The schedule already knows what payroll should be
Guard companies run on platforms like TrackTik, Silvertrac and Celayix, and by the end of the week those systems already hold everything the pay run needs: who stood which post, for how many hours, at what rate, and which contract those hours bill to. Rebuilding that by hand every two weeks across a rotating roster is where payroll errors breed. We map approved schedule hours into QuickBooks Online so wages post to the contract that consumed them, not to one blended labour line for the whole company.
That mapping is what makes the spread visible. Every hour carries two numbers, the bill rate and the pay rate, and the monthly statements should show the gap between them per site after payroll burden. A site with a strong headline rate can still run thin once its overtime and unbillable hours are charged back to it, and you want to see that in month two of the contract, not at renewal.
Overtime, stat pay and averaging agreements, done as written
Around-the-clock coverage collides with the Employment Standards Act in ways a nine-to-five business never meets. Overtime starts past 44 hours in a week at time and a half, and a guard who picks up an open post can cross that line without anyone deciding it. Sites run on public holidays, so the pay run owes public holiday pay plus premium pay for hours worked, or a substitute day off, and the choice must be recorded rather than assumed.
Many guard employers use written overtime averaging agreements, which allow hours to be averaged over up to four weeks for overtime purposes. Averaging changes what a pay run owes, so the agreement, the schedule and the payroll calculation have to say the same thing. We set the payroll rules to match the paper, then review exceptions each cycle instead of discovering them inside a Ministry of Labour claim.
| Event on a guard schedule | What the books have to do with it |
|---|---|
| Week crosses 44 hours | Time and a half on the excess, unless a written averaging agreement changes the math |
| Shift lands on a public holiday | Public holiday pay plus premium for hours worked, or a substitute day, recorded either way |
| Guard leaves mid-period | Final pay with accrued vacation, and an electronic ROE within five days of the pay period ending |
| New guard starts | TD1s collected, licence on file, pay rate mapped to the right contracts |
| Open post covered at overtime | The premium charged to the site that caused it, so contract margin stays honest |
Turnover is a bookkeeping workload, not just an HR problem
Guard rosters churn, which means the February T4 count can be a multiple of current headcount, and Records of Employment are a weekly routine rather than a rare event. Filed electronically, an ROE is due within five calendar days of the end of the pay period in which earnings stop, and late or sloppy ROEs turn into Service Canada calls that land on your desk.
Onboarding is the mirror image. Licence verification, uniforms and paid training hours all happen before a new guard bills a single hour, and those costs belong against the contract the guard was hired to staff. Booking them there keeps a fast-growing site from looking more profitable than it is.
The spread survives only what the burden leaves behind
The gap between bill rate and pay rate is not margin yet. Vacation pay accrues at 4 percent, or 6 percent past five years of service. The employer share of CPP and EI, WSIB premiums and Ontario's Employer Health Tax all ride on top of wages, and unbillable hours for training and supervision dilute what is left. We build the chart of accounts so each of these lands on its own line and the statements report the spread after burden, by contract, every month. What EHT and WSIB do to the filing calendar is its own subject, covered on our tax side.
HST, slow receivables and a close that lands on time
Guard services are taxable at 13 percent, and the HST on an invoice is owed for the period it was issued even though the property manager or condo corporation pays in 45 to 60 days. With payroll going out every two weeks in between, the close has to keep the HST account, aged receivables and payroll liabilities in front of you, not buried in the bank balance.
All of it is delivered inside End-to-End Accounting: bookkeeping, payroll, financial reporting and tax filing under one roof, with year-end T4s and the T2 flowing into Corporate Tax Filing from the same ledger. We work with guard and patrol companies staffing sites across Mississauga and the GTA, and every engagement is scoped and quoted in writing after a free 15-minute discovery call.
