Bookkeeping services in Vancouver, where one receipt carries two taxes
Bookkeeping in Vancouver has a problem Toronto does not: two sales taxes land on the same receipt and only one of them comes back. You send documents, AI prepares each entry, deterministic rules validate it, and a trained reviewer resolves anything uncertain.
AI Bookkeeping is an online bookkeeping service for Vancouver small businesses. British Columbia charges a federal GST and a separate provincial PST, administered by two different authorities, and generally only the GST is recoverable. Recording them as one blended amount overstates your credits and understates your expenses. Plans start at $99 CAD a month.
In BC, two taxes land on one receipt — and you can only claim one back
A Vancouver supplier invoice typically carries the federal GST at 5% as at 2026 and the provincial PST at 7% as at 2026, as separate lines. They are not one tax. They have different rules, different registrations and different recoverability, and they are administered by two different bodies.
If you are GST registered, the GST is generally recoverable as an input tax credit. The PST generally is not — it is a cost of the purchase and belongs inside the expense. Treat the two as a single 12% blend of those two 2026 rates and your input tax credits are overstated and your expenses understated, every filing period, compounding. Both rates are current as at 2026 and rates change: confirm the federal rate against the Canada Revenue Agency, GST/HST rate table and the provincial rate against the Province of British Columbia, Provincial Sales Tax.
| On the receipt | Rate (2026) | Administered by | How it is recorded |
|---|---|---|---|
| Federal GST | 5% (2026) | Canada Revenue Agency | Tracked as a recoverable input tax credit where you are entitled |
| Provincial PST | 7% (2026) | Province of British Columbia | Generally not recoverable — absorbed into the expense |
| PST you charge customers | 7% (2026) | Province of British Columbia | Recorded as an amount owed to the province, never as revenue |
Two registrations, two authorities, one receipt. Of the three cities we have pages for, this is the structurally hardest sales-tax position, and it is the one where the same error recurs most often.
AI speed, with human judgment where it matters
No AI-proposed entry reaches your books without passing deterministic accounting rules first, and anything that cannot be settled confidently goes to a person rather than into your ledger on a guess.
Send documents
Receipts, supplier invoices and client invoices, from the web app or the Telegram bot.
AI prepares the entry
Extraction, accounting treatment, and the GST and PST amounts separated from each other.
Rules validate it
Deterministic checks, not a model. Anything that fails does not post.
Human review if needed
A trained reviewer on our staff opens the source document and decides.
This is the Bookkeeping Service, the full-service plan where we maintain the books. The reviewer queue is part of it.
High costs, thin margins, and no time for data entry
Books that drift for ten months and get rebuilt in March cost money twice — once in your accountant's hours, once in credits nobody claimed in time. Four shapes of Vancouver business recur.
Trades and contractors
Supply-house invoices with split GST and PST on every line, handled without an evening of typing.
Film and production crews
Project-heavy spending across short windows, kept organised as it happens rather than reconstructed later.
Import and distribution
Port-adjacent businesses with supplier invoices, freight costs and payables that have to stay current.
Tech and consulting firms
Incorporated owner-operators mixing personal and business cards, mapped to the right owner accounts.
Bookkeeping in Vancouver starts at $99 CAD a month
Pricing does not vary by province or by city, and BC's extra tax layer does not cost extra. The plans differ only by volume — 150, 250 or 500 documents — and each includes the same workflow: AI processing, accounting-rule validation, human review when needed, reports, tax information and accountant access.
If you are weighing this against employing someone, the outsourced bookkeeping comparison sets it against published wage and employer-contribution figures, each dated and linked to its source, rather than against an estimate.
Questions from BC owners
Can I claim the PST back?
Generally no. The GST on a qualifying business purchase comes back to you as an input tax credit where you are registered; the PST generally does not and is a real cost of the purchase, so it belongs inside the expense. That asymmetry is the whole reason the two amounts have to be recorded separately rather than blended.
What if I collect PST from my own customers?
It is money you hold for the province, not revenue. It is recorded as an amount owing rather than being allowed to inflate your sales figures, which matters the first time you look at a profit number and try to make a decision with it.
Is BC harder than Ontario or Alberta for bookkeeping?
For sales tax, yes, and measurably so. Ontario has one combined rate and one return; Alberta has no provincial sales tax at all. BC has two taxes, two registrations, two authorities and two different answers about recoverability on a single supplier invoice. It is the position that rewards getting the bookkeeping right the most.
Do you file my GST or PST returns?
No. We maintain the bookkeeping records and produce the reports and tax information the filings draw on; we do not file returns and do not give tax advice. Confirm your registration obligations with your accountant or the relevant authority.
Do you need my bank login?
No. Bank and credit-card connections are part of the Bookkeeping Service and run through Plaid, so we never see your banking credentials. Bank statement files are not a supported upload — the platform works from receipts, invoices and connected transactions.
What happens to an entry the AI is not sure about?
It goes to a review queue worked by a trained reviewer on our staff, who opens the source document and posts the corrected treatment through the same accounting engine every other entry passes through.
Bookkeeping services in Vancouver, in context
This page answers the British Columbia question. The full bookkeeping services page covers what the service does for any business, with the pricing table and everything that is included. If you operate in more than one province, bookkeeping services across Canada sets out the federal GST and each provincial layer side by side. Everything we offer is listed under all services.
Serving Vancouver and the Lower Mainland, without a Vancouver office
The honest version: we have no office in Vancouver and never will. No office visits, no drop-offs, no shoebox in March. Everything arrives as a photograph or a file, which is why where you are does not change the price.
What a bookkeeping service near you genuinely has to get right is your province's sales tax, and in British Columbia that means two of them, handled separately. Pricing is in Canadian dollars wherever you are.
Send us a month of documents and see what comes back
Fifteen days free. If it does not save you the evenings, you have lost nothing but a month of receipts you were going to have to enter anyway.
AI Bookkeeping prepares bookkeeping records. It does not file tax returns and does not provide tax, legal or financial advice — work with your accountant. Sales-tax information on this page is general and current as at 2026; confirm current rates and obligations with the CRA or the Province of British Columbia.