Financial Services for
Burlington Makers.
A senior CPA-backed team delivering Fractional CFO, bookkeeping, business plan and financial modeling services to Burlington precision and consumer-goods manufacturers, food and beverage processors, QEW-corridor distributors, life sciences and medical practices, HVAC and trades operators, custom home builders and multi-generational family businesses — from Aldershot and Downtown Burlington through Alton Village, Millcroft, Tyandaga and the Corporate Business Park.
Built for Burlington's Manufacturing, Food & Owner-Operator Reality.
Burlington runs on mid-market manufacturing, food and beverage processing, QEW-corridor distribution, growing life sciences and multi-generational family businesses. Our finance work is built for exactly that reality — not for a generic Canadian small business.
CPA-supervised, senior-led
Every Burlington engagement is led by a senior CPA. No junior handoffs, no offshore delegation. You work with someone who's already run finance for Burlington businesses at your stage.
Manufacturing & product costing depth
Product-level costing, standard cost vs actual variance analysis, bill-of-materials accounting, WIP and inventory valuation, SR&ED for advanced manufacturing. Burlington's mid-market manufacturers get manufacturing-specific finance.
Food & beverage industry fluency
Batch and lot costing, ingredient inflation pass-through, retailer chargeback accounting, promotional allowance treatment, CFIA compliance overhead, HACCP capex — the multi-SKU margin analysis that separates profitable F&B operations from ones running blind.
Multi-generational family-business fluency
Succession planning, family holding structures, next-generation buy-ins, HST discipline across related entities. Burlington's mid-market manufacturing and family-business base has real multi-decade dynamics — we respect that.
Fixed fees, no billable-hour games
Fixed monthly retainer for CFO and bookkeeping. Fixed project fee for business plans and models. What we quote is what you pay — no scope creep, no invoice surprises, no six-minute increments.
All four services under one roof
Bookkeeping, CFO, business plan and financial modeling from the same team, using the same numbers, telling the same story. No coordinating three firms who each know a piece of your business.
What Burlington Businesses Actually Face.
Burlington is one of the Golden Horseshoe's most distinctive business markets — a serious mid-market manufacturing base, one of Canada's most concentrated food and beverage processing clusters, a rapidly growing life sciences ecosystem, and a critical QEW-corridor distribution and logistics presence. The city runs on precision machinists, consumer-goods manufacturers, industrial equipment makers, packaging companies and contract manufacturers along the Corporate Business Park and Aldershot industrial corridors. It runs on private-label copackers, branded CPG operators, craft beverage producers and ingredient suppliers who serve grocery chains across Canada. It runs on distribution and logistics operators who use Burlington's QEW access to serve the entire GTA. And it runs on the multi-generational family businesses that built Burlington's industrial base over three or four decades.
Burlington manufacturers need serious finance discipline. Product-level costing that actually shows which SKUs and product lines are making money. Standard cost vs actual variance analysis. Bill-of-materials accounting that keeps up with engineering changes. WIP and finished-goods inventory valuation that survives lender scrutiny. SR&ED claims for advanced manufacturing R&D. Machine hour costing and overhead allocation that separates profitable jobs from ones that are actually losing money on labour and machine time. A generic accountant will show you an aggregated P&L three months late that tells you nothing about product-line economics.
Burlington food and beverage processors face a particularly complex finance reality. Batch and lot costing that ties every unit back to specific ingredient lots. Ingredient inflation pass-through modeling when commodity prices swing. Retailer chargeback accounting for promotional allowances, listing fees, damage claims and slotting fees that can swing reported margin by 10-15 points. CFIA compliance overhead and HACCP capex allocation. Multi-SKU margin analysis across dozens or hundreds of retailer combinations. A generic accountant applying restaurant or CPG-startup templates will consistently misprice your products and mis-forecast your working capital needs.
Burlington's life sciences and medical practice ecosystem, anchored by Joseph Brant Hospital and including companies like Boehringer Ingelheim Canada plus a growing base of biotech and medical device operators, has its own finance realities. SR&ED and IRAP claim preparation for R&D-intensive work. FedDev and OCI grant reporting. Clinical trial cost accounting. Regulatory milestone modeling. Runway forecasting between funding events. Multi-associate practice structures for medical and dental clinics serving the Joseph Brant catchment area. Each needs finance work built for its specific reality.
