From Our Office September has a way of feeling like a fresh start. Summer schedules begin to settle, routines return, and the final stretch of the calendar year comes into view. For business owners, this makes September a particularly good time to check in on the financial side of the business before year-end gets busy. This month, we're looking ahead to the final 100 days of 2026: what you can organize now, which upcoming dates may matter to you, and a few simple ways to make bookkeeping and tax time easier. FEATURED: 100 Days Until Year-End Your Fall Financial Checklist September 22 marks 100 days until December 31. That may sound like plenty of time, but the last few months of the year have a habit of moving quickly. A fall financial check-in can help you catch missing information while it is still easy to find and spread year-end work over several months instead of leaving everything for January. Here are six areas worth reviewing now: Bring your bookkeeping up to date. If you're a few weeks or months behind, now is a much easier time to catch up than during tax season. Track down missing receipts and invoices. Receipts are easier to replace while purchases are still recent. Make sure large equipment purchases and unusual expenses are especially well documented. Review accounts receivable. Look at unpaid customer invoices, follow up on overdue balances, and make sure your records agree with what customers actually owe. Update vehicle records. If you use a vehicle for business, don't wait until year-end to reconstruct months of business kilometres from memory. Review GST/HST and payroll. Make sure amounts collected, paid and remitted are being recorded properly and that your filing or remitting schedule is understood. Take note of major changes. A new vehicle, equipment purchase, new employee, new source of income, property purchase or sale, or major change in business activity may all be worth discussing before year-end. The goal isn't to finish year-end in September. It's to make sure there aren't unpleasant surprises waiting for you when December and tax season arrive. Quick Tip Why Your Bank Statement Isn't a Substitute for a Receipt A bank or credit-card statement is useful evidence that money changed hands, but it usually doesn't show exactly what you purchased. A $92.40 charge at a retailer could represent office supplies, personal items, equipment, or a combination of all three. The receipt or invoice provides the details needed to identify the expense, determine its business purpose, and see the GST/HST charged. Your statement supports the payment; the receipt supports what was purchased. A good habit: save or upload the receipt when the purchase happens rather than creating a receipt-hunting project at tax time. Tech Tip: Did You Know? QuickBooks Online Can Help You Keep Receipts With Your Books If you use QuickBooks Online with us, you don't have to rely on a drawer, envelope or overflowing email inbox to keep track of every business receipt. QuickBooks Online allows receipts to be uploaded from a computer or mobile device. The QuickBooks mobile app also includes Receipt Snap, so you can photograph a receipt while it's still in your hand. QuickBooks can extract information from the receipt and create a transaction for review, or the receipt can be matched to an existing transaction. Snap a photo of a paper receipt before it gets lost or faded. Upload PDF or image receipts received electronically. Keep supporting documentation connected to the bookkeeping record. Make it easier to find the receipt later if a transaction needs to be reviewed. Small habit, big payoff: capturing receipts as you go can make both bookkeeping and tax preparation much smoother. Accounting Myth of the Month MYTH: "If I paid for it with my business card, it's a business expense." REALITY: The payment method doesn't determine whether an expense is deductible. What matters is why the expense was incurred and how it relates to earning business income. Some purchases may be fully business-related, some may need to be split between business and personal use, and some personal expenses are not deductible at all. Keeping business and personal spending separate is still an excellent bookkeeping practice—it just doesn't turn a personal purchase into a tax deduction. Dates for Your Calendar Date What to Watch Why It Matters September 15, 2026 Personal income-tax instalment For most individuals who are required to pay tax by instalments, the third 2026 instalment is due. September 30, 2026 End of Q3 Calendar-quarter businesses wrap up the July-to-September quarter. A good prompt to make sure Q3 bookkeeping is complete. October 15, 2026 Quarterly payroll remittance Eligible quarterly payroll remitters have a July-to-September remittance due. Your payroll remitting frequency depends on your CRA remitter type. November 2, 2026 Q3 GST/HST deadline for calendar-quarter filers Monthly and quarterly GST/HST returns are generally due one month after the reporting period. Because October 31, 2026 falls on a Saturday, the CRA next-business-day rule moves the deadline to Monday, November 2. December 15, 2026 Personal income-tax instalment The fourth regular 2026 individual instalment is due for most individuals required to pay by instalments. Deadlines can vary with reporting periods, remitter type, fiscal year-end and individual circumstances. Check your CRA account or contact our office if you're unsure which dates apply to you. Service Spotlight: Bookkeeping Cleanup Has bookkeeping slipped down the priority list? You're not alone. When you're busy running a business, entering transactions, reconciling accounts and tracking down receipts can easily become a 'later' job. The trouble is that 'later' often becomes January, February—or the middle of tax season. A bookkeeping cleanup can help identify and address items such as: months of unrecorded or unreconciled transactions duplicate or incorrectly categorized entries missing receipts and supporting documents uncleared transactions or unexplained balances GST/HST recording issues accounts receivable or payable that no longer reflect reality September is a much better time to find out that your books need attention than March. Getting caught up now gives you time to resolve questions while the year is still fresh and puts you in a much stronger position for year-end. Need help getting caught up? Mainville & Associates can help bring your bookkeeping up to date and keep it organized going forward. Coming Next Month October's Mainville Monthly will turn the focus toward year-end planning: what business owners should review before December, which records are worth gathering early, and how a little planning before year-end can make tax season easier.