Hey everyone, I incorporated federally in Canada about 2 months ago. One-person company with international clients. My accountant has been very slow and hasn't set up my salary nor dividends yet (we talked about this a month ago...). All client payments are sitting in my Business account untouched.

Questions:

1. What's the best way to start paying myself — salary, dividends or a mix? I need to start getting paid as I have bills to pay... I know I cannot take money from my business account but I am looking for quick way to start getting something.
2. Can I set up basic dividends without an accountant or do I need one? What about Director loan?
3. Any recommendations for a responsive remote CPA for a small federal corporation? I'm currently abroad so needs to work via email/video call.

I'm doing a very simple bookkeeping for now, just organizing what the clients pay me. Everything is clean, just need to get moving.

Sorry if these are many questions but it has been a little bit confusing here...

Thanks in advance!

I closed on a $640k duplex last march and spent around $85k on flooring, appliances, cabinets, fencing and driveway work before listing the units in june. My cpa mentioned cost segregation and 100% bonus depreciation which sounded like a huge relief after watching the renovation budget climb every week. Now realizing the deduction doesnt apply to everything and I dont want to pay for a study based on an overly optimistic estimate. What did you look at before moving forward?

I'm looking to invest in a friend's medspa business here in California, and even though I trust him, I want to go through this the right way and treat it like any other investment, financials reviewed, valuation checked, no shortcuts just because we're close. The business operates through an MSO and a physician-owned Professional Corporation (PC), so I want to make sure I understand that structure and what it means for due diligence.

I need someone with healthcare/MSO transaction experience who can move fairly quickly. Before I start reaching out to firms, I wanted to get some input here. Specifically, I'm trying to figure out:

• What should a proper buy-side review of the P&L, balance sheets, tax returns, and cash flow look like for an MSO/PC structure like this
• How does a firm typically normalize owner compensation, distributions, and one-time expenses to get to "true earnings"
• What red flags are common in medspa/MSO deals that I should be aware of going in
• How firms typically approach valuation and figuring out a fair ownership percentage for an investment like this
• What this kind of engagement usually costs and how long it typically takes

Any insight on what to look for, questions to ask, or how this process usually goes would be really helpful. Thanks in advance.

Hello, I have a small limited company as a contractor in British Columbia and have recently sold some shares in a jointly owned supply company. As it stands now, the proceeds from this sale are just sitting in my regular company account. I want to move the funds from the sale to another bank account, as I get little to no interest in this account. I assume the new account would need to be in my company's name. I am not taking dividends or using the funds for anything yet. Just don't want the funds sitting idle.

I’m starting my own business as a side business while still working full time for an employer. I started the process earlier in the year and am finally just now getting to where I can start doing business. It’s online sales like on Etsy.

What I don’t understand is how to know when to start paying estimated taxes and self employment taxes. I won’t have any employees either.

How do I know when I’m first liable if I’m not making any money on the side business yet but I still have regular income from my regular job?

I know about the form to fill out to figure out my estimated taxes but how do I know when that actually starts? Does that form include the self employment taxes too like the SS withholding or whatever else I can’t remember what that includes?

I don’t want to get penalized. Can I just pay my whole estimated liability all at once and be done with it or does it have to be paid quarterly?

Hi! My business comes under e invoicing eligibility criteria. So do I have to get a separate accounting software to integrate for invoicing purposes?

UAE Adopts the 5 corner level of peppol framework for the usage of its E invoicing. And the last level which is the generated invoice goes to FTA. Does FTA make decisions based on the invoice or is it just a receiver of invoice.

I have an accountancy question and would really appreciate some advice.
I’m doing the bookkeeping for a small company, and there are a lot of foreign currency transactions that have gone through a GBP bank account. When raising the corresponding bills and invoices for reconciliation, should I create them in GBP (the bank account currency) or in the original foreign currency that the expenses or sales were made in?
These transactions date back to 2024 and continue through to the present.
Thank you in advance for your help!

Form CT-TR-1 asks you to list all your assets as either cash, savings, investments, land/buildings, and other assets. Which category would you put accounts receivable under? Other assets? The form instructions (pg 3 of the above link) defines each category like this:

Cash: Report all cash on hand and all funds held in all checking accounts. This includes petty cash.

Savings: Report all funds held in savings accounts, CDs and/ or other investments that can easily be converted to cash.

Investments: Report all funds held for investment purposes. Examples include stocks and bonds.

Land/Buildings: Report all real property owned.

Other Assets: Report any assets not included in Cash, Savings, Investments, and Land/Building. Include a schedule describing each asset and the fair market value of each asset.

Thanks

After a bit more research, it feels like UK accountants are having more regular client contact now that MTD for Income Tax is being introduced. That seems to tie into some workflow questions I'd been exploring over the past few months.

I'm a software developer rather than an accountant, so I've built a small browser-based prototype to test whether I've understood the workflow correctly. Before I take it any further, I'd really appreciate some honest feedback on whether my assumptions match reality—or where I've got things completely wrong.

The question I'm trying to answer is: when every client could benefit from proactive advice, how do firms actually decide which clients need attention first?

https://usewaysign.com/landing

Apologies in advance if this isn't the right subreddit to post this in.

