Recordkeeping
Designed for Canadian small business
At SBA Canada, we understand that “recordkeeping” is its own discipline. The Canada Revenue Agency has developed rules that some have called “the gold standard reference”.
CRA’s Keeping Records Guidance
The Canada Revenue Agency’s official recordkeeping page is the gold-standard reference. Beyond compliance rules, it offers practical tips such as:
- Choose your format wisely — paper, electronic, or hybrid — but ensure it’s organized and accessible.
- Image and digitize paper documents, then store backups in multiple secure locations.
- Maintain an audit trail so transactions can be traced from source document to financial statement.
- Centralize storage at your business premises or a designated Canadian location to simplify retrieval.
Currently, there aren’t many (any?) peer-reviewed “studies” in the academic sense focused solely on micro-business record storage; there are several Canadian government and professional-practice resources that distill best practices into actionable steps.
Here are some highlights from Canadian-specific guidance and practitioner write-ups:
Choose your format wisely — paper, electronic, or hybrid — but ensure it’s organized and accessible.
- Image and digitize paper documents, then store backups in multiple secure locations.
- Maintain an audit trail so transactions can be traced from source document to financial statement.
- Centralize storage at your business premises or a designated Canadian location to simplify retrieval.
Practitioner Best Practices
A 2025 overview from BBS Chartered Professional Accountants outlines ways to reduce effort while staying compliant:
- Standardize file naming for digital records (e.g., YYYY-MM-DD_vendor_amount.pdf) to make searches faster.
- Segment by category — income, expenses, GST/HST, payroll — so you’re not sifting through unrelated files.
- Leverage cloud storage with search functions and OCR (optical character recognition) to find scanned documents by keyword.
Automate capture by linking POS systems, invoicing software, and bank feeds to your document repository.
Retention Rules to Keep in Mind
- General business records: keep for 6 years from the end of the last tax year they relate to.
- Corporate records (e.g., minutes, resolutions): keep indefinitely.
- Property records: 6 years after disposal.
- Electronic records: same retention as paper, but ensure ongoing readability.
Record Keeping Requirements for Canadian Small Businesses
From our perspective, though, if our smallest businesses were to follow their advice to the letter, there would be precious little real work done by our smallest businesses.
As an example, we looked up the ‘average income statements’ of the 64,397 computer systems design businesses (North American Industry Classification System 54151) in Canada in 2023.
These included all Canadian businesses with between $30,000 and $5 million in annual revenue. There was no report prepared for businesses with more than $5 million in annual revenue. This typically means that the statistical agency does not want to report on financial results for a tiny number of enterprises, which could possibly be identified as a result.
The average results for these small businesses were an estimated 529 invoices, representing, on average, $23,53 each.
Establishing a sophisticated filing system to align with their recommendations is likely overkill.
At SBA Canada, we recommend a simpler system relying on what we call naturally-generated information.
DOWNLOAD RECORDKEEPING GUIDE