T4A deadlines can sneak up on you—especially if you’re juggling payroll, year-end financials, and everything else that happens at the start of a new year.
A simple, realistic timeline can make the difference between a calm filing season and a frantic one.
Use this month-by-month timeline as a guide from January through filing day. You can adapt the exact dates to match the CRA deadlines for the current year and your internal workflow.
Week 1 of January: get organized
Goals:
• Confirm who is responsible for T4A preparation.
• Make sure your tools and access are ready (for example, T4ASlip, CRA accounts, accounting software).
Checklist:
• Review last year’s T4A process notes—what worked, what didn’t.
• Create or open your T4A dashboard/workbook in T4ASlip or your system.
• Pull a preliminary report of contractor payments for the previous tax year.
Reminder to yourself:
This week is about setup, not perfection. You’re building the workspace where everything else will happen.
Week 2 of January: confirm contractor data
Goals:
• Make sure you have accurate contact and tax details for all likely T4A recipients.
Checklist:
• Identify contractors who were paid in the previous tax year.
• Cross-check that each has:
– Legal name or business name
– Address
– SIN or business number (if applicable)
• Send emails or forms to contractors with missing information.
If you’re using T4ASlip, this is when you’ll start seeing red flags in the system for missing fields and can work through them systematically.
Week 3 of January: finalize payment totals
Goals:
• Lock in your numbers so you’re not making last-minute adjustments later.
Checklist:
• Pull final year-end contractor payment reports from your accounting system.
• Reconcile totals by contractor against invoices and bank records.
• Investigate unusual totals (very high, very low, or significantly different from prior years).
• Import or sync these totals into T4ASlip or your T4A workspace.
By the end of this week, you should know “who is getting a T4A and for how much,” even if some data cleanup is still in progress.
Week 4 of January: draft and review slips
Goals:
• Turn data into draft T4A slips and fix obvious issues.
Checklist:
• Generate draft T4A slips in T4ASlip or your filing system.
• Spot-check:
– Names and addresses
– Tax IDs
– Box amounts vs your contractor totals
• Correct anything that jumps out as incorrect or incomplete.
• If you work with an external accountant, share summaries or drafts for their review.
This is your main quality-control phase. The more you catch now, the smoother filing day will be.
Early February: internal approvals
Goals:
• Get sign-off from the right people and finalize any corrections.
Checklist:
• Have a manager, finance lead, or partner review:
– The list of T4A recipients
– Total amounts per contractor
– Any special or unusual cases (for example, non-residents)
• Resolve open questions with your accountant, if needed.
• Lock the data in your system so last-minute changes are controlled and documented.
One week before the filing deadline: prepare to file
Goals:
• Confirm everything is ready to submit—no surprises.
Checklist:
• Double-check that all required slips are drafted and reviewed.
• Confirm CRA access and filing method (web forms, file upload, or integration).
• Ensure final files from T4ASlip or your system are in the correct format.
• Verify contractor contact details for delivering copies (email, portal, or mail).
If you discover gaps now, focus on resolving only what’s essential for accurate filing; park less critical optimizations for after the deadline.
Filing day: submit and distribute
Goals:
• File with CRA and send slips to recipients.
Checklist:
• Submit T4A slips and summaries via the CRA’s system or through your T4A tool’s integration.
• Save confirmation or receipt details in your records.
• Send slips to contractors using your chosen method.
• Note any slips that need to be resent or corrected and schedule follow-up.
Take a moment to document what went well and what you’d change for next year while it’s still fresh.
After filing: tidy up and improve
Goals:
• Close the loop and make next year easier.
Checklist:
• Archive your T4A workpapers:
– Reports from your accounting system
– Contractor data lists
– Final slip files and summaries
– Notes on tricky cases
• Update internal checklists or your T4A playbook with any lessons learned.
• Consider adjusting contractor onboarding or payment coding to reduce issues next time.
If you’re using T4ASlip, this is a good time to ensure all relevant data is backed up and ready to roll forward into the next year.
How T4ASlip supports the timeline
Throughout this timeline, T4ASlip can help by:
• Providing a central place for contractor profiles and payment summaries
• Highlighting missing data early in January instead of at the last minute
• Generating draft and final slips in a repeatable way
• Giving you a clear “status view” so you always know how close you are to done
In other words, the timeline stays the same—but your stress level drops significantly.
Adapting the timeline to your organization
You can compress or expand this schedule based on:
• Your number of contractors
• Whether you use an external accountant
• How mature your current process is
What matters most is that you:
• Start early enough to handle surprises
• Have internal checkpoints, not just one big deadline
• Avoid trying to do everything during the last 48 hours
With a simple timeline and the right tools, T4A deadline reminders become just that—reminders, not alarms.