Chartered Professional Accountant · Cobourg, Ontario

Corporate and personal tax, financial statements, and accounting built around how you actually run things.

Eleven years in public practice in this county, now in my own firm. I file the returns and prepare the statements, then set the books up so they tell you something useful for the rest of the year as well. One person who knows your business, reachable when a question comes up, explaining things in plain language.

One person, all year

You get me from the first call through to the filing. The context carries forward, so nothing needs explaining twice.

A price you agree first

Monthly or annual, quoted in writing before any work begins, so you can budget for it and decide with the number in front of you.

Plain language

You get told what the numbers mean and what to do about them, in the same words you would use yourself.

A licensed CPA

Authorized to practise public accounting by CPA Ontario, with ongoing professional development and professional liability insurance behind the work.

What I do

Everything the books need, from one place.

Take the whole thing off your plate, or just the parts you would rather not do. Most clients start with one service and add others later.

01

Corporate tax

T2 · HST · instalments

The T2 return prepared, filed and explained, along with HST filings and instalment planning. Including what changes before next year end rather than after it, when there is still time to do something about it.

Corporate tax →
02

Personal tax

T1 · proprietors · rental · investments

Personal returns for owners, professionals and families, including self employment, rental and investment income. Behind by a few years? That is routine, and filing late still beats not filing.

Personal tax →
03

Financial statements

Year ends · lender reporting

Year end statements prepared to professional standards, in the form your bank, your landlord or a buyer expects to see, and walked through with you before you take them anywhere.

Financial statements →
04

Bookkeeping

Monthly · quarterly · annual

Accounts payable and receivable, bank reconciliations, HST preparation and filing, and government remittances. Done on a schedule, so the year is already in order by the time the year end arrives.

Bookkeeping →
05

Payroll

Source deductions · T4s · WSIB · ROEs

Staff paid on time, source deductions remitted, T4s filed, and the WSIB, EHT and record of employment paperwork handled. Set up properly once through an ADP partnership so it stops being a monthly worry.

Payroll →
06

Customized accounting solutions

Management reporting · systems · advice

The numbers built for you rather than for the CRA. Job and product costing, cash flow forecasts, budgets you can check against, cloud software chosen and configured, and someone to ask when a decision comes up.

Accounting solutions →
Licence

What the public accounting licence covers

Alongside everything on this page, the CPA Ontario public accounting licence means I can perform audit and review engagements if your bank, a funder or your bylaws ever ask for one.

If something has gone wrong

Behind on filing, or in a dispute?

Years of unfiled returns or income never reported: the Voluntary Disclosures Program changed in October 2025 and is more forgiving than it was. A notice of assessment you disagree with: there is a 90 day deadline, and it runs from the date printed on the notice. Neither is as bad as it feels, and both get better the sooner they are dealt with.

Why it matters

The same records do two different jobs.

Your bookkeeping feeds two very different outputs. One goes outward, in a format other people need. The other stays with you and helps you decide what happens next. The second is what the third line on my business card means by customized accounting solutions.

Where each kind of accounting goes The same bookkeeping records feed two outputs. Financial accounting goes outward to external users such as the CRA, your bank, lenders and shareholders, in a standard format describing a period that has closed. Management accounting stays internal, in whatever format is useful, pointed at decisions still ahead. Your bookkeeping one set of records Financial accounting Standard format. Looks backward. Management accounting Your format. Looks forward. External users CRA, bank, lenders, shareholders Internal use you, and whoever helps you run the place
Financial accounting

Reporting outward

For external users: the CRA, your bank, lenders, shareholders.

A standard format, set by rules outside your business, covering a period that has already closed. Everyone reads it the same way, which is what lets a lender put your numbers beside anyone else's.

  • Corporate and personal tax returns
  • Year end financial statements
  • HST, payroll and government filings
  • What a lender asks for before renewing
Management accounting

Reporting inward

For internal use: you, and whoever helps you run the place.

No prescribed format, because it only has to be useful to you. It points at the period ahead rather than the one that closed, and it is built around the question you are trying to answer. Most owner-managers already run a version of this: a notebook, a spreadsheet, a feel for how the season is going. This puts numbers behind it.

  • What each job, product or location actually earns
  • What the bank balance looks like in ninety days
  • Whether that hire or that truck is affordable yet
  • Which costs have crept up without anyone noticing

Why both. The filing has to happen either way, and it runs off records you are paying to maintain regardless. Once those records are being kept properly, the second kind of reporting costs very little more to produce, and it arrives while there is still something you can do about it.

Who I work with

Businesses where the numbers have a wrinkle.

Any small business is welcome. These are the ones where knowing the sector genuinely changes the answer, so each gets its own page.

