Beyond the Numbers: A Conversation With Grant Gullekson, Chartered Professional Accountant

Grant Gullekson is a Chartered Professional Accountant and founder of KPI Advising who talks about the real challenges small business owners face with taxes and compliance. He explains common mistakes, how to avoid penalties, and why good bookkeeping matters. Grant also shares simple tips to stay organized and confident with your finances. 

Episode list and show notes: True North Compliance Podcast

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Transcript

Shawn O'Hara: Welcome everyone. My guest today is Grant Gullekson. He is a Chartered Professional Accountant, a CPA, and is the founder and principal of KPI Advising here in Victoria, BC. He specializes in accounting, tax, and advisory services for small business owners across Vancouver Island. With over a decade of experience as a public accountant, controller, and bookkeeper, Grant is known for his practical, client-focused approach to financial guidance and compliance. Through KPI Advising, he helps clients simplify their finances, offering corporate and personal tax, bookkeeping, and strategic business advice. Grant is highly regarded in the community for his expertise, transparency, and commitment to supporting local entrepreneurs. Welcome, Grant. Thanks for being here today. 

Grant Gullekson CPA: Yeah. Thanks for having me, Shawn. 

Shawn O'Hara: Tell me about yourself and KPI Advising. What do you do? 

Grant Gullekson CPA: Yeah, sure. I am a proud father of two boys who are three and 10 years old and husband to my beautiful wife. But then on the professional side, I am a Chartered Professional Accountant and I consider myself a general practitioner, so I know a little bit about a lot of things, and I think that that helps me add a lot of value for my clients. Then if things get complicated, I hand off to my team of specialists that I am in contact with regularly. KPI Advising is a virtual accounting practice that I started in 2021. Like many people during COVID, I had some life things that I was thinking about and how I wanted to carry on, and so this was something that I decided I wanted to do, start my own practice. My main focus in the practice is preparing compilation engagement financial statements and corporate T2 tax returns and doing tax planning for my clients, but as you mentioned, I also try to do a little bit of advisory as well. 

Shawn O'Hara: What do you like about what you do? 

Grant Gullekson CPA: What I like about what I do is working with people and small business owners that are finding this whole process of filing taxes and having financial statements prepared overwhelming, and for me to just make them feel more at ease with it. I pride myself on being willing to explain things multiple times till an owner actually feels that they understand what it is we are trying to do. One of my clients and I discovered that I tend to do that pretty well, and I think the reason why I do it a little better than some accountants is that this was not something that always came easy to me, I had to work at it. It was something that took me a long time, until one day everything clicked and then suddenly it was easy. But because I had to really work at understanding how the accounting equation and how books are put together, once I figured it out, everything fell into place and I think I can explain things better because of that. 

Shawn O'Hara: What kind of clients do you work with? 

Grant Gullekson CPA: Most clients that I work with are small businesses, owner-operator. I love working with the husband-and-wife team that are running a business together. Some of my clients have some staff, usually three to 10 employees is a sweet spot for me, but I do have a couple of clients that have more, and a lot of my clients are just husband and wife working together and have a small corporation. 

Shawn O'Hara: Neat. So when a small business client first comes into your office, or I guess since it is virtual first contacts you, what are some of the more common compliance or maybe tax surprises they are dealing with, like things that they just do not quite understand or they thought they understood, but do not? 

Grant Gullekson CPA: The thing that I find that comes to me the most often is, “I have no idea how much money to save for taxes.” I think that especially for sole proprietors, this is a common question. When people have the corporation, corporate tax is pretty easy, it is 11% in BC, so people can kind of budget for that because it does not really change. But when they are thinking about how much money they took out themselves, they just do not know how much tax to put aside or how much money to put aside to pay their personal taxes at the end of the year, whether they have a corporation or not. 

A lot of people do not understand how the personal tax brackets even work, and I like to describe it as it is a series of buckets, and once you fill up one bucket, it overflows into the next bucket and now you are paying at that tax rate, and then it overflows to the next bucket. Usually, I recommend between 25 and 30% for those personal taxes. Then of course, it is 11% for the corporate taxes, and that is of your net income as well, not your gross income. 

