Office Repairs, Moving and Subscriptions Fees

by Suzanne
(Penticton, Canada)

What things can we generally record to the repair and maintance account?

I am facing an unusual situation:

My boss tried to repair something in his office by himself even though he is not a repair guy. He bought some protective gloves and clothing, a drill, screw driver, drill bits, wrench, copper pipes, gypsum board, saw and many more - ranging in prices from $2 to $200 for each items.

The bad news, he ended up not being able to fix it and ended up hiring a repair person to do everything over again costing $5,000.

Can all the expenses be claimed on this?

What account do bookkeepers usually put rearranging furniture in the office to?

My boss was doing some reorganization in his office and he hired a person to move the furniture from one end of the office to the other for $600.

Where does this moving fee go to?

Does it matter how expenses are classified? Can newspaper subscription fees be put in the office account instead of opening an account called newspaper subscriptions?

Hi Suzanne,

To facilitate easier tax preparation, I like to use the CRA Form T2125 as the basis for my chart of accounts when doing the books for a small business that is privately owned.

I also prefer to use CCA (Capital Cost Allowance) as my amortization method if GAAP statements are NOT required by third parties.

So this means I'd charge the subscriptions to Dues and Subscriptions (Line 8760 of the Form T2125) and the moving fees to Repairs and Maintenance (Line 8960 of the Form T2125).

As long as the the materials and tools your boss purchased to make repairs stay with the business ... and don't "walk home for personal use" ... they can be expensed.

I'd charge any small tools to your balance sheet account under capital assets called Small Tools Class 12. This CCA class is written off at 100%. This means you will take amortization on them, which in effect will expense it the same year as purchased.

I'd charge any materials to Repairs and Maintenance ... keeping in mind that your boss CANNOT charge the value of HIS labour but he can charge the value of the labour of the contractor he hired to get the job done.

If the repairs were capital in nature, they will have to be coded to your capital assets to be amortized over time.





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