Retainers and milestones keep different books
A monthly retainer collects cash ahead of the work; a milestone engagement does the work ahead of the cash. Both patterns break the naive ledger where an invoice equals revenue. The retainer billed in January for advisory capacity through March is deferred revenue until the months are delivered, and the diligence sprint finished on the 28th that cannot be invoiced until the client accepts the deliverable is unbilled work in progress. We run consulting engagements through End-to-End Accounting so both sit exactly where they belong at every month-end, and margin per engagement is a fact rather than a feeling.
HST complicates the timing further, because the tax follows the invoice, not the effort. HST is generally collectible on the earlier of the day you invoice and the day you are paid, so a retainer collected up front carries its 13% immediately while the revenue behind it is still being earned. Books that hold billed, earned and collected as three separate numbers keep the HST return and the income statement from arguing with each other.
| Billing shape | What the ledger must carry |
|---|---|
| Monthly retainer, billed ahead | Deferred revenue until the capacity is delivered; HST collected up front |
| Fixed fee on milestones | Unbilled WIP between milestones; revenue recognized as deliverables are accepted |
| Day rate, invoiced monthly | Straightforward receivables, the cleanest cut-off of the four |
| Success or completion fee | Nothing until the outcome is determinable; a note in the file, not a number in revenue |
Recoveries: the airfare becomes part of your fee
Consultants travel on the client's file and re-bill the cost. Once a recovery is billed as part of your consulting service it takes on the tax character of the fee: 13% HST on the whole recovery for an Ontario client, including the flight that carried only 5% GST when you bought it and the mileage that carried no tax at all. The engagement letter should say whether recoveries pass through at cost or with an administration margin, and the books should track them by engagement so nothing you fronted goes unbilled.
Meals have their own wrinkle. Client meals you recharge and identify on the invoice shift the 50% deduction limitation to the client; meals absorbed into your own overhead stay half-deductible to you. Small money on one trip, real money across a year of fieldwork.
Associates sit on the cost side of the same engagement
A boutique firm delivers through associate subcontractors, and the books have to show what each engagement kept after they were paid. We code associate invoices to the engagement they served, so a fixed fee that needed twelve unplanned associate days shows the margin it actually made, not the margin the proposal promised. The discipline pays again at tax time: associates engaged as contractors should look like contractors in the ledger all year, with their own invoices, HST where they are registered and no reimbursed vacation, so the February slip run is drawn straight from clean records. The slips themselves, and who needs one, are covered under consultant tax filings.
WIP you can bill, and WIP you should write off
Unbilled time is only an asset when the engagement letter lets you bill it. The hours that drifted beyond scope, the second workshop given as goodwill, the revision cycle nobody priced: those are not WIP, they are a write-off, and carrying them at value flatters every margin report they touch. We age unbilled WIP by engagement and clear it monthly, invoicing the billable balances on schedule and writing down the out-of-scope time while the lesson is fresh enough to fix the next engagement letter.
A close sized for a firm of one to ten
Transaction volume in a consulting firm is modest, so the close should be quick and the judgment concentrated where the money is: cut-off on unbilled work, deferred retainers released, recoveries billed, associate costs coded, the principal's payroll run and the HST set-aside reconciled. Time records from whatever you already use, Harvest, Toggl or a spreadsheet, feed the invoices; we do not force a second system on a firm this size. That close serves consulting firms across Mississauga and the GTA every month.
For an independent consultant who does not need a monthly close yet, CPA Quick Support at $99/month is the honest starting point: questions answered as engagements come up, CRA letters reviewed, and a clean handoff to full monthly books when the firm grows into them.
