Photographer bookkeeping in Edmonton: deposits, gear and getting paid.

Photography and videography businesses have a rhythm most bookkeeping advice ignores. Money arrives months before the work, gear costs land in big chunks, and income swings between a packed summer and a quiet January. Good photographer bookkeeping in Edmonton handles all three, so you know what you've actually earned and what you can safely spend.

This guide is for wedding and family photographers, real estate photographers, and videographers working across Edmonton, Sherwood Park, St. Albert, Beaumont and Devon, whether you shoot the river valley at golden hour or forty listings a month in Windermere and Summerside.

1Wedding deposits and retainers

A couple books you in October for a wedding next August and pays a retainer. It's tempting to call that money income the day it arrives. In your books, it isn't quite yet: you haven't done the work, and if the wedding is cancelled under your contract terms, you might refund it.

The cleaner way is to record retainers to a customer deposits account, a liability, and move them to income when you shoot. That gives you two useful numbers at any moment: what you've earned so far this year, and how much future work is already booked and paid toward.

• For income tax: ask your accountant how they want deposits for future work reported. Timing can matter if you take a lot of deposits late in the year.
• For GST: if the retainer is a part payment for your services, GST is generally due when you invoice or receive it, whichever comes first. A true security deposit can be different. Your contract wording matters, so check it.
• For cash flow: deposits are real cash, but some of next summer's costs (second shooter, travel, album printing) will come out of them.

2Real estate photography: volume and statements

Real estate photographers have the opposite problem: lots of small invoices, often to the same handful of agents. A few things help:

• Invoice each shoot when you deliver, or send one statement per agent per month if they prefer.
• Use your bookkeeping app to track unpaid invoices by agent. Small amounts slip by easily.
• Make sure you know who pays: the agent personally, their team, or the brokerage.

Your clients are almost all GST-registered, so registering early rarely hurts your pricing. Many realtors work with bookkeepers too; if you're curious what their side looks like, here's our bookkeeping guide for realtors.

Videographers usually have a few extra moving parts: licensed music subscriptions, stock footage, cloud storage for huge files, and drone work. If you fly a drone commercially, Transport Canada pilot certification and registration costs are business expenses, as is the insurance many venues and clients ask for. Bundle these costs into clear categories in your books so you can see what each type of job really costs to produce, and price your packages to cover them.

3Photographer bookkeeping for gear: CCA explained

You can't usually deduct a $4,000 camera body in full the year you buy it. Instead, it goes into a capital cost allowance class and is depreciated each year. These are the classes photographers and videographers meet most often:

CCA is calculated on a declining balance, and in the year you buy something you generally get only half the normal amount. When you sell old gear, the sale price reduces the class, which can sometimes create extra income. That's why a simple gear list matters: item, date bought, price, and date and price sold.

The GST side is easier. If you're registered and the gear is used in your business, you can generally claim the GST you paid as an input tax credit in the period you bought it, even though the income tax deduction is spread out.

4Travel, mileage and the people you hire

Photographers drive constantly: to venues in Devon and Beaumont, listings across the city, engagement shoots in Elk Island. That driving is deductible, but only with a logbook showing date, destination, purpose and kilometres. A trip-tracking app does this automatically.

Out-of-town weddings add hotels and flights, generally deductible, with meals at 50%. Second shooters, assistants and editors you pay as contractors are business expenses too; record what you paid each one, and ask your accountant whether you need to issue them slips. Our list of self-employed tax deductions in Alberta covers the rest, from insurance to website hosting.

5Mistakes photographers make with their books

• Expensing a new camera in full. Big gear goes through CCA. Expensing it all at once overstates this year's costs.
• Counting every retainer as income on arrival. It makes a busy booking season look like a great earnings year, then the following year looks weak.
• Forgetting to record gear sales. Selling an old body or lens on a resale site still affects your CCA.
• Mixing personal and business shoots. Family photos and holiday travel don't belong in business expenses, even if you brought the good camera.
• No mileage log. Without one, a year of driving to venues and listings is hard to support.
• Ignoring small unpaid invoices. Ten $250 real estate invoices left unpaid add up to a real gap.

6Surviving the off-season

A busy May to October can make the winter look worse than it is, or better. Monthly books show you the real picture:

Plum does the books for photographers and videographers across Edmonton, Sherwood Park, St. Albert and Beaumont on a flat monthly fee. If last season's retainers, gear and mileage are still sitting in a pile, book a call and we'll get you caught up before the next one.

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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.