Three ways revenue arrives, one sales line
The sales figure on the T2 and on line 101 of the HST return has to be assembled, because no single system in a flower shop holds it. The POS knows the counter, the proposal software knows the weddings, the wire statement knows the relay work, and the bank knows only net deposits. We rebuild the line from all of them, which is exactly the reconciliation a CRA reviewer will test first.
| How the sale happened | How it reaches your filings |
|---|---|
| Counter or phone order you deliver yourself | Taxable at 13%, and the delivery charge is taxed with it |
| Order you take and send through Teleflora or FTD | You account for HST on the customer's full payment; the fill cost and fees are your expenses |
| Order you fill for another florist | Settlement arrives net of commission, booked as wire revenue; the sending shop handled the customer's tax |
| Monthly network, directory and technology fees | Deductible selling costs, with input tax credits where HST was charged |
| House account for a funeral home or hotel | Taxable when invoiced, sitting in receivables until paid |
The relay rows reflect the long-standing practice for florist wire orders: the shop that takes the order accounts for tax on the full price, and the filling shop does not charge it again on the settlement. Set the chart of accounts around that once and every return afterward reconciles in minutes instead of days.
Nothing in a flower shop is zero-rated
Basic groceries escape GST/HST; cut flowers, plants and arrangements are not groceries, so everything through the door carries 13% in Ontario: bouquets, plants, plush, cards, and the delivery fee, because delivery of a taxable arrangement is part of the same taxable supply even when it prints as its own line. One placement detail: an order delivered to a recipient in another province generally takes that province's rate, a setting worth fixing once in the POS rather than correcting at year-end.
The $30,000 small-supplier threshold, measured over four consecutive calendar quarters, disappears within weeks for a storefront but genuinely matters for a home studio taking its first wedding season. Registering at the right moment, sometimes early on purpose to recover the HST on a cooler and build-out, is a decision to make deliberately before the first return.
The driver question, settled before CRA asks it
A driver in the shop's van, on the shop's schedule, running routes the shop sets, with no chance of profit or risk of loss, is an employee for CPP, EI and T4 purposes no matter what the arrangement is called. Get it wrong and a payroll examination can assess both the employer and worker shares of CPP and EI going back, with penalties and interest on top.
The contrast is a genuine courier: their own vehicle, several clients, priced per delivery, free to refuse work. Most shops sit closer to the first picture in Valentine's week, when extra drivers are hired in a hurry. We document the classification against CRA's own factors before the rush, then run whichever answer the facts support through payroll or payables correctly.
Year-end with a cooler full of poinsettias
A December 31 year-end asks a florist to value inventory during the busiest delivery window of the winter. Hard goods get counted; seasonal stock still on hand is valued at the lower of its cost and what it can actually fetch; and dead stock is written off before the count, not after, so the deduction lands in the right year. The van's logbook and any home-studio workspace costs come into the same file.
Then the calendar takes over. For a small corporation claiming the small business deduction, the tax balance is due three months after year-end, the T2 six months after, and an annual HST return three months after, with instalments layering on once net tax passes $3,000. We prepare the corporate return through Corporate Tax Filing, handle the owner's return through Personal Tax Filing where it makes sense, and if anything draws a letter, CRA Audit & Review Support answers it with the reconciliations already built.
