Freelancers & Online · Edmonton
Online coach bookkeeping in Edmonton: Stripe payouts, refunds and GST.
Course sales, payment plans and memberships run through platforms that pay you net of fees. Here's how to turn those payouts into books that actually make sense.
By the Plum team- Updated Oct 2026
- 7 min read
- Platforms pay you net of fees and refunds. Record gross sales, fees and payouts separately.
- Refunds reduce your sales; they're not an expense.
- Below $30,000 in sales, GST is optional. Above it, you charge based on where each client lives.
- Only claim GST credits for GST actually shown on your software invoices.
Online coaching and course businesses are built on platforms: Stripe, Kajabi, Teachable, Thinkific, PayPal, Zoom and a dozen apps in between. That makes selling easy and bookkeeping strangely hard, because what lands in your bank account rarely matches what you sold. Good online coach bookkeeping in Edmonton starts with untangling those payouts.
This guide is for life, business, fitness and wellness coaches, course creators and membership owners working from Edmonton, St. Albert, Sherwood Park or Stony Plain and selling to clients all over Canada and beyond. The GST section is general, so confirm anything specific to your products with your accountant or CRA.
1Why your bank deposits don't match your sales
Say you sell a $500 program through Stripe. A $500 sale doesn't arrive as $500. Stripe takes its fee, maybe bundles it with other sales, subtracts a refund from last week, and sends you one payout a few days later. If you record only that payout as income, your books are wrong in three ways: revenue too low, fees missing, and refunds invisible.
The fix is to record the platform as if it were a bank account:
- Sales go in at their full price, including any GST you charged.
- Fees go out as an expense: payment processing, platform fees, currency conversion.
- Refunds and chargebacks go out as reductions of sales.
- Payouts move from the platform "account" to your real bank account as a transfer.
QuickBooks Online and Xero both support this with a clearing account, and some platforms connect directly. Either way, the platform's monthly payout or balance report is your source document. Download it every month.
2Refunds, chargebacks and failed payments
Refunds reduce your revenue. If you charged GST on the original sale, the refund also reduces the GST you owe, so record both parts. Chargebacks work the same way, plus the dispute fee, which is an expense.
Failed subscription payments are a different thing: if the money never arrived, there was no sale to record. Base your bookkeeping on actual successful charges, which is what the payout report shows.
If you run an affiliate program, the commissions you pay out are a business expense, not a reduction of your sales. Record the full sale, then the affiliate payout separately, whether the platform pays the affiliate automatically or you send it yourself. The same goes for collaborators on a joint program: record the gross revenue, then what you paid your partner. It makes your books match your platform's sales reports, and it means your accountant can see exactly what the program cost to run. Hold on to the affiliate reports each month, because they're the backup for those payouts.
3Your software stack
Coaches tend to have a long list of monthly subscriptions. All of them are generally deductible business expenses if you use them for the business:
| Category | Examples | Watch for |
|---|---|---|
| Course and membership platform | Kajabi, Teachable, Thinkific | Annual plans billed in USD |
| Video and calls | Zoom, Loom | Personal accounts mixed in |
| Email and scheduling | Email platforms, booking apps | Duplicate tools you forgot to cancel |
| Design and content | Canva, editing software | Price increases at renewal |
| Ads | Social media ads | Charges split across several cards |
| Equipment | Camera, microphone, lighting | Larger items go through CCA |
On GST credits: some foreign software companies charge Canadian GST and many don't. Only claim an input tax credit when GST is actually shown on the invoice. If you coach from home, see our home office deduction guide for that piece.
4Online coach bookkeeping and GST across provinces
Here's where online businesses differ from a local studio. You don't need to register for GST until your taxable sales pass $30,000 over four consecutive calendar quarters, or in a single quarter. Sales to clients outside Canada count toward that total. The details are in our GST registration guide.
Once you're registered, the rate you charge on online coaching and courses generally depends on where your client is, not where you are:
- Alberta, BC, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and the territories: 5% GST.
- Ontario and the Atlantic provinces: HST at a higher combined rate, currently 13% to 15%. Check CRA's rate table for the current rate in each province.
- Quebec: 5% GST, and Quebec has its own QST system with separate rules for out-of-province sellers.
- Clients outside Canada: often zero-rated, but confirm for your type of product.
Practically, that means collecting each client's province at checkout and turning on location-based tax in your platform. On most standard setups, you are the seller, not the platform, so the platform won't sort this out for you unless it acts as the merchant of record.
5Common mistakes coaches make
- Recording payouts as income. It hides your fees and refunds and understates revenue for GST and tax.
- Ignoring the $30,000 line. A successful launch can push you over the threshold in a single quarter. Once that happens, the sale that pushed you over is already taxable.
- Charging 5% to everyone after registering. Clients in HST provinces are generally charged at their province's rate.
- Mixing personal and business PayPal. A single account for both makes it hard to prove which money was business income.
- Losing track of USD platform fees. Annual software plans billed in US dollars can be a large expense that never makes it into the books.
- Treating a big launch month as normal. Launch revenue often comes with ad spend, affiliate payouts and refunds in the following weeks.
A monthly close catches all of these while they're still small.
6Your monthly close
Plum works with online coaches and course creators across Edmonton, St. Albert, Sherwood Park and Stony Plain, untangling platform payouts into clean monthly books on a flat fee. If your Stripe and Kajabi reports have never quite matched your bank, book a call and we'll take a look.
7Questions people ask
How do I record Stripe payouts in my books?
Record the gross sales, the Stripe fees as an expense, and the payout as a transfer to your bank. Recording only the net payout understates both your revenue and your costs, which can cause problems with GST and your tax return.
Do online coaches charge GST to clients in other provinces?
Once you're registered, generally yes, at the rate for the client's province: 5% GST in Alberta and several other provinces, and a higher HST rate in Ontario and the Atlantic provinces. Clients outside Canada are often zero-rated. Confirm the rules for your specific products.
Do I need to register for GST as an online coach?
Not until your taxable sales pass $30,000 over four consecutive calendar quarters, or in a single quarter. Sales to clients outside Canada still count toward that total.
How do I handle refunds and chargebacks?
Record refunds as a reduction of sales, along with any GST you'd charged, rather than as an expense. Chargeback fees are a separate expense. Your platform's payout report shows both.
Is Kajabi or Stripe responsible for my sales tax?
On most standard setups, you are the seller, so charging and remitting GST/HST is your job. Check whether your platform acts as the merchant of record, and set up its tax settings to collect by location if not.
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Book a free 15-min callThis 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.