How your books run

The software stack behind calm, current books.

Every client runs on the same connected system. Money lives in the right accounts, receipts are captured as you spend, the books close every month, and year-end becomes a hand-off instead of a scramble.

Tap any tool to see what it does and how it connects.

How the pieces of your finance system connect

The foundation

Where money lives and moves. Each one feeds the ledger automatically.

Banking

Payroll & benefits

01Capture

02Record

03Pay

04Report

05CloseEvery month

06FileOnce a year

Foundation · Operating bank

RBC, or your big bank

What it does: Your main business chequing account. Customer payments land here, and payroll, CRA remittances and supplier payments go out from here.
How it connects: A direct bank feed sends every transaction to the ledger automatically. Nothing is typed in or uploaded.
Does it have to be RBC?: No. RBC is the one we see most often, so it is the example here, but any of the big five — RBC, TD, Scotiabank, BMO or CIBC — feeds the ledger the same way. What matters is that the account has a clean direct feed and that business banking is kept separate from your personal banking.

rbcroyalbank.com ↗

Foundation · Secondary bank

Loop or Venn

What it does: A second account built for multi-currency business. Both hold Canadian dollars, US dollars, euros and pounds, include business cards, and convert currency and send international payments with low FX fees.
How it connects: Both connect to Xero, so foreign-currency activity lands in the books alongside your RBC account.
Best for: Businesses that buy, sell or get paid in other currencies, especially US customers and suppliers.

bankonloop.com ↗venn.ca ↗

Foundation · Payroll · Under 10 employees

Wagepoint 2.0

What it does: Canadian payroll built for small teams: pay runs, source deductions and remittances, year-end T4s, plus employee self-onboarding and timesheets. Version 2.0 moves to one all-in monthly subscription instead of a fee per pay run.
How it connects: Each pay run syncs to Xero as a payroll journal, so wages, deductions and remittances are booked without re-keying.
Best for: Teams of fewer than 10 employees.

wagepoint.com ↗

Foundation · Payroll + HR · 10+ employees

Employment Hero

What it does: Payroll and HR in one platform: onboarding, employee records, leave, timesheets and pay runs. In Canada, it's the platform formerly known as Humi.
How it connects: Payroll journals sync to Xero after each pay run.
Best for: Teams of 10 or more, where HR admin needs a proper system instead of a spreadsheet.

employmenthero.com ↗

Foundation · Benefits

National HealthClaim

What it does: A health spending account (HSA). The company covers eligible health and dental costs for owners and staff. Set up correctly, claims are a deductible business expense and a non-taxable benefit for the employee.
How it connects: National HealthClaim bills the company for claims plus an admin fee. That bill flows through Dext into Xero like any other.
Best for: Owner-managers and small teams who want health benefits without a traditional insured plan.

nationalhealthclaim.com ↗

Step 01 · Capture

Jobber, or your operations tool

What it does: Quotes, scheduling, job tracking and customer invoicing live here — the system your team actually works in all day. Jobber is the common choice in the trades, but the stack does not depend on it.
How it connects: Invoices raised against a job sync into the ledger, so revenue lands in the books without being keyed twice. Payments received come across with them.
Why it sits here: Whatever you run — Jobber, ServiceTitan, Housecall Pro, a practice-management tool or a shop-floor system — it belongs in the same place in the picture. It captures what you sold, the way Dext captures what you bought. The principle matters more than the brand.

getjobber.com ↗

Step 01 · Capture

Dext

What it does: Snap a photo of a receipt, forward an emailed bill, or let Dext fetch supplier invoices automatically. It reads the supplier, date, amount and sales tax for you.
How it connects: Dext publishes each document to Xero, either as a bill to be paid or as an expense that's already paid and matched to the bank or card feed.
Your part: Get every receipt into Dext as you spend. That one habit keeps the whole system accurate.

dext.com ↗

Step 02 · Record

Xero

What it does: The bookkeeping system and single source of truth. Every transaction is coded, every account is reconciled, and you see the same live numbers we do.
What comes in: Bank and card feeds, payroll journals, documents from Dext, and invoices from your operations tool.
What goes out: Bills to pay, invoices to your customers, and the reports you run the business on.
Xero or QuickBooks?: Both do the job, and we support both. We set new clients up on Xero — the bank reconciliation is faster, the app connections are cleaner, and the pricing is simpler to predict. If you are already running QuickBooks Online and it is working, we will run it there rather than put you through a migration for its own sake.

xero.com ↗

Step 03 · Pay

Supplier bills, paid through spend management

What happens: Bills created in Xero are approved and paid from a spend management platform, by EFT or card, all in one place.
How it connects: Payments sync back to Xero and mark each bill as paid, so the payables list stays true without anyone keying it twice.
Which platform: The usual candidates are Loop, Venn, Ramp, Float, Plooto and Dext Payments. They differ on how they are funded, whether they carry a balance, which currencies they hold natively and what they charge to convert — so the right one depends on how your business actually spends. Our spend platform selector walks six questions and lands on one, with a runner-up and the reason it came second.

Step 03 · Pay · Not applicable

Credit card purchases skip bill pay

What happens: The card already paid the supplier, so there's nothing to pay twice. Dext publishes the receipt as paid, and it's matched to the card feed in Xero.
Then: The card balance is paid from the operating account and recorded as a transfer.

Step 04 · Report

Invoices

What happens: Xero creates and sends invoices to your customers, with online payment options. Payments land in your bank account and are matched to the invoice during reconciliation.

Step 04 · Report

Reports

What you get: Profit and loss, balance sheet, cash position, and who owes you and who you owe.
Why it matters: Because Xero is kept current, your numbers are current, not three months old.

Step 05 · Close · Every month

Monthly close

What happens: Every bank, card and payroll account is reconciled, payables and receivables are reviewed, adjustments are posted, and the month is locked in Xero so the numbers can't drift after they're reported.
Why it matters: Twelve small closes beat one giant year-end catch-up. Problems surface within weeks, not at tax time.

Step 06 · File · Once a year

Year-end trial balance

What happens: After the last close of your fiscal year, the trial balance from Xero (every account and its year-end balance) goes to your accountant.
Why it's easy: Because the books were closed every month, year-end is a review, not a rebuild.

Step 06 · File · Once a year

T2 corporate tax return

What happens: Your accountant uses the trial balance to prepare the year-end financial statements and the T2 corporate income tax return.
Key dates: The T2 is due six months after your fiscal year-end. Any tax owing is generally due two or three months after year-end, depending on the corporation.

Ready when you are

Want your books running on this stack?

We connect every feed, set up the monthly rhythm, and run it alongside you. If you want the people behind the tools, the bookkeeping process walks through who holds each seat, and the finance department map goes layer by layer through the software itself.

Book Discovery Call Send us an email

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