Burlington also hosts significant corporate HQs — Cogeco Communications in Aldershot and Evertz Technologies among them — which means many Burlington businesses are actually executive-owned side ventures, spinouts from these corporate parents, or supplier relationships that require sophisticated finance discipline. And Burlington's owner-operator manufacturing base is exactly the profile where a Fractional CFO delivers the highest ROI — enough complexity to justify senior finance leadership, not enough scale to justify a full-time hire at Toronto or Mississauga comp levels.
Layered on all of that: Burlington is owner-operator country. Full-time CFO compensation in the GTA runs $180,000 to $350,000 in salary alone, and most Burlington manufacturers under $25M, food processors, distributors, trades operators and family businesses cannot justify that hire. What they need is senior finance leadership at Fractional pricing, industry-specific expertise across manufacturing, F&B, life sciences, distribution and family business, plus fluency with the Halton Region programs and Golden Horseshoe funding ecosystem. Ledgerive was built for exactly that.
Signs Your Burlington Business Needs Ledgerive.
Not every business needs every service. Here's when each of the four Ledgerive service lines is the right answer for a Burlington business — and how to tell.
You Need a Fractional CFO When…
Your manufacturing, food processing, distribution, trades or family business is growing past the point where the owner can hold the entire finance function in their head — but a full-time GTA CFO hire isn't the right answer yet.
- Your manufacturing shop is running dozens of SKUs or job types and you can't tell which products or jobs are actually profitable
- Your F&B business is scaling past $3M and retailer chargebacks are quietly killing your reported margins
- Your family business is planning succession or bringing the next generation into ownership
- You're a life sciences or biotech company managing SR&ED, IRAP and grant funding across multiple regulatory milestones
You Need Ledgerive Bookkeeping When…
Your books are behind, wrong, or eating time you should be spending running the business — and every month that goes by makes it worse.
- Product costing isn't tracked properly and you're guessing which SKUs or jobs actually make money
- Multiple related entities (holdcos, operating cos, real estate cos) with tangled inter-company balances and no clean HST discipline
- Inventory valuation is off and it's affecting your borrowing base with the bank
- You need clean books to apply for financing, close a project loan, sell the business, or plan succession
You Need a Business Plan When…
You have a real deadline — a lender application, an equipment financing request, an investor meeting, or an immigration filing — and the plan has to be strong enough to actually get approved.
- You're applying for BDC financing, CSBFP or a Canadian bank loan for expansion or equipment
- You're a manufacturer preparing an equipment financing package for a major capex investment
- You're preparing an Ontario PNP Entrepreneur Stream or Start-Up Visa application
- A previous business plan was rejected and you need it rebuilt to actually get approved
You Need a Financial Model When…
Someone with money — lender, equity partner, buyer, family partner — is going to look at your numbers, and the spreadsheet you built at 2 a.m. won't survive their questions.
- You're modeling a major capex investment (new equipment, new plant, new production line) and need lender-defensible economics
- You're a biotech or medtech company preparing a runway model between funding events
- You're preparing a family-business valuation for succession, next-generation buy-in or arm's-length sale
- You're considering a major decision — new SKU launch, big customer, acquisition — and need scenario analysis before you commit
Four Services. One Senior Team. All Delivered in Burlington.
Each of the four Ledgerive service lines is delivered end-to-end for Burlington clients — separately when you need one, bundled when you need more.
Fractional CFO in Burlington
Executive-level finance leadership for Burlington manufacturers, food and beverage processors, distributors, life sciences companies, family businesses and mid-market industrial operators — without the full-time hire. Product costing, cash flow, lender relationships, budgeting, owner and family reporting every week, every month.
- Product-level margin & WIP reporting
- 13-week rolling cash flow forecast
- BDC, equipment lender & SR&ED support
- Weekly leadership call + always-on Slack
Bookkeeping in Burlington
Monthly bookkeeping, catch-up bookkeeping, HST filings and payroll for Burlington businesses — tuned to manufacturing (product costing + WIP), F&B (batch and lot costing), distribution, life sciences (SR&ED-ready) and family businesses. QuickBooks Online, Xero, Wave or Sage, reviewed by a CPA.
