Oil and gas contractor bookkeeping in Edmonton: day rates to year-end.

If you're a well-site supervisor, drilling or completions consultant, or safety lead billing operators through your own corporation, you already know the work. The books are another story. Oil and gas contractor bookkeeping in Edmonton has a few quirks that general small business advice skips: day rates, per diems, a truck that does half your living, camp stays, long payment terms and a quiet season every spring.

This guide is for independent oilfield consultants based in Edmonton, Leduc and Nisku, Fort Saskatchewan or Spruce Grove who spend weeks in the field and want the paperwork to take an hour, not a weekend.

1Day rates and invoicing

Most consultants bill a day rate under a master service agreement, often with extras for travel days, mobilization, per diem and truck. Your invoice is the backbone of your books, so make each one match your field tickets or timesheets exactly.

Many operators use invoicing portals such as OpenInvoice or Ariba, with their own approval steps and coding. Submit as soon as the rotation ends, record the invoice in QuickBooks Online or Xero the same day, and save the approved field ticket with it. When payment lands 45 or 60 days later, you'll know exactly what it's for.

2Per diems, camp and meals

Per diems confuse more contractors than anything else. The key idea: when your corporation bills a per diem, it's revenue, not a reimbursement that disappears. Your actual costs are then separate expenses.

• In camp: if the operator provides room and board, you usually have little or no meal and lodging cost to claim. The per diem you bill is still revenue.
• In a hotel: lodging is deductible, and meals are generally 50% deductible. Save itemized receipts, not just card slips.
• Driving in daily: your fuel and vehicle costs flow through the truck, below.

There are some special rules for meals at remote work sites, so if you spend long stretches in remote locations, ask your accountant whether any apply to you rather than assuming.

3Your truck

For most field consultants the truck is the biggest expense after themselves. There are two common setups:

The corporation owns the truck

The corporation deducts fuel, insurance, repairs, registration and capital cost allowance. But if you also drive it personally, you may be taxed on a standby charge and operating benefit. A pickup used mainly for work can sometimes avoid this, depending on how it's used, so ask before you buy.

You own the truck personally

The corporation pays you a reasonable per-kilometre allowance for business driving. You track the kilometres; the corporation records the allowance as an expense. It's often cleaner, but the logbook has to be real.

Either way, you need a logbook: date, destination, purpose and kilometres for business trips, plus odometer readings at the start and end of the year. A phone app that tracks trips is fine. A reconstructed guess in April is not.

4GST for oil and gas contractors

At typical day rates, many oilfield consultants pass $30,000 in a single quarter, which means registering for GST right away. If you haven't, read our GST registration guide first.

Once registered, charge 5% on the full invoice, including per diems, truck charges and recharged costs, unless your accountant tells you a specific line is different. Claim input tax credits on the GST you pay for fuel, truck repairs, PPE, tools, phone and hotels. Fuel is a big one: a full year of fuel receipts can add up to a meaningful credit.

The GST you collect is the operator's money passing through you to CRA. Move it to a separate account when each payment arrives.

5Cash flow, tax and breakup

Oilfield income is lumpy. Winter drilling is busy; spring breakup can mean weeks with no work. Combine that with net 60 terms and your cash can look healthy in May for work you did in February, then thin out in summer.

Mistakes we see most often

• Recording per diems as a reimbursement. It understates revenue and usually means GST wasn't charged on it either.
• No logbook for the truck. A vehicle deduction without kilometres to back it up is the first thing to go in a review.
• Paying personal bills from the corporate account. Groceries and family trips end up in the shareholder loan, which your accountant then has to clear.
• Forgetting GST on recharged costs. If you buy something for a job and bill it to the operator, GST generally applies to the amount you bill.
• Spending the winter cash. A great February can mean a big tax bill and a quiet April and May at the same time.

Your corporation may also owe tax instalments once its tax bill passes $3,000, and so may you personally if you take dividends. See our guide to tax instalments in Alberta for how the thresholds work.

On WCB: many operators won't release payment without a clearance letter. Incorporated owners can often purchase personal coverage from WCB Alberta, so confirm what your contracts require and what's available to you.

6A setup that works from the field

The best bookkeeping setup for a field consultant is one that needs you as little as possible: bank and card feeds connected, receipts snapped into the app on your phone, invoices built from a template, and someone reconciling it all monthly while you're on rotation. That's what we do for contractors across Edmonton, Leduc, Nisku and Fort Saskatchewan. If you'd like it handled before the next busy season, book a call with us.

7Questions people ask

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This article is general information for Alberta businesses and isn't tax or legal advice. Rules and thresholds change, so confirm your situation with your accountant or CRA.