If you’ve ever handled T4A season manually, you know the feeling: a looming deadline, scattered contractor data, and a calendar full of “quick questions” that are anything but quick.
It doesn’t have to be that way.
In this article, we’ll walk through two versions of the same day at year-end:
• “Before T4ASlip” – the classic spreadsheet-and-email grind
• “After T4ASlip” – a more organized, predictable workflow
You’ll see exactly where the time, stress, and risk disappear when you move to a dedicated T4A process.
Morning: logging in vs. hunting things down
Before T4ASlip
You sit down with coffee and open… everything:
• Email – to search for contractor details and old threads
• Spreadsheets – one for last year’s slips, one for this year’s payments
• Your accounting system – to pull reports and cross-check amounts
• Sticky notes or notepad – to track who’s still missing information
The first hour disappears into “Where did we put that?” instead of “What do we need to do?”
After T4ASlip
You log into T4ASlip and your accounting system.
On the T4ASlip dashboard, you see:
• A list of contractors already in the system
• Total amounts paid for the tax year (pulled from your data)
• Status flags for missing information (for example, no SIN, incomplete address)
• A progress view of how many slips are ready, in progress, or blocked
Instead of hunting, you’re scanning one clear list and deciding what to tackle first.
Late morning: chasing data vs. closing gaps
Before T4ASlip
You realize several contractors are missing key details. You:
• Dig through old emails to see if they ever sent their SIN
• Ask colleagues if anyone “remembers” their address
• Start drafting individual emails asking people to confirm information again
There’s no central view of what’s missing; you discover issues one by one as you scroll. It’s easy to miss someone entirely.
After T4ASlip
The system is already telling you what’s missing. You:
• Filter contractors by “missing SIN” or “incomplete address”
• Export a list or trigger templated emails requesting specific details
• Record responses directly in T4ASlip so everything stays up to date
You’re not guessing who to chase—T4ASlip gives you a targeted list. That means fewer emails, less confusion, and less risk that someone falls through the cracks.
Early afternoon: manual calculations vs. reliable summaries
Before T4ASlip
Now you’re trying to figure out how much each contractor was paid for the year. You might:
• Export a report from your accounting software
• Copy and paste totals into your T4A spreadsheet
• Manually adjust for refunds or corrections
• Double-check formulas to make sure nothing got mis-sorted
One wrong sort or copy-paste can quietly introduce errors that are hard to spot but obvious to the CRA later.
After T4ASlip
T4ASlip takes your imported payment data and:
• Groups transactions by contractor
• Summarizes annual totals per person or entity
• Lets you review and adjust unusual items with clear notes
• Keeps a clean audit trail of how each amount was calculated
Instead of manually recomputing totals, you’re reviewing them. The hard part—organizing and adding—has already happened in the background.
Late afternoon: form-filling scramble vs. structured slip generation
Before T4ASlip
With a mix of spreadsheets, reports, and guesswork, you start filling in slips:
• Typing the same names and addresses repeatedly
• Referring back and forth between multiple windows
• Hoping you don’t transpose a digit in a SIN or postal code
Every slip is a new opportunity for typos.
After T4ASlip
Once the data is ready, generating slips is the easy part:
• T4ASlip pulls names, addresses, and amounts into the correct fields
• You preview slips on screen or in batch before finalizing
• You can generate a full set of T4As and summaries with a few actions
Your focus is on reviewing and approving—not manual form-filling.
End of day: nagging worry vs. clear status
Before T4ASlip
You shut down for the day wondering:
• “Did I miss anyone?”
• “Are those totals right?”
• “What if the CRA asks us how we calculated this?”
There’s no single system that tells you, “You’re done.”
After T4ASlip
At the end of the day, you check your T4ASlip dashboard:
• You see how many slips are complete vs. pending
• You can drill into any contractor if something looks off
• You have an exportable record of data and decisions
Instead of relying on memory and improvised notes, you rely on a system.
Where the time actually disappears
When people say they “saved hours” with T4ASlip, the time usually comes from:
• Not rebuilding contractor lists from scratch every year
• Not re-hunting for the same SINs and addresses in old email threads
• Not recomputing totals manually in spreadsheets
• Not re-keying data into forms slip by slip
Each of those tasks feels small on its own—but multiplied by tens or hundreds of contractors, they consume entire days.
The emotional difference
The contrast isn’t just in time; it’s in how year-end feels:
Before T4ASlip:
• Constant low-level stress
• Fear of missing someone or making a costly mistake
• Last-minute scrambles when someone remembers “just one more contractor”
After T4ASlip:
• A defined process you can follow each year
• A clear view of what’s missing and what’s complete
• Confidence that your slips are backed by organized, traceable data
Year-end becomes a project, not a crisis.
Soft next step: imagining your own “after”
If your current “day in the life” still looks like the “before” version—multiple spreadsheets, endless email searches, late nights—it’s a sign that your T4A workflow has outgrown your tools.
T4ASlip is built to give you the “after” version instead:
• Centralized contractor data
• Clean payment summaries
• Faster, more accurate slip generation
So the next time T4A season rolls around, you’re not bracing for impact—you’re running a process you already trust.