Shawn O'Hara: Net. Okay. 

Grant Gullekson CPA: Net, yeah, income. After your expenses, you are saving about 11% for tax. 

Shawn O'Hara: Can you walk us through a real-world example where a business owner ignored or misunderstood a regulation, maybe it was around payroll or corporate filings or the GST, PST and all that, and what it ended up costing them for their time or their money or their stress level? 

Grant Gullekson CPA: Yeah, I have had a couple of clients, especially early on in my practice, where they had been earning their money and working and developing their business and just ignoring all of these things and not making sure that they make their payments and file their returns. The thing with ignoring GST and payroll is those are trust accounts. CRA considers them to be trust money that you are holding in trust for the government and for your employee, so they get really upset if you are not making those payments and they charge interest on them. 

All three of them, if you file them late, there is a 5% penalty on the amount owing, and then they charge interest. Even a year ago, it was as high as 9% was the interest rate that CRA would charge. It has come down a little bit with the Canada bank rate to 7%, but it is still high if you are ignoring it. It is really difficult to get out of that trap once you are behind in your remittances. 

Shawn O'Hara: What can they do if people do not pay? 

Grant Gullekson CPA: A lot of things. Usually, CRA will start off with an arbitrary assessment that intentionally comes up with a very scary number saying, “You owe $20,000 in GST,” or, “$15,000 in corporate taxes.” If you do not respond to that, they will actually assess this amount owing to try to prompt you into actually filing the correct numbers and having the correct balance on file. But a lot of people do not understand that either; when they get arbitrarily assessed, they think they owe that money, but really CRA is just coming up with an estimate that is almost intentionally scary to get people to act. 

It gets as bad as you will get a demand-to-file letter that threatens jail time and additional penalties. In my experience, it is a lot of scare tactics to just get you to act and respond to their correspondence, and once you are willing to work with them, some of these more extreme threats like jail time, I have never heard of somebody getting sent to jail for anybody that is actually responding. If there was a tax evasion case, then yeah, they would probably get jail time. But for normal businesses that are just kind of behind, it is usually enough to scare people to start working with an accountant or working with CRA directly to get things paid and filed. 

Shawn O'Hara: So I could say if people end up in jail, it is their own fault, but I guess no matter what, it is their own fault because they were not on top of it. 

Grant Gullekson CPA: I… yeah. I suppose so. I mean, I do not think that that is really the point of all of this, right? Most people are good people, want to do the right thing, and pay their fair share of taxes, it is just when these things start to get behind, it is really hard to get back on track. 

Shawn O'Hara: So somebody gets that dreaded letter from Revenue Canada and one of those scary fines or a scary threat. Should they contact you, or what should they do? 

Grant Gullekson CPA: Absolutely. I love hearing from people that are needing to get caught up, or if they have got one of those scary letters, I am more than happy to jump on a free consultation call. They are usually between 15 and 30 minutes just to go over the letter that they received. I like to speak to people that are in that situation just to kind of calm their nerves a little bit and say, “The fact that you are calling me and you are taking action on this, you will probably be able to work with CRA to get this taken care of.” 

Whether they hire me or not, I like to be the person that can just explain to them that these arbitrary assessments are bogus numbers that are just there to scare them. So yeah, I like speaking with people that are in that situation just to try to help them as much as I can, whether they hire me or not. 

Shawn O'Hara: Revenue Canada is federal. How are businesses impacted at the provincial level? 

Grant Gullekson CPA: So here in British Columbia, we have PST, Provincial Sales Tax, as we are all aware of, so the body that would be managing that is the Ministry of Finance with the BC government. Then we also have a few other taxes here, kind of beyond the scope of our conversation, but there is a speculation and vacancy tax. If you own property, you have got to file that return every year with the BC government. There is WorkSafe BC; any company that is incorporated, you have to register for WorkSafe BC no matter what, and for certain types of industries, if they are sole proprietors, the owners may or may not have to register for themselves. 

