Most accountants will tell you what happened with your money. Fewer will sit down with you and help you figure out what to do about it. At Leskun & Son Accounting, business consulting has always been part of how we work because the financial decisions you make as a business owner don’t exist in a vacuum. Buying or selling a business, planning your retirement, dealing with the CRA, figuring out what happens to the business when you’re ready to step back. These aren’t just accounting questions. They’re life questions, and they deserve more than a form letter and a bill.
For a blue collar business owner, personal finances and business finances are tangled together in ways that most generic financial planners don’t fully account for. Your compensation structure, what you’re setting aside, how your business assets factor into your long-term picture. These pieces need to work together, and most business owners we talk to have never had someone sit down and look at all of them at once. We do. The goal isn’t a plan that looks good on paper. It’s one that actually works for the life you’re building.
A lot of business owners hit their mid-fifties and realize they’ve been so focused on keeping the business running that they haven’t thought seriously about what comes after. Retirement planning for a business owner is considerably more complex than it is for a salaried employee, and starting late closes doors that are hard to reopen. We build a plan around your business structure, your personal assets, and what you actually want your life to look like when you hand things off. Then we check in on it, because a plan that nobody looks at after year one isn’t much of a plan.
Business succession is one of the most emotionally and financially complex things a business owner will ever navigate. Whether you’re transitioning to a family member, a key employee, or an outside buyer, getting it wrong is expensive and sometimes irreversible. Our expertise in tax, business structure, and estate planning means the transition happens on your terms, with a plan built around your specific situation rather than pulled from a generic playbook.
Whether you’re looking to acquire a business or exit the one you’ve built, the financial and tax implications are significant enough that going in without proper preparation is a real risk. Valuation, cash flow analysis, tax minimization, transition planning. We cover every stage of the process to make sure you know exactly what you’re walking into before you sign anything, and that when the deal closes, it closes in your favour.
You’ve spent years building something. Estate planning is how you make sure it ends up where you intend, without unnecessary tax exposure or legal complications getting in the way. Most people put this conversation off far longer than they should, usually because it feels complicated or uncomfortable. We make it neither. The earlier you sort it out, the more control you have over what happens.
A CRA audit is stressful even when your records are clean. If you’ve received notice of an audit or review, having proper representation makes a real difference. We handle CRA representation for our clients with the same directness and attention to detail we bring to everything else. You don’t have to deal with the CRA directly, and you don’t have to figure out what to say or how to say it. We’ve been at this for over fifty years and very little catches us off guard.
The wrong accounting software creates more problems than it solves: too complicated, poorly suited to your industry, or just not set up right from the start. We help you cut through the noise, find the right system for your specific needs, and get it implemented properly so it actually does what it’s supposed to. For trades and construction businesses especially, the right software setup means less time buried in admin and more time on the tools.
We’ve been working with Fraser Valley contractors, developers, and tradespeople since 1972, and the way we work hasn’t changed much. We take the time to understand your business, we give you straight answers, and we stay in your corner through the decisions that actually matter. Whatever stage you’re at and whatever challenge you’re facing, we’re the kind of firm that picks up the phone.