Portal setup decisions
Four deliberate choices that prevent the common failure modes.
Owner registers and links the business number before access is urgent.
Representatives get defined authority; credentials are never shared.
Online correspondence is checked monthly by a named person.
Balances, filings, and deposit details kept current for every program that checks.
Source basis: CRA My Business Account pages
CRA My Business Account has quietly become the front door to operating a Canadian business: payroll accounts, GST/HST filings, SR&ED pre-claim applications, corporate tax balances, and program correspondence all route through it. Firms that treat it as optional discover the gap at the worst moment, usually a deadline.
Setting it up is a one-time task with a few decisions worth making deliberately rather than by default.
Getting access right the first time
The owner or a director registers with their own credentials and links the business number. Identity verification can involve a mailed security code, so start the process before access is urgent, not the week a filing is due.
Then decide who else can act. The representative system lets a bookkeeper or accountant work in the account with defined authority levels, without sharing the owner's credentials. Sharing logins instead is the common shortcut, and it fails exactly when staff or providers change.
The mail setting that bites
The CRA increasingly delivers business correspondence electronically. Once mail is online, a notice of assessment, a review letter, or a remittance discrepancy lands in the portal whether or not anyone looks. Assign the check to a named person on a monthly rhythm, or route notifications to an email that is actually read.
A missed portal letter carries the same deadlines as a missed paper one. The CRA's position is that delivery happened.
What the portal unlocks
Beyond filings, the account is where a firm proves itself: tax standing for lenders under programs like the CSBFP, payroll account management for a first hire, and application flows for programs like SR&ED pre-claim approval. Owners who keep the account clean, balances current, filings up to date, addresses correct, move faster on every program that checks standing, which is now most of them.
Government links used for this briefing
These links point to federal, provincial, territorial, municipal, intergovernmental, or official data sources. Readers should confirm current eligibility and deadlines directly with the issuing government before applying.
Official portal page covering registration, representative access, and available services.
Federal / CompliancePayrollCanada Revenue AgencyPayroll account management that runs through the portal.
Provincial / ProgramBusiness, mining, trade and job creationGovernment of ManitobaProvincial business programs whose applications assume clean CRA standing.
