Why Canadian contractors end up fighting their invoicing software
Most invoicing tools are built in the United States for a sales-tax system that works nothing like ours. Tax there is destination-based, varies by county and city, and the software's main job is looking up the right rate for an address. So the tax feature is built around a lookup engine — and then Canadian users arrive, needing something completely different, and find themselves fighting a system designed for a problem they do not have.
A contractor in Stratford charges 13% HST. On the next job, in Listowel, they charge 13% HST. It does not change. What they actually need is for the software to apply that rate reliably, show it as its own line, and print their registration number on the invoice. That is a smaller problem than the American one, and it should be handled in about thirty seconds of setup rather than fought with on every job.
How CrewQuote handles it
You enter one rate in your business profile, along with your legal business name, address and GST/HST number. From then on:
- Every quote shows subtotal, tax and total as separate figures
- Every invoice does the same, with your registration number on the document
- Converting an approved quote to an invoice carries the tax treatment across unchanged
- Exports to QuickBooks or Wave carry the tax amount as its own column
If you work in more than one province at rates that genuinely differ, you can override the rate on an individual quote. That is a manual choice, made by you, on the jobs where it matters — not an automatic lookup that quietly decides for you.
Current rates by province
For reference only, current as of this page's publication. Rates change — the authoritative source is the Canada Revenue Agency, and you should confirm before relying on any figure here.
| Province / territory | Type | Combined rate |
|---|---|---|
| Ontario | HST | 13% |
| New Brunswick | HST | 15% |
| Newfoundland & Labrador | HST | 15% |
| Prince Edward Island | HST | 15% |
| Nova Scotia | HST | 14% |
| Alberta | GST only | 5% |
| British Columbia | GST + PST | 5% + 7% |
| Saskatchewan | GST + PST | 5% + 6% |
| Manitoba | GST + RST | 5% + 7% |
| Quebec | GST + QST | 5% + 9.975% |
| Yukon, NWT, Nunavut | GST only | 5% |
In the GST + PST provinces the two taxes are administered separately and the rules about what each applies to are not identical — construction and installation labour in particular is treated differently province to province. If you work in BC, Saskatchewan or Manitoba, this is worth one conversation with an accountant rather than an assumption.
What a compliant invoice needs
If you are a GST/HST registrant, the CRA sets out what has to appear on an invoice before your customer can claim an input tax credit, and the requirements get stricter as the amount rises. For most contractor invoices that means, at minimum:
- Your business or trading name
- The invoice date
- The total amount payable
- Your GST/HST registration number
- The amount of tax charged, or a clear statement of which items are taxable and at what rate
- For larger invoices, the purchaser's name and the terms of sale
CrewQuote's invoice layout carries these fields once your business profile is filled in. Filling it in properly is the part that is on you, and it takes about five minutes.
Registering, and the $30,000 threshold
Broadly, you have to register for GST/HST once your taxable revenues pass $30,000 over four consecutive calendar quarters. Below that you can operate as a small supplier and not charge it — or you can register voluntarily, which some contractors do specifically to claim input tax credits on trucks, equipment and material.
Whether that is the right call for you depends on your customer mix and your capital spending, and it is a genuine accountant question rather than a rule of thumb. CrewQuote does not make this determination and does not know your situation. What it does is apply whatever you decide, consistently, on every document.
Holdback, for anyone doing construction-lien work
Contractors on Ontario construction projects covered by the Construction Act deal with statutory holdback, typically 10% retained from each payment. CrewQuote does not have a dedicated holdback feature and does not track lien periods. You can show holdback as a negative line on the invoice, which many smaller contractors do, but if holdback and progressive release are a routine part of your work you need construction-specific accounting alongside this.
To be plain about the boundary: CrewQuote is quoting and invoicing software. It is not a tax service, an accounting package or a bookkeeper. It does not file your returns, does not calculate what you owe at remittance time, and does not decide which rate applies to a given job. It makes sure the rate you have chosen appears correctly on every document you send, and gets that data cleanly into whatever your accountant actually uses.