Guides
Keeping the books in a chimney sweep business: what to record and when
A chimney sweep's books stay accurate when every ticket, part, hour, payment and expense lands in the right ledger record the same day it happens.
What to take away
- One ticket per visit, written on site, carrying flue count, appliance count, creosote level, and whether a camera went up the flue.
- A parts log for rotary rods, poly brushes, HEPA filters, and cameras, so replacement cost lands against the jobs that wore them out.
- A drive-and-quote time log. Unpaid travel is the line that quietly eats a sweep's margin.
- GST/HST collected per invoice, tracked separately from revenue, because it was never yours.
- A repair handoff sheet for every job you refer to a WETT-certified technician, so the callback does not come back to you unbilled.
The records a sweep actually keeps
Bookkeeping in this trade starts at the truck, not at the desk. The unit of work is one visit to one address, and everything downstream is built from that ticket.
Write the ticket before you leave the driveway. It carries the address, the appliance type, the number of flues swept, the creosote level you observed, and whether you ran a camera. Those fields are what your invoice, your follow-up call, and your insurance file all draw from later.
If you are still deciding what your software has to hold, the chimney sweep software and KPI guide walks through the fields that pay for themselves.
The daily record
Four things get written the same day, every day, without exception.
- The visit ticket.Address, appliance, flue count, creosote level, camera yes or no, and any defect you flagged for referral.
- The parts draw.Which rods, brushes, or filters came off the truck, and which job they went onto.
- The drive and quote log.Minutes travelled and minutes spent quoting, separated from billable sweep time.
- The payment record.Method, amount, and the tax portion split out.
A ticket written the next morning is a guess. Creosote level in particular is a judgment you make with the flue in front of you, and it is the field a customer will dispute six months later.
The monthly close
At month end, reconcile three numbers against each other: tickets written, invoices issued, and payments received. A gap between the first two means paperwork is sitting in the truck. A gap between the last two means you are carrying receivables you have not chased.
Then split your costs into the lines that behave differently. Fixed overhead sets the floor the month has to clear. Consumables rise and fall with volume. Wages flex less than they look, because a slow week still pays the same crew.
Rotary rods are the lumpy line. They run quietly for months, then a set fails mid-season and the replacement bill lands in a week that already has a repair referral straining it.
Tax and registration records
Register for GST/HST once you pass the small-supplier threshold, and track the tax you collect as a liability from the moment it hits your account. It is not revenue and it should never sit in the same column.
Quebec adds its own layer. Bill 96 requires French-language commercial materials, and your invoices and quotes count. Keep the French versions on file alongside the English.
Confirm your registration obligations, thresholds, and filing periods with the Canada Revenue Agency or Revenu Québec. Those figures change, and your accountant has the current ones.
What the tax authority expects
The IRS recordkeeping guidance is a useful cross-check even for Canadian operators: a system that clearly shows income and expenses, backed by documents for purchases, sales, payroll, and assets. The principle travels.
For digital records, the NIST small business quick-start guides cover backups, access control, and retention in plain terms. A cloud system you cannot restore from is not a record.
The CISA small business guidance covers what to do when a device holding customer addresses and payment details is lost or stolen. Know the answer before it happens.
Where the money leaks
| Line | How it behaves | What to watch |
|---|---|---|
| Drive and quote time | Invisible until you log it | Jobs quoted far from the route |
| Repair referrals | Free to give away | Handoffs with no written record |
| Callbacks | Small individually, steady in total | Revisits with no ticket note |
| Rod and brush replacement | Lumpy | No parts draw to attribute it to |
A worked example
Say a sweep runs 400 visits in a season at an average invoice the owner sets. Multiply visits by average invoice for gross revenue. Subtract consumables, wages, vehicle, insurance, and software for operating cost. The gap is what the season paid.
Now add drive and quote time back in as a cost at the crew's hourly rate. If that number is larger than the owner expected, the fix is usually routing and quote screening, not price.
Common questions
How long should I keep chimney sweep records?
The CRA sets the retention period for tax records, and it is measured in years from the filing date, not the job date. Insurance claims and defect disputes can surface later, so keep visit tickets and camera footage longer than the tax minimum if storage allows. Confirm the current period with your accountant.
Do I need separate records for repair work I refer out?
Yes. Log the referral, the technician you sent it to, and the date. If the customer calls you back about that repair, the log tells you whether it is your callback or theirs, and that distinction decides who pays for the return trip.
What if I work alone with no software?
A paper ticket book and a spreadsheet will hold the four daily records. The failure mode is not the tool, it is the delay: write the ticket on site, enter it that evening. Software earns its subscription when visit volume makes the evening entry take longer than the job did.
