Quebec Construction Chart of Accounts for QuickBooks (Free)

A Quebec contractor’s QuickBooks file balances two realities: taxes that mostly wash through, since QST recovers alongside GST, and a provincial construction apparatus, RBQ, CCQ, attestations, that never washes anywhere and must simply be tracked. This chart of accounts gives each its structure, in the codes a Quebec file actually has.

Direct costs, with recoveries intact

• Materials: GST/QST QC, both components back for registrants; the estimate and the ledger can finally agree on what things cost.
• Subcontractor labour: GST/QST QC default, GST for federal-only out-of-province subs, nothing for small suppliers; the note carries the onboarding trio of GST number, QST number, and attestation where the chain requires it. The single account doubles as the T5018 totals source.
• Equipment and tool rentals: GST/QST QC, recoverable both ways.
• Safety gear and PPE: GST/QST QC, claimable in full.
• Licences, permits and CCQ levies: Out of scope, the account this trade needs and generic charts lack.

Retention with two taxes watching

Holdbacks receivable and holdbacks payable hold contract retention apart from AR and AP at Out of scope, with both taxes generally crystallizing at release. Quebec files the pair on one return through Revenu Quebec, which makes tidy release booking pay twice: one reconciliation covers both liabilities. Monthly, holdback balances go against contract terms; releases get booked as events, not batch adjustments.

The office layer, Quebec grade

Both registration numbers print on every progress billing, because commercial clients recover against them. Payroll carries its own weight here, Quebec source deductions beside federal ones plus CCQ obligations for covered trades, all out of scope with a dedicated liability account. Crew meals recover at half under both taxes; insurance arrives exempt bearing the province’s premium tax as cost; the yard rent’s 14.975% washes back.

Takeoffs versus invoices, the reconciliation that pays

Because Quebec materials wash clean of tax, the materials account can serve a second master: estimating. Reconcile supplier invoices against the job’s takeoff monthly, and variances mean something real, waste, theft, price movement, or scope creep, rather than tax noise. PST-province contractors lose this signal because embedded tax blurs the comparison; a Quebec ledger built on this chart gets it free, and the estimator who receives that variance report every month writes sharper bids by spring.

From import to site rhythm

1. Enable sales tax first; the Quebec code set provisions natively, and nothing can be coded before the codes exist.
2. Import the chart (Settings, Import data, Chart of accounts) and post the readable CSV where bills get entered; its notes column is the trade’s whole Quebec briefing in one page.
3. Run job costing through QuickBooks projects over these stable accounts.
4. Post progress billings from the contract schedule, holdback percentages flowing to their account.
5. Quarterly, refresh the sub roster’s registration and attestation notes, and sweep the materials account for GST-only lines that should have self-assessed QST.
6. Keep warranty callbacks inside the original job’s project so contract profitability includes its aftermath, and winter’s quiet months are the natural moment to reconcile the year’s holdback releases against lien deadlines.

Site paperwork in Quebec arrives in two languages and two tax systems, daily. Dext keeps recurring suppliers ruled. ExpenseFlow reads each document, applies the combined-versus-GST-only supplier logic, keeps regulator fees and holdbacks out of scope, and posts coded entries into QuickBooks against this chart, feeding the single Revenu Quebec return. Hubdoc archives the originals for whichever inspector asks first.

Running Xero on this crew? The mirrored chart, with the custom rates Xero needs for Quebec, is at Quebec construction chart of accounts for Xero. Codes are explained in the Quebec QuickBooks sales tax reference.