Both of these entities, the Ministry of Finance and WorkSafe BC, are other rules and remittances that most businesses have to file. PST, if you are a service-based business, is not an issue. But for anybody that is selling goods, they may have to remit PST if they meet the threshold requirements. 

Shawn O'Hara: And you are able to help them sort through all of that. 

Grant Gullekson CPA: Yeah, I mean, I tend to consider myself an income tax accountant, and so PST is not an area that I would say that I am really well versed in, but I have done enough PST return filings. Honestly, I just call the Ministry of Finance because unlike CRA, like what we have seen in the news where you are getting a lot of misinformation, BC’s Ministry of Finance, their reps are actually very knowledgeable and give really good advice. So it is a little easier to know what to do when you are dealing with the Ministry of Finance. CRA, it sounds like it is still a crapshoot, at least from the last article that I read. 

Shawn O'Hara: Well, I guess that is good for us in this province with our provincial government. So on the… on the federal side, we have got FINTRAC that regulates your industry and regulates a lot of financial, regulates a lot of financial businesses, banks, lawyers, and so on, relating to money laundering and anti-terrorism. How does FINTRAC impact your business or how you relate to your clients? 

Grant Gullekson CPA: You know, FINTRAC is something that we are all trying to figure out how to navigate. In my practice, the biggest thing is that I just need to know who my client is and make sure that I am disclosing who the true shareholders of the company are when I file a return. That was stuff that I was always trained to do anyway. I guess you probably could have filed a corporate tax return and not given all the information about the shareholders in the past, but that was not the way that I ever practiced. 

The main thing where accountants can get on the hook for reportable transactions is if they are making payments on behalf of their client, and this includes paying their GST or scheduling to have their payroll remittances done. So I have made a business decision to keep a barrier between my client and me in the way that I do not make any payments. I will calculate what their taxes owing are, but I always make it their responsibility and give them the amount that they have to pay through their own channels. I am not even directing them that they have to pay it. 

I try to make sure that I do not get on the side of having to report these transactions, and that is not because I am worried that something is happening that is incorrect, it is just extra paperwork for me to do. If the clients pay their own remittances and they make their own accounts payable payments and take care of that side of the business, or they find a bookkeeper, or they have somebody on staff that does it for them, that just makes it easier for us to work together so that there is not yet another administrative burden on my small practice. So yeah, FINTRAC is no joke, the government is actually taking action on these things and making sure that people are following the rules and disclosing where they need to disclose, and the penalties can be really high if you are offside on that. 

Shawn O'Hara: I get, and I have touched on this in the podcasts too, on this podcast, some of the fines that FINTRAC puts out, and they are pretty high, and in a good chunk of the case, it is not even that there has been any wrongdoing, as in there is no money laundering. It is just not following all the rules and the guidelines, which is pretty interesting. 

Grant Gullekson CPA: Yeah. Not to get political, but there are a lot of things that I think our government has chosen to do which casts the net too wide and affects too many people that should not really have to adhere to these rules and regulations. Another thing was the bare trust debacle where CRA had made it too wide a scope for these bare trusts that had to be filed, and then at the last minute said, “Oh, actually you do not have to file these returns, we are going to refine the rules.” In some ways, even though I agree with the purpose of FINTRAC, I think that it is also kind of probably casting too wide a net for reporting. 

Shawn O'Hara: There are now 17 industries that FINTRAC regulates, and I think when we started the podcast it was 13, so as they identify more and more areas and opportunities, they step in. It is an interesting balance. So another topic, you are known for using clear metrics and KPIs in the strategy that you do instead of just handing over a year-end package. What are some of the simple numbers, or what should a small business be watching regularly to stay on top of everything? 