- Product costing & manufacturing WIP
- Batch, lot & ingredient tracking for F&B
- Multi-entity HST & inter-company discipline
- Burlington payroll & T4 processing
Business Plans in Burlington
Lender-ready, equipment-financing-ready and immigration-ready business plans for Burlington founders — BDC, CSBFP, banks, equipment lenders, life sciences investors, Ontario PNP, Start-Up Visa, family-business succession plans written for exactly what each Canadian reviewer wants to see.
- BDC / CSBFP / bank loan plans
- Equipment financing & capex plans
- Life sciences / biotech investor plans
- Ontario PNP, Start-Up Visa & family-business plans
Financial Modeling in Burlington
Investor-grade and lender-grade financial models for Burlington founders — manufacturing product margins, F&B batch costing and SKU-level economics, life sciences runway models, capex investment pro formas, family-business succession valuations and cap tables built to survive due diligence.
- Manufacturing product & SKU margin models
- F&B batch costing & retailer chargeback modeling
- Life sciences runway & milestone models
- Family-business succession valuations
Burlington Industries & Neighborhoods We Cover.
Deep specialization across the industries that actually define Burlington's economy — and physical presence available across every Burlington neighborhood.
Burlington industries we serve
Our deepest Burlington expertise — click any vertical for the industry landing page.
Burlington neighborhoods we cover
Remote-first for everyone. On-site quarterly reviews available across every area below.
Remote-First, Burlington-Ready.
The engagement rhythm every Burlington client can expect — designed around your Slack, your calendar, and your Burlington location.
Free 30-min discovery call
We walk through your business, your Burlington context, your priorities and your deadlines. Honest answer on fit inside the call itself — not a follow-up email.
Written proposal in 48 hours
Scope, deliverables, timeline and fixed fee — all in writing. If the scope needs to change, we redraft once for free. What we quote is what you pay.
Start in 3–5 business days
NDA signed. Access granted to your Burlington QuickBooks, Xero, bank feeds and prior financials. First deliverable — usually a cash snapshot — lands the same week.
Weekly cadence + on-site
Standing weekly call, always-on Slack, monthly close by the 15th, quarterly business reviews on-site across Burlington when you want them. No help-desk queue, no offshore relay.
What Burlington Founders Say After 90 Days.
Our precision machining shop has run twenty-five years and we'd never had real product-level costing — just an aggregated P&L three months late. Ledgerive rebuilt it with proper standard costing, machine-hour rates, and monthly variance analysis. Six months in we killed two product lines that had been losing us money for years and doubled down on our top three. Best decision I've made for the business in a decade.
We're a private-label copacker running eighty SKUs across four major grocery retailers. Chargebacks and promotional allowances were eating our margins alive and we couldn't tell where. Ledgerive built proper retailer-level P&Ls, promotional treatment discipline, and batch costing tied back to lots. Our reported gross margin went up eight points in the first quarter — nothing about our business changed, we just finally understood our own numbers.
Our medtech company was raising a Series A and our SR&ED claim history was a mess. Ledgerive rebuilt the claims for the prior two years, cleaned up our runway model, and prepped us for investor due diligence. The raise closed at valuation, the SR&ED refunds came through cleaner than any year before, and we now have a Fractional CFO alongside us through the burn period.
My father built our HVAC and mechanical contracting business over 35 years. When he was ready to transition it to me and my sister, we needed proper valuation work, family holding structure, and the discipline to run it under real finance leadership rather than gut feel. Ledgerive handled all of it with respect for how we actually operate. Three years in and revenue is up 60% with better margins than my father ever ran.
Questions Burlington Businesses Ask.
Straight answers to the questions that come up on nearly every Burlington discovery call.
Do you have an office in Burlington?
Which Burlington industries do you specialize in?
Are you familiar with Burlington-specific business programs?
Do Burlington businesses need a full-time CFO or a Fractional CFO?
Do you work with Burlington manufacturers?
Do you work with Burlington food and beverage processors?
Do you work with Burlington life sciences and medical practices?
How is Burlington different from Oakville or Hamilton for finance work?
How quickly can you get started with a Burlington business?
Do you sign an NDA before the discovery call?
How do you handle pricing?
Ready to get finance right for your Burlington business?
30 minutes. No pitch. Just a real conversation about your Burlington business, your next 12 months, and whether we're the right team to deliver the finance work behind them.