Snow Cleared

CASE STUDY

Snow Cleared

From CRA Demand Letters and Lost GST Credits to Clean Monthly Closes Across Five Entities

The Impact
Entities Managed

5

Hrs/Month Returned to Ops

20–30+

Years as a Client

4+

Compliance Stress Score Reduction

8→1

About the Client

Snow Cleared is a 24/7 snow and ice clearing business operating across British Columbia, Alberta, and Texas. The group runs through five related entities: Snow Cleared, Trash Panda Bin Services, White Rock Storage, Top Gun Blades (USA), and TBOS Holdings. Clients include The City of Surrey, Tesla Motors, Fraser Health, Safeway, and National Bank.

The business grew quickly. The financial infrastructure did not keep up. As revenue grew and the entity count climbed, the gap between what the books showed and what was actually happening became a real problem.

The Situation

By the time Snow Cleared reached out to Transcounts, the books were a mess. Multiple bookkeepers and a tax firm had been involved over the years, but nobody was owning the full picture. Workflows varied. Filings were behind. The books reflected all of it.

The founders rated their compliance stress at 8 out of 10. CRA had been in touch. Demand letters had come in. GST credits were being lost. And the Operations Manager was spending close to 30 hours a month just trying to get visibility into the numbers.

The Core Problem

Nobody owned the full picture across five entities. Intercompany reconciliation was not happening. The books were too unreliable to make confident decisions from, let alone hold up to a CRA review

Challenges

The challenges Snow Cleared was dealing with are common in fast-growing trade contracting businesses. At this scale, with cross-border operations and multiple entities involved, the problems had been building for a while:
  • Money was moving between five entities with no formal reconciliation process. Discrepancies were building quietly in the background.
  • Bookkeeping was incomplete and inconsistent. Month-end closes were unreliable, which meant the financial statements were too
  • GST/HST and corporate tax filings had fallen behind, and CRA was following up with demand letters. Active audit reviews were already underway.
  • Multiple service providers were involved, but nobody owned the full picture. Compliance gaps kept getting missed.
  • The Founder and Operations Manager were spending 20 to 30 hours a month chasing down numbers. That was time they needed elsewhere.

The Transcounts Approach

Transcounts took on the full engagement as one accountable team. One contact, one set of workflows, one team responsible for everything across all five entities. The work covered three areas:

1. Getting the Books in Order
  • Set up a formal intercompany reconciliation process across all five entities.
  • Cleaned up two-plus years of historical bookkeeping and put consistent workflows in place going forward.
  • Got every entity onto a reliable monthly close schedule.
2. Dealing with CRA
  • Filed all outstanding GST/HST returns and dealt directly with CRA on the client' s behalf
  • Responded to the open GST/HST and corporation tax reviews that were already in progress.
  • Got all CRA accounts aligned to clean, auditable books, which put an end to the demand letters.
3. Building for Scale
  • Set up QuickBooks Online (QBO), DEXT, QBOP, and Gusto to digitize receipts and get payroll running cleanly.
  • Handled payroll and contractor advisory for both the Canadian and U.S. entities, including Top Gun Blades, all under one engagement.
  • Extended full bookkeeping and payroll coverage to the U.S. entity so Snow Cleared no longer needed a separate American provider

The Results

By the end of the first full month, Snow Cleared had closes it could actually rely on. Within the first year, the CRA demand letters had stopped. Four years later, all five entities are on clean, consistent financials and the business has expanded into the United States.

  • The Operations Manager got 20 to 30 hours back each month
  • Financial reporting is now reviewed every month, on time. Cash planning, tax visibility, and hiring decisions are based on numbers the team can trust.
  • The CRA demand letters stopped. Audit risk came down significantly once the books were clean and filings were current.
  • GST credits that had been missed were recovered. Late-filing penalties stopped.
  • Snow Cleared expanded into the United States with full financial support in place from day one.
  • Snow Cleared has been a Transcounts client for over four years.
“Aman has been fantastic to work with. He took on a massive challenge with us and has been a huge help getting things in order. Thanks Aman!”
Brynn Kennedy
Managing Director (SnowCleared)

Services Provided

  • Bookkeeping (5 entities)
  • Accounts Receivable & Payable
  • Audit Support & CRA Liaison
  • Payroll & Contractor Advisory
  • GST/HST Returns
  • Year-End Support

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