Our Curated List

Throughout my experience, I have come across various accounting and financial management tools being given out for free or for a low fee by reliable organizations and companies in Canada. These tools are incredibly helpful not only for taxpayers but also for small business owners!

I meticulously curated a list of the most underrated yet extremely flexible and informative tools taxpayers and small business owners can use daily. Do you have other undiscovered but praise-worthy accounting tools and apps? Fill out the contact form, and let us make this list more refined! 

In the meantime, here is the list of accounting and financial management tools for individuals and taxpayers:

Tax Information and Rates

Tax information websites:

• ​TaxTips.ca – Simple site with a ton of tax information, including tax rates.
  • Chartered Professional Accountants of Canada – National organization of Chartered Professional Accountants. It provides the latest tax news and law changes.
  • Retail Council of Canada – An organization that represents small to large-sized retail businesses online and offline in Canada. It provides news and updates about finance and taxation related to retail.
• ​CRA – The government website for all things related to tax.
  • 1 -800-959-8281 – Call for individuals
  • 1-800-959-5525 – Call for businesses

Here are some helpful CRA tax tools for small business owners:

• Payroll Deduction Calculator – You can calculate federal, provincial (Quebec not included), and territorial deductions from the payroll. 
• Payroll Deduction Calculator for Quebec – You can calculate federal, provincial (Quebec not included), and territorial deductions from the payroll. It uses deduction formulas for Québec income tax, Québec Pension Plan (QPP) contributions, and Québec parental insurance plan (QPIP) premiums.
• GST/HST calculator (and rates) – You have access to GST and HST provincial rates and GST/HST calculator.

For individuals:

• Child and family benefits calculator – This tool helps you calculate how much payment you get from child and family benefits you are eligible for.

Non-governmental tax and rates tools:

• Statistics by Bank of Canada – You can find various valuable statistical information and metrics, from banking interest rates and exchange rates to commodity price indexes, in one place.
• 2023 Canada Tax Calculator by Ernst & Young – You can use personal income tax and RRSP savings calculators as well as have access to up-to-date corporate tax rates, provincial corporate tax rates, and corporate investment income tax rates.

Financial Management and Budgeting

• ​Mint – Probably the simplest app for tracking spending and setting budgets.
• ​Tiller – A spreadsheet based app for tracking account activity.
• ​YNAB – A fantastic personal budgeting tool.
• Wealth Position – A multi-currency and cryptocurrency tracking tool.
• Wealthica – A finance tracking tool allowing you to monitor your money and transactions from different apps in one place.
• Kubera – This tool tracks your global bank accounts, investments, as well as cryptocurrency assets, including NFTs and DeFi.

Family-friendly tools and app:

• Budget Planner – A tool by the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada. You can personalize this tool depending on your needs. It also provides you with helpful tips and guidelines about effective budgeting.
• Splitwise – A shared expenses tracking tool perfect for couples, groups, and roommates.
• Mydoh – This tool is perfect for parents who want to manage their children’s allowance spending. Issued by the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), this kid-friendly app allows parents to transfer funds and allowance to their kids’ accounts, which they can use for real-world purchases using the e-wallet and electronic cards.

Parents can track their children’s spending, set purchase limits, and check account balance.

• Settle Up – Similar to Splitwise, Settle Up is a bill-splitting app that syncs all expenses to all members. This app is best for group travelers, roommates, and family members.

Accounting Software

• ​QuickBooks Online – Access your business financial info from anywhere. 
• ​Xero – Online accounting software, with a headquarters in New Zealand. 
• Wave Accounting – Wave Accounting can take care of your accounting, invoicing, payroll, payments, and advisor, all of which are crucial in running a business.
• FreshBooks – It is a cloud-accounting software perfect for small business owners and freelancers looking for an efficient and user-friendly accounting tool.

READ MORE: 4 Best Accounting Software Options For Small Businesses Recommended by a CPA

Credit Monitoring App and Software

A credit monitoring tool is a service that tracks changes to your credit reports and scores over time. It watches for activities such as new credit inquiries, changes in credit limits, updates to personal information, or potentially fraudulent activities.

