Financial Services for
Ontario's Independent & Multi-Location Retailers.
A senior CPA-backed team delivering bookkeeping, business plans, Fractional CFO and financial modeling built for the way retail actually operates — POS-to-GL integration across Lightspeed Retail, Shopify POS, Square Retail and Clover, inventory management (COGS, shrinkage, dead stock, sell-through), gross margin by SKU and category, sales per square foot and same-store sales tracking, landlord CAM reconciliation and percentage rent, gift card and loyalty program deferred revenue, multi-location P&L consolidation, retail franchise royalty accounting, cannabis AGCO retail compliance, and omnichannel scale-up combining brick and mortar with Shopify and Amazon. Serving independent boutiques, multi-location chains, specialty food retail, independent grocery, convenience stores, retail franchises, furniture, sporting goods, pet, jewelry, cosmetics and cannabis retailers across Toronto, Mississauga, Vaughan, Markham, Brampton and the broader Ontario retail market.
Built for POS, Inventory, CAM & Same-Store Sales.
Retail finance isn't small-business accounting with a POS bolted on. It's a distinct discipline anchored in POS-to-GL integration, inventory turns and sell-through, sales per square foot, CAM and percentage rent, deferred revenue on gift cards and loyalty, and multi-location P&L. Generic accountants routinely fumble every one of these.
CPA-supervised, retail-fluent
Every retail engagement is led by a senior CPA who's already worked with boutiques, multi-location chains, specialty food, grocery, convenience, franchise, furniture, sporting goods, pet, jewelry, cosmetics and cannabis retailers at your stage. No junior handoffs. No offshore delegation. Inventory discipline and SSS analysis treated as inseparable from day one.
POS-to-GL integration depth
Lightspeed Retail (X-Series and R-Series), Shopify POS, Square Retail, Clover, Cegid, Retail Pro, LS Retail and other Ontario retail platforms — daily sales journal integration into QuickBooks or Xero, tender-type segregation (cash, debit, credit, gift card), tax accounting, discount and promotion tracking, and daily deposit reconciliation across payment methods.
Inventory turns, sell-through & landed cost
Perpetual inventory reconciliation against POS, physical count coordination and shrinkage analysis, dead stock and obsolescence provisions, sell-through by SKU and category (weeks of supply), inventory turns by department, landed cost tracking (product plus freight plus duty plus brokerage plus insurance), vendor rebate accounting, and markdown discipline that protects gross margin.
Sales per sq ft, SSS & CAM discipline
Sales per square foot at location and department level, same-store sales comparisons year-over-year and quarter-over-quarter for multi-location groups, traffic conversion and basket size. Plus CAM (Common Area Maintenance) reconciliation against landlord annual statements (finding overcharges is common), percentage rent calculation, and lease accounting under ASPE 3065 or IFRS 16.
Omnichannel, franchise & cannabis fluency
Omnichannel channel-level P&L (brick and mortar, Shopify DTC, Amazon Seller Central, wholesale) with shared inventory allocation. Retail franchise royalty and marketing fund accounting. Ontario cannabis retail AGCO compliance including OCS wholesale reconciliation, multi-store licensee cap tracking, and cannabis-specific POS (Cova, Greenline, Meadow, Dutchie POS).
Fixed fees, all four services under one roof
Fixed monthly retainer for CFO and bookkeeping. Fixed project fee for business plans and models. Bookkeeping, CFO, business plan and financial modeling from the same team, using the same numbers, telling the same story to your bank, BDC, franchisor, landlord and equity partners.
What Retailers Actually Face.
