Time Tracking Software for Quebec Accounting Firms
Workload, assignment and capacity visible from real task data.
Time tracking software for Quebec accounting firms means tracking the work rather than keeping the books: Quebec clients carry GST + QST at 14.975% combined, and every corporate file runs a T2 six months after its fiscal year-end with the balance due earlier. SpidNums puts those obligations on one colour-coded board, hosted in Canada.
Combined GST + QST rate in Quebec
CRA
Quebec small-business rate on the first $500,000
TaxTips.ca, 2026
Federal small-business rate on the first $500,000
CRA
Small employer businesses in Quebec
ISED, December 2024
How does time tracking software work for firms in Quebec?
Revenu Québec administers both the GST/HST and the QST in Quebec under an agreement with the federal government — the only province where the provincial revenue agency collects the federal tax. Quebec registrants report GST and QST together to Revenu Québec, not to the CRA.
Quebec's dual filings change a firm's capacity maths directly. Each corporate client carries a federal and a provincial return, each personal client carries two, and the sales-tax work sits with Revenu Québec — so a Quebec file consumes more staff time than an equivalent file elsewhere, and the capacity plan has to say so.
Do Quebec clients file a separate provincial return?
Quebec corporations file the federal T2 with the CRA and the CO-17 corporate return with Revenu Québec.
Quebec residents file two personal returns: the federal T1 with the CRA and the TP-1 with Revenu Québec. Quebec is the only province where individuals file separately with both administrations.
For capacity planning the point is arithmetic: a Quebec corporate client is two returns, not one. A book of eighty corporations is a hundred and sixty filings, and a plan built on the federal count alone will be short.
What is different about running a practice in Quebec?
Four things a firm working Quebec files should be able to state without looking them up. Each is verified against a primary source, linked at the foot of this page.
Ordre des comptables professionnels agréés du Québec is the provincial body; 228,622 of Quebec's 233,235 employer businesses were small businesses as of December 2024.
- Two tax administrations, every client — A Quebec corporation files a T2 with the Canada Revenue Agency and a CO-17 with Revenu Québec. A Quebec individual files a T1 with the CRA and a TP-1 with Revenu Québec. Every Quebec engagement carries two filing relationships instead of one.
- Revenu Québec collects the GST too — Quebec is the only province where the provincial revenue agency administers the federal GST/HST alongside its own QST, so Quebec registrants report both taxes to Revenu Québec.
- A lower personal instalment threshold — Quebec residents must pay personal tax instalments when net tax owing exceeds $1,800, against $3,000 for residents of every other province and territory — so more Quebec clients are instalment clients.
- Bill 96 francization obligations — Under Quebec's Law 14 (Bill 96), businesses with 25 or more employees in Quebec for six months must register with the OQLF and undergo francization, covering workplace communications, tools and IT systems. Non-compliance carries fines and exclusion from Quebec government contracts.
Which CRA deadlines apply?
These rules are federal and apply in every province and territory. Where a due date falls on a weekend or public holiday, the CRA treats the next business day as on time — compute the shifted date each year rather than carrying the calendar forward.
| Filing | Applies to | Filing deadline | Payment | If it is late |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| T1 personal income tax return | Most individuals. | File and pay by April 30 of the following year. Where April 30 falls on a weekend or public holiday, the CRA treats the next business day as on time. | Any balance owing is due April 30. | Late filing costs 5% of the balance owing plus 1% for each full month late, to a maximum of 12 months. Where a late-filing penalty applied in any of the three prior years and the CRA issued a demand to file, the penalty rises to 10% plus 2% per month for up to 20 months. Compound daily interest runs on unpaid balances from May 1. |
| Fiscal year-end conventions | All businesses. | A corporation chooses its fiscal year-end on its first T2. Any date may be chosen and the fiscal period may not exceed 53 weeks; changing the year-end afterwards requires CRA approval. Unincorporated businesses generally must use a December 31 year-end unless they elect the alternative method. | Financial statements accompany the T2 as GIFI schedules and are due with the return, six months after year-end. | No penalty applies |
Managing time tracking software across a client book in Quebec
Most firms do not need timesheets — they need to know who is overloaded this week and which files have not moved.
A six-person Montreal practice models every corporate client as three obligations rather than one: the federal T2, the Quebec CO-17, and a combined GST/QST return filed with Revenu Québec. Personal clients carry two returns, T1 and TP-1. The failure mode is not forgetting a deadline — it is maintaining two calendars that quietly disagree, so the practice keeps both administrations' dates on a single board and sends client correspondence in the client's language on the firm's own letterhead.
How SpidNums handles it
SpidNums models the firm as clients, services and work. Assigning a typed service to a Quebec client is what generates the recurring projects, the stages and the reminders — the cadence is recorded once rather than remembered each period.
Every open obligation is then ranked by how close its due date sits and coloured accordingly, so the morning question — what is late, what is close, what is fine — is answered by looking.
- Team roster with live workload computed from real task data
- Clients handled and open tasks per staff member
- Per-assignee filtering on the firm-wide deadline board
- Reassignment that carries the full file record
- Stage-level ownership on every recurring engagement
- Capacity view before a season, not after it
Where this goes wrong
Capacity failures are visible only in hindsight unless the firm is measuring the work rather than the hours.
- Capacity is estimated from last season's feeling rather than counted from this season's file list.
- Workload is measured by hours logged rather than by open obligations, so the person with the most stuck files looks the least busy.
- A partner stays the routing layer because nobody else can see what is unassigned.
- The plan is made in January, when every lever that could have changed the season has already been pulled.
What SpidNums does not do
SpidNums does not run timesheets or bill by the hour. It shows workload and capacity from the work itself — open tasks, assigned clients and approaching deadlines. If your firm bills hourly and needs timesheet-level data, pair it with a dedicated time system.
If your firm already runs a tracking system it trusts, the honest answer is that you do not need this one. The pages on this site are written to help you decide, not to pretend every firm has the same problem.
Time Tracking Software in nearby provinces
Also for Quebec firms
Related guides
Quebec overview
Frequently asked questions
What is the GST + QST rate in Quebec?
Quebec charges 5% GST plus 9.975% provincially, for 14.975% combined. Revenu Québec administers both the GST/HST and the QST in Quebec under an agreement with the federal government — the only province where the provincial revenue agency collects the federal tax. Quebec registrants report GST and QST together to Revenu Québec, not to the CRA.
What corporate tax rates apply in Quebec?
Quebec's provincial small-business rate is 3.2% on the first $500,000 of active business income, and its general provincial rate is 11.5%. Those sit on top of the federal rates — 9% federally on the first $500,000 and 15% federally on general income. Quebec's small-business rate falls from 3.2% to 2.2% for taxation years beginning after April 29, 2026.
How is workload calculated without timesheets?
From real task data: clients handled, open tasks and approaching deadlines per staff member. The board can be filtered per assignee, so the question 'who has capacity this week' is answered from the work itself rather than from a status meeting.
Is client data stored in Canada?
Yes. SpidNums hosts client data in Canada, in the ca-central-1 region, with row-level tenant isolation, an append-only audit log and staff roles that support confidential-client gating.
Does SpidNums run timesheets?
No. SpidNums does not record time or bill by the hour. It shows workload and capacity from the work itself — open tasks, assigned clients and approaching deadlines. If your firm bills hourly and needs timesheet-level data, pair it with a dedicated time system.
Run your Quebec practice on one board.
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