Grant Gullekson CPA: I appreciate you saying that I have kind of this broader scope, and I cannot take credit for all of the work that happens in that area for my clients. I work closely with another CPA who is a fractional CFO, his name is Jeffrey Denison, and he helped me develop a one-pager financial health dashboard that looks at some liquidity ratios and cash flow ratios. It really just highlights on a high level where the financial health of that business is, and it starts conversations. 

Sometimes it is really just an FYI like, “You have enough cash to cover your short-term liabilities,” or, “You have three months of cash on the horizon,” which is sort of the recommendation that my colleague Jeffrey will recommend. It just starts conversations, and then if a business is really struggling and having issues with managing their cash flow, maybe setting their pricing correctly, then I make an introduction to Jeffrey because that is what he specializes in. I specialize in calculating the taxes and preparing the financial statements, and that partnership has been really helpful for me and my practice and has benefited my clients. 

Shawn O'Hara: That is neat. Jeffrey was a guest on episode number 13 actually back in July. 

Grant Gullekson CPA: Small world. 

Shawn O'Hara: Yes. Small city. 

Grant Gullekson CPA: Yes, small city. 

Shawn O'Hara: Yeah. So looking ahead, do you see any changes in the regulations or the tax landscape that small businesses might want to start preparing for now, or is there something practical that any of our listeners could do to be in a stronger position? 

Grant Gullekson CPA: Yeah, I think so. I think that it is just being aware that the current government of Canada and Canada Revenue Agency are cracking down on aggressive tax planning, and some of the things that I would not even consider aggressive, like tax on split income. The things that became commonplace with having a business and some of the advantages that you could use to reduce your tax bill are being attacked, and there is more regulation coming in with tax on split income rules, or TOSI as we call it in the tax industry. I think that what people need to do is make sure that they are getting sound advice from their tax practitioners and that their accountant is staying on top of these changes as they are coming out because the consequences are huge. 

The penalties that are going to be in place and the interest that will be added to a situation where, for example, with tax on split income rules, if you pay to a related party like a spouse and they have no involvement in that business at all, all of their earnings, if they are paid a dividend, would be taxed at the highest marginal rate, which in British Columbia is like 50-something percent, it is like 53-ish percent. So that is really punitive, and I think that if people do not understand how to follow the rules and how to make sure that they are doing the right thing, that also comes down to better record keeping. Make sure that you do have a good bookkeeping system and that you are saving your records and making the shift to having software that has all of your records online and readily available. 

There are going to be more audits, there is going to be more legislation that comes out that cracks down on tax structures that were legal for a long time and now suddenly they are not going to be, and it is just going to continue. So it is making sure that you are working with somebody that is staying on top of the issues and the changes that are coming, and then the owners just being really diligent about having good record keeping because those are the key to getting through a review with CRA or an audit with CRA and not having a huge financial impact. 

Shawn O'Hara: Some people like to DIY, do it themselves. They think, “Okay, I have got QuickBooks and I have got some tax planning software and I have done it myself for years.” What advice would you have for them, is that the cheaper or less expensive way to go? 

Grant Gullekson CPA: I have a couple of clients that are self-taught QuickBooks Online users, and I am always surprised at how clean their books are and how well they put together a package for me without having any professional training in terms of bookkeeping. Those clients are the exception to the rule. Most people, QuickBooks is not intuitive, despite what QuickBooks shows on their commercials. I mean, those are great, if it worked like that and everybody could be a bookkeeper overnight, it would be amazing. 

It would make my job so much easier. The fact of the matter is that accounting is a different type of logic, and tracking, doing your bookkeeping and everything, it follows the accounting principles and that does not come naturally to a lot of people. So I would say that when business is small and you are trying to cut some costs, you probably can keep your books up to date where you can at least keep all your receipts organized monthly and by category, and that is a good way to save money when you are really, really, really small. But as you start to grow, you cannot keep all that information in your head anymore. 