Owner-managed

Proprietors, partnerships & small corporations

Whether to incorporate at all, how to pay yourself once you have, what is genuinely deductible, and how to stop the year end being a two week ordeal. The everyday work that most businesses need.

Owner-managed businesses →
Incorporated professionals

Practitioners, consultants & professional corporations

Dentists, physios and clinics, but equally lawyers, engineers, consultants and incorporated contractors. When to incorporate and when not to, how to pay yourself once you have, associate and locum arrangements, and the personal services business rules that catch a lot of incorporated contractors badly.

Incorporated professionals →
Trades & contractors

Building, electrical, HVAC, excavation

Holdbacks, work in progress, subcontractor versus employee, equipment purchases, and the HST timing on progress billings that trips people up. Plus job costing that tells you which contracts are worth bidding again.

Trades & contractors →
Rental & real estate

Landlords and property owners

The T776 for one property or a dozen, what counts as a current expense against what has to be capitalized, the principal residence rules when a property changes use, HST on new builds and substantial renovations, and the reporting that lands the year you sell.

Rental & real estate →
Trucking & transport

Owner-operators and small fleets

Meal and per diem claims, logbooks, fuel and maintenance records, and how equipment purchases and financing are treated. For incorporated drivers running through a single carrier, the personal services business rules are worth understanding before the CRA raises them.

Trucking & owner-operators →
Farms & agri-business

Northumberland farms

Farm clients I have worked with year after year, small operations and mid sized ones. Cash basis reporting, inventory valuations, AgriStability and AgriInvest, HST on farm purchases and sales, and the partnership structures a lot of farms run on. Farm accounting has its own rules and its own timing, and it does not behave like an ordinary small business.

Farm accounting →

How it works

Simple, and you know the price before anything starts.

01A free call

Twenty minutes. What you are running, what is working, and what is driving you up the wall. No obligation either way.

02A price in writing

A fixed monthly or annual fee against a clear list of what is included. If I am not the right fit, I will say so and suggest who is.

03Getting set up

One list of what I need, up front. Secure portal, cloud software connected, and the handover from your previous accountant handled for you.

04Then it just runs

Filings go in on time, questions get answered when you ask them, and nothing lands on you as a surprise in the spring.

Areas served

Based in Cobourg. Working across Ontario.

Everything runs through a secure portal, so plenty of clients never need to come in. If you would rather sit down with someone, and a lot of people would, these are the places I get to.

Cobourg the office Port Hope and Welcome Brighton Colborne, Grafton Campbellford Warkworth, Hastings Belleville and Stirling Quinte West Trenton, Frankford Durham Region Bowmanville, Oshawa, Whitby Everywhere else remote across Ontario

Questions

The ones people actually ask.

What does it cost?

It depends on how much there is and how tidy it is, so I am not going to invent a number here. What I will do is give you a fixed price in writing after a 20 minute call and a look at last year's return, before you commit to anything, with a clear list of what is included.

My books are a mess. Is that a problem?

No, and you are not unusual. Most people who call are somewhere between a bit behind and haven't looked since 2023. Sorting that out is a normal part of taking someone on. We agree what the cleanup costs separately so it never becomes an open ended bill.

I'm a few years behind on filing. How bad is it?

Less bad than you think, and it gets worse the longer it sits. Late filing still beats not filing, penalties and interest keep accruing until you do, and catching up several years at once is routine work. In most cases you get the CRA assessment result back straight away, so you find out where you stand instead of guessing.

Do I have to switch software?

Not necessarily. If what you have works, I will work in it. If it is actively costing you time, I will say so and explain what changing would involve before you decide.

Do I need to be in Cobourg?

No. Documents go through a secure portal and meetings happen over video, so where you are does not much matter. That said, if you are local and would rather do things face to face, that is easy to arrange.

Should I incorporate?

Sometimes, and later than most people think. It depends on how much you are earning, how much you are leaving in the business, and what you are planning. It is a good question for the free call, and the answer is often not yet, which is free to find out.

I already have a bookkeeper. Is that awkward?

Not at all. It works perfectly well to have your bookkeeper carry on with the day to day while I handle the year end, the tax and the advice. If the arrangement is working, I am not going to try to break it up.

When is the best time to switch accountants?

Right after a year end is cleanest, but any time works. Moving files is routine and I handle the request to your previous accountant. The one time to avoid is three weeks before a deadline, for everybody's sake.

Get in touch

Tell me what's driving you up the wall.

Twenty minutes, no charge, no obligation. Worst case you get a straight answer to something that has been bugging you.

(905) 207-9639 Weekdays, 9 to 5. It is a mobile, so a text works too if that is easier. If I am with a client, leave a message and you will get a call back the same day.

I read these myself and reply within one business day. Please do not include account numbers or anything sensitive.