since this is usually not possible, we need to do the next best thing: analyze our cash flow requirements and find the most cost effective and easily available solution for any shortfalls. Even the most successful business can find itself shutting its doors if it is not able to manage it's cash flow needs.
Below are 4 financial metrics, which if understood and monitored regularly, can actually help improve your business' cash flow: