Automate Bookkeeping, CRA Filings, and Bank Reconciliation — from US$4,800

A Canadian corporation can automate: bank-feed ingestion and transaction categorization (Xero, QuickBooks Online), HST/GST return prep via the CRA My Business Account API, payroll and CRA remittance calculations (Wagepoint, Payworks, ADP Canada), accounts payable with OCR invoice capture, and T2 data preparation. Dext, Hubdoc, and Vic.ai cut manual entry by 60–80%.

AI closes several CRA compliance nodes: draft GST/HST returns from reconciled data, flagging suspicious transactions for AML reporting, reminders on payroll remittance deadlines, SR&ED expenditure hunting in the general ledger, and real-time CRA My Business Account status monitoring. ML models trained on CRA audit patterns catch misclassification risk before you file.

A baseline AI bookkeeping stack for a Canadian SME runs CAD 200–600 a month: cloud software (Xero or QuickBooks Online, CAD 35–70/mo), invoice capture (Dext, CAD 25–50/mo), payroll (Wagepoint, CAD 25–50/mo per employee), and a CPA review layer (CAD 150–400/mo). Initial setup and chart of accounts — CAD 500–1,500 depending on transaction volume and data migration.

Not fully. AI and automation cut the cost and time of data prep sharply, but a licensed Canadian CPA stays mandatory: signing the T2, SR&ED claims, CRA audit disputes and correspondence, and provincial-rule compliance. Our model pairs AI bookkeeping — to trim CPA hours — with a mandatory CPA review on every regulatory filing, bringing total accounting costs down 30–50%.

For MSBs, compliance is exactly where automation pays back most: real-time transaction monitoring catches LCTR triggers (CAD 10,000 or more), ML models score STR risk on every transaction, workflows draft reports for MLRO review and submission through FINTRAC's F2R portal, and audit trails hold PCMLTFA records for the required five years. The MSB-specific compliance automation, we deploy inside the FINTRAC registration package.