You’ve gathered contractor data, reconciled payments, and generated T4A slips. The deadline is looming. You’re *almost* ready to file.

This is where many teams make one of two mistakes:

– They file without a proper review and discover errors later. 
– They over-review, second-guess everything, and run out of time.

What you need instead is a **focused, last-minute review**: a short, structured checklist that catches the most common and costly mistakes—without blowing up your timeline.

Here’s how to run a smart last-minute T4A review before you file with the CRA.

1. Confirm that your recipient list is complete

The first question isn’t “Are these slips perfect?” It’s “Are we missing anyone?”

Do a final cross-check between:

– Your T4A recipient list 
– Contractor payment reports from your accounting system 
– Prior-year T4A recipients (who might still be active)

Look for:

– Contractors you paid this year who aren’t on the current list 
– Contractors paid under a slightly different name or account 
– New vendors that may actually be T4A-eligible service providers

If you’re using **T4ASlip**, this is easier—you can compare the tool’s contractor totals against your accounting exports and quickly spot gaps.

A missing slip can be more problematic than a small typo, so start here.

2. Spot-check dollar amounts against your books

Next, make sure you’re reporting reasonable amounts. You don’t have time to recalc everything from scratch, but you *can* run smart spot checks.

Pick a mix of:

– High-dollar contractors 
– A few medium-dollar ones 
– One or two smaller, random examples

For each one, compare:

– The T4A amount on the slip 
– The total paid to that contractor in your accounting system for the tax year 
– Any adjustments (refunds, reversals, corrections)

Ask yourself:

– “Do these amounts clearly tie to real payments?” 
– “Is there any obvious missing period or double-counting?”

If you find a serious mismatch on one slip, don’t assume it’s an isolated problem—check a few more to see if there’s a systematic issue (for example, a report that excluded December).

3. Check names, addresses, and IDs for a small sample

Perfecting every character in every field isn’t realistic at the last minute—but you can dramatically improve quality by sampling.

For a subset of slips (again, prioritize high-dollar or high-visibility contractors):

– Confirm the **legal name or business name** is spelled correctly and matches your records. 
– Ensure addresses look complete (street, city, province, postal code). 
– Check that SINs or business numbers (where applicable) aren’t obviously incomplete (wrong length, placeholders like 999999999).

If you find repeated data entry mistakes (for example, all new contractors from one department are missing postal codes), you may need to do a targeted fix across that group.

4. Make sure income is in the right boxes

Misclassifying income—putting the right dollars in the wrong box—can cause confusion for recipients and questions from CRA.

As part of your last-minute review:

– Check a few slips that include different types of payments (for example, service fees, honoraria, other income). 
– Confirm with your accountant or documented policy that each type is going into the correct T4A box. 
– Pay special attention to unusual or one-off payment types from the year.

If you discover a misclassification pattern, work with your accountant to decide whether you need to adjust all affected slips now, or document and correct only the most material ones.

5. Confirm you’re filing for the correct year

It sounds too simple to be a real risk—but year mix-ups do happen:

– Data pulled for the wrong period 
– Slips accidentally prepared using the prior-year template 
– Overlapping or truncated date ranges in your accounting reports

As a quick safeguard:

– Verify that the **tax year** on your slips matches the intended year. 
– Make sure your underlying payment report covers the full calendar year (and only that year). 
– Check any automated date filters in your tools, including T4ASlip, to ensure they’re set correctly.

One small configuration error can misstate every slip, so this check is well worth a minute.

6. Review any warnings or validation messages

If your T4A process uses software like T4ASlip, it may generate **warnings or validation messages**—for example:

– Missing addresses 
– Unusual amounts 
– Empty required fields

During your last-minute review:

– Open the warnings panel or report. 
– Triage messages into: 
  – **Must fix now** – anything that prevents filing or clearly makes a slip unusable. 
  – **Should fix if possible** – issues that won’t block filing but are easy to fix. 
  – **Document and revisit** – edge cases that may require more time or policy decisions.

Resolve the “must fix now” items before filing. For the rest, add notes to your T4A playbook so you can tackle them in next year’s process redesign.

7. Get a second set of eyes—strategically

You may not have time for someone to re-check everything, but **targeted review** by a colleague or partner is still valuable.

Ask your reviewer to focus on:

– Overall recipient coverage – “Does this list look right for who we paid this year?” 
– A handful of sample slips – “Do these look reasonable given what you know about these contractors?” 
– Any known “weird” cases – non-residents, unusual contract structures, large one-off payments.

Give them a short checklist and a tight time box (“Can you spend 30 minutes on this?”), so they know what you’re asking and don’t get lost in the weeds.

8. Save your review artifacts

Your future self—and possibly CRA—will thank you if you keep a clear record of what you reviewed and what you found.

Before filing, save:

– The reports you used for reconciliation (contractor payment summaries, exported lists from T4ASlip, etc.) 
– Notes on any issues you found and how you resolved them 
– A copy of the final slips or electronic files you’re about to submit

Store these with your year-end workpapers. If questions arise later, you’ll be able to show that you followed a reasonable review process, not just hurriedly pushed files out the door.

9. Turn last-minute stress into next year’s improvements

During your review, you’ll probably notice patterns:

– “We always struggle with missing addresses from this group.” 
– “It’s hard to reconcile because our accounting coding is inconsistent.” 
– “We don’t have a clear policy for these edge cases.”

Capture these as **process improvement ideas**, not just annoyances. After filing, spend an hour turning them into action items for next year—things like:

– Improving contractor onboarding forms 
– Tightening up how payments are coded 
– Enhancing your use of T4ASlip to flag issues earlier

That way, every stressful T4A season makes the next one a little easier.

How T4ASlip helps you review smarter, not harder

A tool like T4ASlip can make last-minute review more effective by:

– Giving you a consolidated view of contractor totals and slip status 
– Highlighting missing or suspicious data before you file 
– Making it easy to export clean reports for reconciliation and sampling 
– Reducing the risk that a spreadsheet error quietly corrupts multiple slips

You still need human judgment—but the system helps you focus that judgment where it matters most.

With a sharp, 60–90 minute last-minute review, you can dramatically reduce the risk of serious T4A errors—without derailing your deadline. Then you can file, exhale, and start planning how to make the next cycle smoother.