Your Mid-Year Bookkeeping Checklist for Canadian Small Business Owners
It's June — which means you're halfway through the year and the perfect time to pause, look at your books, and ask: do I actually know what's going on with my money?
If the answer is "kind of" or "I've been meaning to look at that," you're not alone. Most small business owners are so focused on running their business that the bookkeeping lives in a corner of their brain labeled "deal with it later."
The problem is, later has a way of becoming tax season — when the mess is bigger, the stress is higher, and the options are fewer.
Here's a simple, no-accountant-speak checklist to get your books caught up and your finances clear before Q3 begins.
1. Reconcile your bank accounts Log into your bookkeeping software (or spreadsheet) and make sure every transaction from January through May is recorded and matches your actual bank statements. This is the foundation — nothing else works until this is done.
2. Check your GST/HST remittances If you're registered for GST/HST, confirm that you've filed and remitted everything that was due in the first half of the year. If you're not sure whether you need to be registered, check the CRA threshold — it's $30,000 in revenue over four consecutive calendar quarters.
3. Review your expense categories Scroll through your recorded expenses and ask: are these categorized correctly? Common mix-ups include putting personal expenses in business accounts, confusing meals and entertainment rules, and missing home office deductions.
4. Check for missing receipts Most bookkeeping software flags uncategorized or unmatched transactions. Now is the time to hunt down those receipts — not in December.
5. Review your accounts receivable Are there invoices from earlier this year that still haven't been paid? If so, follow up now. Outstanding receivables affect your cash flow more than most business owners realize.
6. Look at your profit and loss statement Run a P&L for January through May. Are your numbers roughly where you expected? If revenue is lower or expenses are higher than planned, knowing now gives you time to adjust — rather than finding out in October.
7. Set aside money for taxes If you haven't been making quarterly tax installments, check whether CRA expects them from you. A rough rule of thumb: set aside 25–30% of net profit in a separate savings account.
8. Update your system going forward If this review revealed that your bookkeeping is behind, now is the time to set up a simple weekly or monthly routine so July through December doesn't look the same way.
If going through this checklist made you realize your books are more behind than you thought — or that you don't really have a system at all — that's exactly what the Financial Paradigm DIY Setup Package is designed to fix. You'll get your bookkeeping set up properly, learn how to maintain it yourself, and have six months of support along the way.