Ontario's retail base is one of the largest and most diverse in Canada. From Yorkville luxury boutiques and Queen Street West independent fashion to neighbourhood convenience stores, ethnic grocery, mall retail chains, specialty food retailers and the growing cannabis retail sector, Ontario retail spans independent boutiques, multi-location chains, specialty food retail, independent and ethnic grocery, convenience stores, franchise retail operators, furniture and home goods, sporting goods, pet stores, gift and specialty stores, cosmetics and beauty retail, jewelry stores and Ontario's still-consolidating cannabis retail sector. The market is anchored by immigrant and family entrepreneurs across every concept — South Asian grocery, jewelry and convenience owners across Brampton and Mississauga, Chinese-Canadian retail concentrations in Markham, Italian-Canadian food retail and bakeries in Woodbridge, Korean-Canadian beauty and convenience operators, plus a growing layer of multi-location operators scaling across the GTA and beyond.
Retailers face finance realities that don't exist in most other industries. POS-to-GL integration is core retail bookkeeping infrastructure — not optional, not a nice-to-have. Lightspeed Retail (X-Series and R-Series), Shopify POS, Square Retail, Clover, Cegid, Retail Pro, LS Retail and other Ontario retail platforms all need daily sales journal integration into QuickBooks or Xero. Tender-type segregation (cash, debit, credit, gift card). Tax accounting across HST. Discount and promotion tracking. Daily deposit reconciliation across payment methods. For omnichannel retailers, Shopify direct and Amazon Seller Central need to integrate alongside brick-and-mortar POS. Getting POS-to-GL integration right makes daily and weekly reporting reliable — getting it wrong makes every downstream number unreliable.
Inventory discipline is where retail margins are actually made or lost. Perpetual inventory reconciliation against POS. Physical count coordination and shrinkage analysis — theft, damage, admin error and vendor under-shipment together typically run at low single-digit percentage of sales but can easily blow past that when discipline slips. Dead stock and obsolescence provisions. Sell-through rate calculation by SKU and category (weeks of supply). Inventory turns by department, which vary wildly by category (fast-fashion aims for many turns per year, jewelry and furniture much fewer). Landed cost tracking — product cost plus freight plus duty plus brokerage plus insurance — is essential for accurate gross margin on imported goods. Vendor rebate and volume discount accounting. Markdown discipline that protects gross margin without letting aging inventory bleed value on the floor. This entire discipline is what separates professional retail operators from hobby ones.
Sales per square foot is one of the most foundational retail KPIs and one most independent retailers never measure properly. Sales per square foot at location and department level. Same-store sales (SSS) comparisons year-over-year and quarter-over-quarter for multi-location groups — the KPI every retail investor and lender asks about first. Traffic conversion and average transaction value. Basket size and units per transaction. Category performance benchmarking. This is the analysis that shapes floor layout, staffing hours and merchandising decisions.
Landlord CAM reconciliation and percentage rent involves complex lease economics that generic bookkeepers routinely fumble. Mall retail and multi-tenant landlord relationships include CAM (Common Area Maintenance) charges reconciled against landlord annual statements — finding overcharges is common and can materially reduce total occupancy cost. Percentage rent calculation and reporting where the lease includes a percentage-of-sales clause. Base rent vs additional rent tracking. Tenant improvement allowance amortization. Lease accounting under ASPE Section 3065 or IFRS 16 with proper right-of-use asset and lease liability treatment for retailers on those standards.
Layered on all of that: gift card and loyalty program deferred revenue accounting — unredeemed gift card liability on the balance sheet with breakage income recognition when appropriate, loyalty program deferred revenue where points have earned rewards value. Multi-location P&L — site-level discipline with proper cost allocation, consolidated group reporting, same-store sales comparison excluding new-location revenue distortion, roll-up dashboards. Omnichannel retail — channel-level P&L combining brick and mortar, Shopify DTC, Amazon Seller Central and wholesale with shared inventory allocation and fulfillment cost tracking. Cannabis retail under Ontario's AGCO framework with OCS wholesale reconciliation, multi-store licensee cap tracking and cannabis-specific POS. Retail franchise royalty and marketing fund accounting and franchisor reporting. What retailers need is senior finance leadership at Fractional pricing, deep expertise across POS integration, inventory discipline, SSS analysis, CAM and percentage rent, and multi-location P&L, plus fluency with Ontario's franchise, cannabis AGCO and omnichannel scale-up realities. Ledgerive was built for exactly that.
