How it works — Onest

The way it works now

Every two weeks, the same Tuesday ritual.

If this sounds like your shop, you know the feeling: you're personally on the hook for source deductions you can't inspect.

Spreadsheet per employee

Hours in, formulas you copied from three years ago, one cell that might be wrong.

Email the bureau

Attach the file. Wait. Hope they ran it correctly. You won't be shown the math.

Mystery paystub

A PDF arrives. No formula references. You have to trust a number you can't trace.

Sign the cheques

Or approve the direct-deposit run. The numbers look right. Probably.

Can't verify the remittance

You assume CRA got paid on time. If they didn't, you find out later — the hard way.

Two companies, separated by hand

YBM and YHP. Two bureaus, two spreadsheets, two sets of remittances to track. Don't mix them up.

One late source-deduction remittance: 10–20% penalty + ~8% compound daily interest, assessed personally as a director — not discharged if the company goes under. You're running this risk blind, for a process you're forbidden to inspect. That's the deal you have with your current bureau.

Getting started

Switching without the nightmare.

You don't cut over until the numbers match in front of you. We run the first payroll with you.

Step 1

Import your YTD

We bring in year-to-date earnings and deductions for every employee. Nothing is re-keyed from scratch.

Step 2

Parallel run

We run your next payroll alongside your current method. Same hours, same people. You compare the output, line by line.

Step 3

Numbers match — you cut over

When you're satisfied the numbers agree, you switch. Not a moment before. You stay in control of the timeline.

Step 4

Your accountant stays in the loop

Read-only access for your year-end accountant. Clean exports in whatever format they prefer. We don't replace your accountant — we give them better data.

On direct deposit: Some Ontario trades shops still pay by physical cheque. Direct deposit is a real behaviour change for some crews. Onest supports both; we're honest that moving to direct deposit is a conversation to have with your team before the first run.

Compliance

Handled. And provable.

You're personally on the hook as a director. "The bureau said it was fine" is not a defence. With Onest, you can show your work — to CRA, to your accountant, to yourself.

T4127-accurate calculations

Every deduction computed from the current CRA T4127 tables, 122nd edition. Not estimated. Not rounded to close enough. Exact.

Remittance you can confirm

You see when remittances are due, the amount, and the confirmation that they went out. You don't take our word for it.

T4s and ROEs

Year-end slips and Records of Employment generated from the same ledger that ran every paycheque. No re-keying. No reconciliation gap.

ESA-aware for Ontario

Employment Standards Act rules — 4% or 6% vacation pay (based on tenure), 44-hour OT threshold at 1.5×, public-holiday averaging — built in, not an add-on.

Two entities, kept separate

Each employee bound to the right company. Per-entity remittances, approvals, and reports. No cross-contamination, no end-of-year surprise.

Director due-diligence record

An immutable log of every calculation, every remittance, every approval. If CRA asks whether you did your part — you can show them, line by line.