Back in 2022 I purchased some fairly expensive equipment for my business (in texas) for a specific project from an out of state company. It was not purchased for resale (we are a service/consulting biz - have never sold anything physical). They did not bill for sales tax and I didn’t think anything of it.

Now several years later, they’re asking for a sales tax exemption form. I don’t have one and never implied that I did, so not really sure how to respond. I ignored their first request a month or two ago, hoping it would go away, but they’ve reached out again.

Don’t particularly want to open myself up to a big bill at this point, but also don’t want to get into any trouble with anyone. Thoughts?

I run a small online community called DAOForum, and I've been operating it as an experiment in radical transparency: instead of keeping the books private, I keep the whole ledger public and online for anyone to inspect.

Every treasury move gets recorded as a proper double-entry transaction in an open ledger on a platform called OpenBook. Anyone can open it and see every entry, cost basis, and balance in real time.

I even record video walkthroughs explaining each transaction - like why I booked our liquidity pool position at $1,000 cost basis, or how I handled moving an asset from my personal custody into the org's custody - so it's not just numbers, it's the reasoning too.

I'm not a trained accountant, I've learned this as I go, so I have two honest questions for people who actually do this for a living:

1. Do you think fully transparent companies - where anyone can watch the books live - could ever become normal? Or is there a fundamental reason (competitive, legal, human) that accounting will always stay behind closed doors?
2. Looking at how I'm doing it, am I actually following sound accounting practice, or am I fooling myself and building bad habits I'll regret later?

Genuinely want to be told if I'm getting it wrong. Rather hear it now than in five years.

I am very carefully considering a move into R&D tax credits especially for AI systems, infrastructure and development.

I am an AI governance practitioner with a deep technical background in AI and machine learning. I have a Master of Science in data science from Northwestern University, along with a very strong résumé in law and AI governance.

However, I also have a tax background from an earlier part of my career. During that time, I practiced for several years and also attained an LLM in taxation from Golden Gate University. Surprisingly, a lot of that learning and experience remains with me.

There's more but I'm answering fundamental questions as part of my due diligence before formally committing.

What is the current state of this area of practice? Are certain areas in more demand than others? Given my background, are there certain directions that seem most relevant or efficacious for me? While I do have a license to practice law I'm not sure that legal practice is the best fit for me. However, this vertical might work well that way. Or, would working with an accounting firm be better? Should I just start my own practice?

I'm also open to other areas of practice considering my background.

Any thoughts are invaluable and greatly appreciated!

UAE Adopts the 5 corner level of peppol framework for the usage of its E invoicing. And the last level which is the generated invoice goes to FTA. Does FTA make decisions based on the invoice or is it just a receiver of invoice.

Hello!

Does anyone have a free P.D.F of the Kaplan and BPP Exam Kit for AA and FM for December 2026 exams, or know where I can find one?

If you have a link or could share it with me, I'd really appreciate it. Thanks!

Actual reconciliation takes me an afternoon but I can't start until the last client sends their bank statements, that part can drag on for days, even an entire week. The problem is every client is a different bank or portal requiring different logins. I pull what I need when clients grant me access. But for the rest I am constantly texting for PDFs and getting half statements, or the wrong month, or I'll send it later today then nothing for four days. One client just refuses to give bank access at all, so every month I wait on them to remember to export something that would take me 30 seconds if I could just log in myself. Sending reminder emails or creating a shared folder or checklist with due dates don't work. Basically I'm a collections agent for documents the first week of every month. time I could have spent doing the work I get paid to do! How do the rest of you handle the access problem? Do you require read only access during onboarding? Or are we all chasing statements at month end?

What app / software would make your life easier as an accountant?

As an accountant - I have some issues that keep persisting but would like the opinion of my fellow accountants.

Thanks in advance

Who is responsible for preparing Expected Credit Losses (ECL) estimates

Under IFRS 9, one question continues to spark debate in the financial community: Who bears the responsibility for preparing the Expected Credit Losses (ECL) study?

The short answer:

🔹 Entity Management (Financial Management + Credit Management) is the primary and ultimate responsible party for preparing the ECL estimates, under the oversight of the Board of Directors.

🔹 The External Auditor is a reviewer, not a preparer. Their role is to verify the correctness of the process and compliance with accounting standards. They cannot participate in the preparation to maintain their independence.

🔹 The Credit Consultant is a technical supporter who provides advisory expertise in modeling and analysis, but the ultimate responsibility for the final figure remains with management.

The optimal governance model (Three Lines of Defense):

·         First Line: Management (preparation)

·         Second Line: Risk Management (independent review and challenge)

·         Third Line: Internal Audit (independent assurance)

·         External Audit: External Auditor (verification and opinion issuance)

Bottom Line: Clear separation of roles ensures accurate ECL estimates and enhances the confidence of investors and regulators.

📌 Full articlehttps://astaudit.com/articles/ecl?lang=en

Prepared by:
Dr. Ahmed Abdelwahab Elsaman's Office
Certified Public Accountant & Assurance Expert

https://astaudit.com/articles/ecl?lang=en

#ECL #IFRS9 #CreditRisk #Governance #Audit #Accounting #InternalControls #RiskManagement #FinancialReporting