You are going to have to use bookkeeping software, and it starts to become more complicated ensuring that your bank accounts and credit cards reconcile to the books, which just means that your balances match. It just means the balance at the end of your month on your credit card statement matches the balance that is in your books. It gets harder and harder to do that, especially when you are managing your business. So it makes sense relatively early on to start trying to work with a bookkeeper or an accountant that does both bookkeeping and tax preparation, just to make sure that you are doing things correctly and you have a set of records that are going to be something to provide to CRA if they ask questions and want to see copies of receipts. 

Shawn O'Hara: If a business feels overwhelmed, maybe behind in their filings, their books are messy and they are terrified to talk to an accountant, what does a realistic cleanup and get-compliant roadmap look like over the next few months? 

Grant Gullekson CPA: Yeah, so I mean, the first step is just making an appointment or just calling and trying to book a time in my calendar to have a conversation. I think that just taking that first step to talk to somebody is going to really ease any worries and anxiety, and then we will put them on a plan. When I say “we,” I work with bookkeepers that will help give them a task list of all of the documents that they need to organize and have ready to start working. We will get access to their CRA account and see how many years and filings are actually behind. 

Once we have all of the bank statements, all the credit card statements, as many paper receipts as possible, then depending on the bookkeeper that we work with, we will get the year compiled. Once I have a set of reconciled income and expenses, then I will prepare the financial statements, and it can take several months to get caught up, especially because everybody is really busy right now. All of the bookkeepers that I work with, and myself included, everyone is busy. Sometimes it takes a few months to get going, but the best strategy is to just start talking to somebody, and we will get you a task list of the things that you need to gather, make it really simple and easy that you can just tick off everything that you need. Once that is all there, then we just get started with it and try to tackle it as quickly as possible. 

Shawn O'Hara: Great. So if somebody wants to use your services, what is the best way to proceed? 

Grant Gullekson CPA: So I have a few ways. Call my phone number, (250) 361-1199. You can reach out to me through my website, there is a contact form and there is also a button to book an appointment with me that just books right into my calendar for a 15-minute consultation. The website is www.kpicpa.ca. Just because this is audio, I will say it is like Key Performance Indicator Chartered Professional Accountant, so kpi cpa dot ca. Those are the best ways to get ahold of me, through those two means. 

Shawn O'Hara: Great, and we will put that into the show notes. And I guess a final question, what situations should somebody not contact you or not engage your services? 

Grant Gullekson CPA: Yeah, thank you, I am glad you asked, because I am technically only licensed. While I have had experience doing audits and review engagements, I am only licensed for compilation engagements. Compilation engagements are the standard that a lot of banks will ask for for financing, so there is a little bit of work involved, but I am not doing a review, I am not doing an audit. 

So if that is what they need and they cannot find anybody, I could help connect them, but it is not something that I am going to be able to take on. The other situation is just somebody thinks that they can just dump all of their records off at my office and that I am going to make all their problems go away without any involvement by them. That is also just not something that is possible to work with any accountant. This, doing your bookkeeping and getting your taxes prepared, whether that is corporate or personal, there is always going to have to be some involvement from the client, because at the end of the day, all of the expenses and income were done by the owner of the business. 

If you have a bunch of Walmart receipts, I do not necessarily know what that was that you needed for it, Walmart sells everything, so there are always going to be questions, and people are going to have to be involved in getting everything to the finish line. 

Shawn O'Hara: Great. Thank you. Well, my guest today has been Grant Gullekson, a Chartered Professional Accountant, or CPA, if you have seen the numbers. Thank you for being here, Grant. 

Grant Gullekson CPA: Thanks, Shawn. I really appreciated the opportunity to jump on your podcast. This is the first one I have ever done and it was actually a lot of fun. I would love to do it again sometime. 

Shawn O'Hara: Great. 

Grant Gullekson CPA: Let me know if there is anything else that you need me to comment on. 

Shawn O'Hara: Yes, that would be excellent. We can have you back. Thank you. 

Grant Gullekson CPA: Sounds good. 

Shawn O'Hara: And that is a wrap.

Links

KPI Advising

Grant Gullekson, CPA on LinkedIn