Accounting, POS and payroll software for Alberta

Alberta sales tax: simple at the till, not at the border

Alberta charges no provincial sales tax, so a sale made in a Calgary or Edmonton store carries only the 5% federal GST. That keeps the counter simple, but Alberta businesses that ship or invoice into other provinces must charge the customer’s rate: 13% HST into Ontario, GST plus PST into BC or Saskatchewan. Getting that wrong is a common source of GST/HST reassessments.

SeroBooks picks tax codes from the place of supply, so an invoice to a Toronto customer carries HST while the same product sold over the counter in Red Deer carries GST. Input tax credits on your purchases are tracked automatically, and the Sales Tax Centre produces the figures for your GST/HST return. Hotels and short-term rentals also deal with the 4% Alberta tourism levy, which you can set up as its own tax.

Overtime and hours under Alberta’s Employment Standards Code

Alberta uses an 8/44 test. Overtime is the greater of hours worked over 8 in a day or over 44 in a week, paid at 1.5 times the regular rate. You calculate both totals and pay whichever is larger, never both. A cook who works four 11-hour shifts has 12 daily overtime hours but none weekly, so 12 hours it is.

SeroPayroll does that comparison every pay period from timesheets or the time clock, so no one has to work it out in a spreadsheet. Where there is a written overtime agreement, banked time can be recorded and drawn down at the straight-time rate the Code allows, and the balance shows on the pay stub.

Vacation pay follows Alberta’s schedule: 4% (two weeks) until five years of service, then 6% (three weeks). SeroPayroll accrues it in dollars and shows what is owed to each employee at any point, which matters when an Alberta employee leaves and the final pay deadline starts running. Termination pay and any banked overtime belong in that final cheque too.

General holidays in Alberta

Alberta has nine general holidays: New Year’s Day, Alberta Family Day, Good Friday, Victoria Day, Canada Day, Labour Day, Thanksgiving, Remembrance Day and Christmas Day. Heritage Day in August, Easter Monday and Boxing Day are optional unless your policy says otherwise. If an optional day is in your employment contracts or handbook, add it to SeroPayroll as a company holiday so it is paid consistently.

General holiday pay depends on whether the day would normally be a work day and whether the employee meets the eligibility rule of 30 days worked in the prior 12 months. Pay is based on the average daily wage, calculated as 5% of wages, vacation pay and general holiday pay earned in the four weeks before the holiday. SeroPayroll stores this formula as Alberta’s own, separate from every other province.

• Average daily wage: 5% of the prior four weeks’ wages, vacation pay and holiday pay
• Working the holiday: 1.5 times the regular rate plus the average daily wage, or a substitute day
• Employees must have 30 days of work in the prior 12 months to qualify

Calgary, Edmonton and every town in between

Alberta’s small business mix leans toward restaurants, construction and energy services, retail and wholesale. SeroPOS runs restaurant counters in Calgary’s Beltline and Edmonton’s Whyte Avenue with table plans, kitchen display and split bills. SeroBooks gives trades and service firms in Red Deer, Lethbridge, Airdrie, Grande Prairie and Fort McMurray job costing, purchase orders and inventory in the same ledger.

Sero is based in British Columbia and serves Alberta remotely by phone, email and in-app chat. There is no Alberta branch office, and we will not pretend otherwise. Onboarding is guided, the apps install from the major app stores, and SeroBooks imports QuickBooks Desktop files with a dry run before anything is committed.