Signs Your Retail Business Needs Ledgerive.
The two service lines retailers reach for first are Bookkeeping (get POS integration, inventory discipline, SSS and CAM right) and Business Plans (close bank/BDC/CSBFP financing, franchise expansion, cannabis AGCO retail or omnichannel scale-up). Here's how to tell when each is the right answer.
You Need Retail Bookkeeping When…
POS-to-GL integration is manual and error-prone, inventory turns and sell-through aren't tracked, CAM reconciliation gets skipped, gift cards live outside the balance sheet, or your multi-location group doesn't have clean site-level financials. Retail accounting is a distinct discipline — and generic bookkeepers routinely miss inventory discipline, SSS analysis and lease accounting.
- Your POS (Lightspeed, Shopify POS, Square Retail, Clover) is capturing everything but the data doesn't flow cleanly to QuickBooks or Xero and reconciliation is a nightmare
- You have no visibility into inventory turns, sell-through by SKU or gross margin by category — everything looks like one big blur
- CAM reconciliation gets skipped every year, percentage rent isn't tracked properly, and you suspect your landlord may be overcharging
- Gift card liability lives outside the balance sheet, loyalty points aren't deferred properly, and your multi-location group doesn't have reliable site-level P&L
You Need a Retail Business Plan When…
You have a real deadline — a bank or BDC financing decision, a CSBFP application, a franchise expansion approval, a cannabis AGCO retail licence application, an omnichannel scale-up, or an acquisition — and the plan has to be strong enough to actually close.
- You're preparing a bank credit facility, BDC loan or CSBFP package for a new location, buildout, buyout or inventory line
- You're opening a franchise location and need a new-unit economics model plus franchisor and bank package
- You're applying for a cannabis retail licence under AGCO and need a compliant business plan and financial model that meets both AGCO and lender requirements
- You're scaling omnichannel (adding Shopify direct or Amazon to your brick-and-mortar) or buying/selling retail and need proper valuation and packages
Retail-Native Bookkeeping & Business Plans.
The two services retailers lean on first, delivered end-to-end by a senior CPA-led team with deep independent boutique, multi-location, specialty food, grocery, convenience, franchise, furniture, jewelry, cosmetics, cannabis and omnichannel specialization. Fractional CFO and Financial Modeling are available alongside as your stage requires.
Bookkeeping for Retail & Multi-Location
Monthly bookkeeping, weekly sales and inventory snapshots, catch-up bookkeeping, HST filings and payroll for retailers — tuned to POS-to-GL integration, inventory turns and sell-through, sales per square foot and same-store sales, landlord CAM reconciliation and percentage rent, gift card and loyalty deferred revenue, multi-location P&L consolidation, franchise royalty accounting, cannabis AGCO retail compliance, and omnichannel channel-level P&L. Reviewed by a CPA.
- POS-to-GL integration (Lightspeed, Shopify POS, Square, Clover)
- Inventory turns, sell-through & landed cost tracking
- Sales per sq ft, SSS & CAM reconciliation
- Gift card & loyalty deferred revenue accounting
- Multi-location P&L & omnichannel channel P&L
Business Plans for Retail & Multi-Location
Bank-ready, BDC-ready, franchisor-ready and regulator-ready business plans for retailers — bank credit facility packages, BDC loan packages, CSBFP packages for retail startups and expansions, franchise expansion packages, cannabis AGCO retail licence packages, omnichannel scale-up plans (adding Shopify DTC or Amazon), and buy/sell and roll-up documentation. Written for exactly what each reviewer wants to see.
- Bank credit facility, BDC & CSBFP packages
- Franchise new-unit & area development packages
- Cannabis AGCO retail licence packages
- Omnichannel scale-up plans (Shopify, Amazon)
- Multi-location roll-up & acquisition packages
Also available for retail & multi-location:
Retail Sub-Verticals & Ontario Cities We Cover.
