Notes from HarperCo
Plain words about your numbers.
Short, practical notes on the money side of running a small business — written the way we’d say it across your kitchen table. New notes as they're written.
September 27, 20265-min read
The Bank-Ready Report: what a lender-legible month looks like
A month closed on time, aging that shows who owes you and who you owe, and the three numbers a lender works out first, with a worked example and what Monthly Books Bank-Ready includes at $850 a month. September 27, 20265-min readOwner draws: paying yourself without starving the file
Draws, salary, dividends and shareholder loans: where each one lands in your books, how a lender reads it, and where it becomes your CPA’s call. September 27, 20265-min readFishing enterprise loan on PEI: how a lender reads your books
A lender reads a fishing operation over twelve months, not one season: landings tied to your deposits, how the cash lasts to the next opening, what stands behind the loan, and the draws in between. September 27, 20265-min readPEI fishing boat business finances: a season is not a salary
A PEI lobster season runs about two months and the bills run twelve: the 2026 season dates, a plan for a steady monthly draw, EI fishing benefits, and HST on the catch. September 27, 20265-min readHST is not your money: dates, traps, and the trust you’re holding
Your HST due date depends on the reporting period the CRA gave you: the dates, the late-filing penalty, instalments, and why the HST you collect is held in trust. September 27, 20265-min readPayroll deductions are not your money either
What you deduct and remit, when it is due for each remitter type, late penalties from 3% to 10%, director liability, and the T4, ROE and workers’ compensation dates. September 27, 20265-min readThe year-end handoff your accountant wishes you’d send
The ten things your CPA needs from you at year-end, the T4, T5, T2 and HST dates behind them, and why a corporation’s tax is due months before its return. September 27, 20265-min readMonths behind on bookkeeping? How a catch-up actually works
How a catch-up rebuilds the missing months oldest first, what late HST and payroll filings cost, what a lender sees, and a flat $295 for each month behind. September 27, 20265-min readBookkeeper vs accountant in Canada, or an advisor? Who does what for your business
Who keeps the books, who prepares your statements and tax return, which work PEI law reserves for licensed public accountants, and where an advisor fits. September 27, 20265-min readWhat a controller does for a small business (and when you need one)
What a fractional controller does that a bookkeeper and a CFO do not, the honest signs you do not need one yet, and what our Controller includes at $2,450 a month. September 27, 20265-min readWhat does a small business advisor do? Inside a quarterly lender-lens review
One concrete answer: what the quarterly lender-lens review in Monthly Books Bank-Ready reads, what you leave with, and what it is not. September 27, 20265-min readQuickBooks vs Xero or Sage for a small business in Canada, and why the software is included
September 2026 Canadian list prices for QuickBooks Online, Xero and Sage, what actually differs between them, and why our monthly price includes the software. August 13, 20264-min readDeclined for a business loan? What the letter doesn’t tell you
The letter is one paragraph; the decision was twenty pages. Why it’s vague, what not to do in the first week, and how the road back works. August 10, 20264-min readWhat bookkeeping actually costs in PEI
Almost nobody publishes prices, so here are ours — four named flat scopes at $395, $625, $850 and $1,200, $2,450 for the Controller, what sets the scope, and when DIY is honestly the right call. July 23, 20264-min read5 red flags that get PEI loan applications declined
Most declines aren’t about the business — they’re about the file. Stale books, trust money owing, unexplained margin swings, draws outrunning profit, undisclosed debts — and the fix for every one. July 20, 20265-min readWhat lenders actually look at in your financials
The order a file actually gets read in — margins and their direction, debt-service room, owner draws, receivables age — and why the revenue number almost never decided anything. July 16, 20264-min readThe Friday-morning cash list
Ten minutes, three columns, four weeks out. Cash problems are mostly surprise problems — and a gap you can see three weeks away costs far less than the same gap three days away. July 13, 20264-min readKnow your bottom line
Most owners can quote last month’s sales to the dollar. Far fewer can say what they kept. The one number that tells you how the business is actually doing — and three five-minute checks to do this week.Reading about it is
not the same as knowing.
Thirty minutes with your actual books, read the way a lender reads them. You keep the one-page report either way.