Questions we get before the first call.

No. We are analysts. We work alongside your CPA firm and your bookkeeper. We do not audit, we do not provide assurance, and we do not file returns. If a question belongs with a public accountant, we will say so and stay on the analysis. The distinction matters because it keeps the files honest. Your accountant remains the person who speaks to tax and, if you have one, to an audit. We remain the people who rebuild the month so you can decide.

The first read takes two weeks and costs a flat CAD 1,800. We review the ledger, rebuild two years of trends, cut margin once, and write a memo of six to nine pages. Then we walk the memo with you for sixty minutes. You leave with a written view of cash, margin and the two or three decisions that would change the next two quarters. If you continue on a retainer, those files become the opening working papers. If you stop, the files are still yours.

No. We review and strengthen the work. Your bookkeeper keeps the ledger, keys the invoices and reconciles the bank. We read that file, ask for corrections when something is posted in a way that will break a later report, and write the commentary. Replacing a bookkeeper is a different job and we do not take it. When the books need a better chart of accounts, we sit with the bookkeeper and rebuild it together.

Yes, with a clear note about what is missing. A first read can be done on a ledger that is two or three months behind, as long as the last two fiscal years are mostly posted. The memo will say which conclusions are firm and which ones wait on the missing months. If the ledger is a year behind, we will usually ask you to bring it current with your bookkeeper before we start a retainer. We can still have the first conversation and tell you what “current” would need to mean.

Roughly two hours. That is the close questions with your bookkeeper, a look at the pack before the call, and the forty-five minute call itself. Some months are lighter. A month with a lender package or a budget draft will ask a little more. We do not send long questionnaires. If we need a price list or a loan statement, we ask for that file and leave the rest alone.

Yes. We work remotely across Canada. Calls sit on Atlantic time, which is a courtesy we name up front so a Vancouver afternoon is still an afternoon. In-person visits are for Atlantic Canada and are by appointment at the Hollis Street office. Most of the work is screen-shared and written, so the province on your letterhead does not change the pack.

Because the same people who build the pack are the people on the call, and that only holds if the list stays at twelve. When the list is full we keep a waiting list with honest dates. We will not take a thirteenth retainer and hope the calendar stretches. A first read can sometimes still be booked when the retainer list is full, because it is a defined two-week piece of work.

Yes. Thirty days’ written notice, from either side, is enough. There is no lock-in year and no cancellation fee beyond work already delivered. When an engagement ends we hand over the working papers in open formats, review the ledger access the same week, and close the folder. You keep the PDF packs and the unlocked workbook. If you later want another first read, it is a new piece of work at the current fee.

No. We do not sign financial statements, and we do not allow our name to appear as if we had prepared statements for an outside reader. The work is management information built from records you supply. Signing would look like assurance, and we do not provide assurance. Your CPA firm is the right place for notices, reviews or audits if you need them. We will work from those statements once they exist. We will not put our name on them.