Start with one transaction
For an Ontario business owner, a useful records check can start small. Choose one recent purchase and one income entry. Can you locate the supporting documents, understand the transaction and open the electronic files you expect to rely on?
Check the supporting detail
In its Business records guidance for sole proprietors and partnerships, the CRA says to obtain receipts or vouchers, add missing purchase descriptions and record transaction details when no receipt is provided. It also says income records need the date, amount and source, supported by original documents.
That page's context matters: this checklist does not present it as every corporation's specific legal obligation. This is a records check, not a deductibility assessment.
Check readability and recovery
The CRA's electronic records and backup guidance says electronically created records must remain electronically readable even when printed. Its backup guidance includes restoration in a form usable and accessible to the CRA.
- Open a sample: check that the file is readable and belongs to the transaction.
- Flag missing details: note what needs clarification instead of guessing.
- Test a copy: restore a sample backup in a separate location, without overwriting live records, and check that it opens.
Record what you checked and the next action, so missing information remains visible rather than becoming an assumption.
These sample checks are practical suggestions, not a prescribed testing timetable or a guarantee of compliance. They do not authorize destroying originals or establish that a phone photo meets imaging requirements.
Discuss your bookkeeping process
For a general bookkeeping discussion, email Wealthy Wave Accounting. Please do not send confidential documents through ordinary email or public comments.
General education only; not individualized accounting, tax or legal advice.