Retainers booked day one
Cash in, revenue booked, work not yet delivered. Income and HST land in the wrong period, and the month you do the work looks mysteriously unprofitable.
Recognized as earned, period by period
Optimize25 Bookkeeping (formerly True Figure)
Consultants · agencies · freelancers · studios
Tidy books for businesses that sell expertise.
Service firms look simple until someone checks: retainers booked as revenue on day one, projects with no margin view, personal and business spending mixed, and HST on the default method when the Quick Method would pay you. We fix all four and keep them fixed for one flat monthly price.
StripeWiseHarvestTogglDubsadoHoneyBook
A small team meeting around an office table
Where service books go wrong
Simple business, three quiet leaks.
No inventory, no POS, no problem? These three still cost consultants real money every year.
HST on autopilot
The regular method with a handful of ITCs, never compared to the Quick Method's 8.8% remittance. For low-expense service firms, that's often four figures a year left on the table.
Both methods run on your real numbers
Owner and business blended
Groceries on the business card, software on the personal one. Every mixed month makes year-end slower, costlier and riskier.
Draws tagged, boundaries kept
Know which clients pay best.
Retainers earned as you deliver, and margin visible project by project.
The election worth checking
The Quick Method, worked.
On the Quick Method, an Ontario service business remits 8.8% of HST-included sales instead of tracking every input tax credit, keeps the spread, gets a 1% credit on the first $30,000, and still claims ITCs on capital purchases like a laptop.
It's not for everyone: eligibility caps out around $400,000 including HST, some professions are excluded, and expense-heavy firms do better on the regular method. We run both on your actual numbers before recommending anything.
Run your numbers in the calculator →Consultant · $180k year
Billings + HST collected · $180,000 + $23,400$203,400
Regular method · remit $23,400 minus ~$3,900 ITCs$19,500
Quick Method · 8.8% of $203,400, minus $300 credit$17,599
Kept in your pocket, this year$1,901
Illustrative, your expense profile decides it. Excluded professions include accountants, lawyers and financial consultants; election timing has rules. We check before electing.
What we handle
The full service-business back office.
One flat monthly price. Most solo consultants land at Essentials.
Invoicing & receivables
Clean invoices out, payments matched, and A/R chased before it ages. Your effective collection period, tracked monthly.
Retainers & deferred revenue
Money received before work is delivered sits as a liability and becomes revenue as you earn it, so monthly margin is real.
Project profitability
Revenue and costs by client and project, including subcontractors and software, so you know which engagements deserve more of you.
HST, method-optimized
Regular vs Quick Method compared on your real numbers, the election filed if it wins, and every return filed on time either way.
Owner pay, kept clean
Draws or salary tagged and summarized so your accountant, and our partner CPA when you incorporate, gets a clean file, not a puzzle.
Catch-up & cleanup
Freelancing for three years with no books? We rebuild from bank and Stripe records, quoted flat, then keep you current.
How pricing works
Pricing is one flat monthly fee, quoted after a free review of your books. QuickBooks, reconciliation, HST filing and monthly reporting included.
Consultant FAQ
The questions that come up first.
If you're a low-expense service business under roughly $400,000 including HST, it often puts four figures a year in your pocket: remit 8.8% of HST-included sales, keep the spread, 1% credit on the first $30,000, ITCs still allowed on capital purchases. Some professions are excluded (accountants, lawyers, financial consultants) and the election has timing rules. Run your numbers here.
A retainer received is a liability until the work is delivered. Booking it as day-one revenue overstates income and can drag HST into the wrong period. We recognize it as earned, so monthly margin is real.
We keep the corporation's books clean all year, keep owner compensation mechanics tidy, and hand a reconciled year-end file to your accountant, or to our partner CPA for the T2. You stop paying year-end rates for bookkeeping-grade work.
Pricing is one flat monthly fee, quoted after a free review of your books. QuickBooks Online, reconciliation, HST filing and monthly reporting are included.
Keep reading
Related reading & services.
One free review, two answers.
Your margin, and your HST method.
The free review checks how retainers, projects and HST are set up today, and whether the Quick Method would pay you. Findings in writing, yours either way.
On a call or in person · no passwords · findings are yours either way