Deep specialization across the retail sub-verticals that actually define Ontario's independent, chain, franchise and specialty retail base — and coverage across every core Ontario retail city.
Retail sub-verticals we serve
Our deepest expertise — from independent boutiques and multi-location chains to specialty food, grocery, convenience, franchise, furniture, jewelry, cosmetics and cannabis.
Ontario retail cities we cover
Remote-first for everyone. On-site quarterly reviews available across every city below.
Remote-First, POS-Native.
The engagement rhythm every retailer can expect — designed around your daily POS cadence, weekly sales cycle and seasonal buy calendar.
Free 30-min discovery call
NDA before the call, always. We walk through your concept, your POS, your locations, your channels, your priorities and 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
Engagement letter signed. Access granted to your POS (Lightspeed, Shopify POS, Square Retail, Clover, cannabis POS), Shopify or Amazon Seller Central where applicable, QuickBooks or Xero, bank feeds and prior financials. First deliverable — usually a POS integration audit or inventory snapshot — lands the same week.
Weekly cadence + SSS-ready
Standing weekly call, always-on Slack, weekly sales and inventory snapshot, monthly close by the 15th, quarterly category and location review, franchise or bank reporting prep when the moment comes. No help-desk queue, no offshore relay.
What Retailers Say After 90 Days.
My family runs a four-location fashion and home goods boutique group across Toronto and Oakville. We'd been operating with basically no visibility into inventory turns, sell-through or same-store sales comps — everything was managed by feel. Ledgerive rebuilt POS integration across all four sites, set up proper inventory discipline and same-store sales tracking, and put category-level gross margin analysis in place. We finally understand which categories are actually profitable and which are quietly draining working capital.
Our independent South Asian grocery chain runs three locations across Mississauga and Brampton. Inventory shrinkage was a black box, landed cost on imported goods was inconsistent, and CAM reconciliation with our landlords had been skipped for years. Ledgerive rebuilt inventory discipline, put proper landed cost tracking in place for our containers coming from India and the Middle East, and actually did the CAM reconciliations. We recovered material dollars from one of our landlords on overcharges. Their fees have paid for themselves several times over.
My bakery and specialty Italian food retail concept in Woodbridge has two retail locations plus a wholesale arm supplying restaurants and independents across the GTA. Our POS was Lightspeed, our wholesale was on QuickBooks, and reconciling everything was a chronic mess. Ledgerive rebuilt the entire finance stack, set up channel-level P&L between retail and wholesale, and put proper gross margin analysis by category in place. I finally know whether wholesale is actually as profitable as I thought.
I operate three AGCO-licensed cannabis retail locations across Toronto. Our previous accountant had never touched cannabis retail and didn't understand OCS wholesale discipline, licensee cap tracking, or the specific Cova POS integration we needed. Ledgerive rebuilt the entire finance function, set up proper OCS wholesale reconciliation, and prepared us for our fourth-location AGCO application. Application went through cleanly and our bookkeeping is finally on time every month.
Questions Retailers Ask.
Straight answers to the questions that come up on nearly every retail discovery call.
Do you integrate with retail POS systems (Lightspeed, Shopify POS, Square, Clover)?
Do you handle inventory management (COGS, shrinkage, dead stock, sell-through)?
Do you handle sales per square foot and same-store sales tracking?
Do you handle landlord CAM reconciliation and percentage rent?
Do you handle gift card and loyalty program deferred revenue accounting?
Do you handle multi-location retail P&L and same-store sales comparisons?
Do you work with omnichannel retailers (brick and mortar plus Shopify plus Amazon)?
Do you work with retail franchise operators?
Do you work with cannabis retail (Ontario AGCO-licensed stores)?
Which Ontario cities do you serve retailers in?
How do you handle pricing?
Ready to get finance right for your retail business?
30 minutes. NDA first. No pitch. Just a real conversation about your concept, your locations, your channels, your next 12 months, and whether we're the right team to deliver the finance work behind them.