• Credit Karma – Acquired by Intuit, Credit Karma allows you to monitor your credit and get credit score reports. 
• Borrowell – Besides getting free credit score reports and updates, Borrowell also matches you with financial products, such as credit cards, banks, and insurance.
• CreditWise – What makes Credit Wise different from its counterparts is its ability to ensure your personal information, such as your social security number, is safe and not used by anonymous people or shady websites for fraudulent activities. Credit Wise has an alert system to inform you about these activities.
• Equifax – Similar to Credit Wise, Equifax alerts you if there is identity theft or fraudulent activity against you.
• TransUnion – In addition to debt and credit reports, TransUnion also provides identity theft insurance.

Payment Processing

• Stripe – Stripe is a payment processor that can be integrated into your app. Popular apps using Stripe as their PoS build the processor’s reputation. Stripe supports credit and debit cards, e-wallets, bank redirects, and a buy now, pay later system.
• Square – Square allows customers to pay online and in person using their smartphones. It supports credit cards, cash, cheques, and gift cards.
• Moneris – Moneris is a Canadian payment processor commonly used by e-commerce businesses. Besides being a payment service, it has other features like inventory and sales tracking. Moneris also partnered with top accounting software like Sage to power up these added features.
• Elavon – This US-based payment processing supports over 100 currencies and accepts international cards. This is perfect for businesses looking for global market expansion.

Small Business Resources

• ​Industry Canada Financial Performance Data – Benchmark the financial performance of your business and understand you compare with competing firms based on data from Statistics Canada using a sample of Revenue Canada tax returns. 
• ​BDC Canadian Business Productivity Benchmarking Tool – Compare the productivity of your business based on data from the Canadian Center for Data Development and Economic Research (CDER) of Statistics Canada. Compare overall, labor and capital productivity, as well as revenue and profit per employee.
• Small Business Hub by Statistics Canada – A resource and data hub where entrepreneurs and business owners can find the latest demographic data across Canada to help them understand their target market.
• Benefits Business Finder – A tool by Innovation Canada that helps business owners who need research support, funding, loans and capital investments, wage subsidies and interns, and advisory.
• Canadian Financial Literacy Database – Helps you find events, tools, and resources about budgeting, money management, insurance, saving, investing, and taxes.
• Canada Digital Adoption Program (CDAP) – This program awards small business owners grants to help them with digitalization, such as setting up e-commerce platforms and getting tech advice to grow their businesses. You can get funding up to $15,000 for getting a digital advisor, which you can follow with an interest-free loan of up to $100,000.
• Directories of Canadian Companies – Small business owners can use the directory for supplier search, competition research, and incorporation status check.

Financial Literacy Programs and Other Resources for Individuals

• Financial Toolkit and Financial Basics Workshop –  With the help of the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada, this financial literacy program provides individuals with helpful financial information and tools, helping them manage their money and make smart financial decisions.
• CPA Canada Financial Literacy Sessions – Delivered by CPA members across Canada, these face-to-face financial literacy sessions are perfect for adults, seniors, students, entrepreneurs, not-for-profit, and low-income earners to learn more about managing their finances.
• Financial Goal Calculator – This calculator can help you manage your debts and savings effectively and efficiently.
• Investment Calculator – A tool created by the Bank of Canada, this investment tool is ideal for individuals who are looking into savings and investments and how inflation impacts them.
• Inflation Calculator – Helps individuals to compare costs over time.
• Job Bank – Individuals seeking job opportunities in Canada can benefit from Job Bank. With Job Bank, you can get in-depth labor market information, such as socio-economic trends in each province and territory that could affect the job market, compare wages, as well as the leading industries in the provinces.
• RBC Neighbourhood Explorer – For individuals and families looking for new homes and communities to live in, this tool from the Royal Bank of Canada makes the search easier. It will give you home options based on your chosen conditions. It will also show you the estimated monthly mortgage payment and value trend for each result the tool generates.