List every place the business holds or owes money
Include operating and savings accounts, cards, loans, merchant balances and closed accounts with activity in the period. Record the legal account owner and currency. FSRA’s directory is a useful official starting point for checking Ontario credit unions; current account services and export options must be confirmed with the institution.
Meridian, DUCA, Alterna, TD, RBC, BMO, CIBC, Scotiabank and other institution names identify possible record sources only. Toronto Bookkeeping is independent and does not claim affiliation, endorsement or a special banking arrangement with them.
Use statements to verify feeds and exports
A bank feed helps collect transactions but does not prove completeness. Reconcile opening balance, period activity and closing balance to the statement. Check for missing dates, duplicate imports, pending items and changes in account numbers. Loan statements help distinguish principal, interest and charges that a bank debit alone may not explain.
Processor reports remain separate source records. A deposit from Stripe or Square may combine many sales and deductions; the bank statement cannot reconstruct those details. Match the settlement through a clearing account before concluding that the sales ledger agrees.
Illustrative example: a transfer looks like an expense
A Toronto business moves $5,000 from its credit-union operating account to a major-bank account used for payroll. If the withdrawal becomes an expense and the deposit becomes sales, both the income statement and account history are distorted.
Match the two sides as a transfer and investigate timing or bank fees separately. If the receiving account belongs to another legal entity, preserve that distinction and obtain the appropriate intercompany treatment instead of using an ordinary internal-transfer shortcut.
Share records without sharing control
Use complete statements, supported exports and suitable delegated access. We do not ask for online-banking passwords. The owner retains control of payment approval unless a specific arrangement has been agreed. Document the access needed, the person authorizing it and how access will end.
At month-end, retain the completed reconciliation and explanations for outstanding items. CRA’s recordkeeping guidance requires usable records supporting GST/HST and payroll reporting; an accessible source trail is more useful than screenshots of a current account balance. Include old accounts in the year-end handover so a later reviewer can follow transfers across the full period.
Put this into practice
Sources and current guidance
A practical next step
Bring the records you have.
We can identify missing information, agree on the scope and organize the next bookkeeping step.
Request a bookkeeping review