eCommerce ERP Consultant, Canada

Shipping to every province: tax follows the parcel

For a Canadian online seller, the province on the shipping label matters more than the province of the head office. GST applies across the country, HST replaces it in participating provinces, and some provinces levy their own PST or QST with separate registration and rules. Whether you must collect a provincial tax on sales into another province depends on your circumstances and the province's rules, and those rules have been extended to more remote sellers over time. Some platform operators are also required to collect GST/HST on certain sales made through them.

All of this is for your accountant to confirm. What the ERP needs is data good enough to apply that advice to thousands of orders:

• Ship-to province on every order line, taken from the delivery address.
• A tax class per product, because some goods are treated differently.
• A flag for marketplace orders where the platform handles the tax.
• Separate liability accounts for each tax you are registered for.
• Tax on shipping charges and discounts calculated consistently with the goods.

I test each province and product combination during UAT and compare the tax report with expected results before go-live. The Canada ERP consultant page looks at GST/HST, PST and QST for the rest of the business, B2B included.

American customers, US dollars and a fulfillment partner south of the border

Selling to the US is often the biggest growth lever for a Canadian brand, and it changes the back office. Parcels crossing the border need customs data, and the duty question has to be settled: does the customer pay on delivery, or do you collect duties at checkout and pay them through the carrier or broker? Each option changes the customer experience and where the cost lands. US sales can also create US sales tax obligations, which a US tax advisor should assess.

Brands with steady US volume often move stock to a US fulfillment partner. Then the ERP needs a US location with its own stock, its own landed cost after duty and freight, and its own receiving and adjustment feeds. Transfers from Canadian stock to the US site are a cost event, not just a movement.

Returns across the border are where cost leaks. A US customer returning to a Canadian warehouse can trigger carrier, broker and duty costs that exceed the item's value. I help you decide, product by product, whether to restock, return to a US location or refund without return, and make each decision visible in the ERP.

My Odoo Inventory page for Canadian warehouses covers the warehouse side of a US fulfillment partner in more detail.

Two currencies, many payouts and a margin you can trust

A brand selling in both currencies typically receives Canadian-dollar payouts from its storefront processor, US-dollar payouts from a US storefront or marketplace, and perhaps pay-later and wallet settlements on top. Some payouts are converted by the processor at its own rate before they reach the bank. If finance posts only the net deposit, the conversion cost disappears inside revenue.

I design a clearing account for each processor and currency. Orders post the gross sale in the order currency. The payout report posts fees, refunds, chargebacks and any conversion. The deposit clears the account in the bank's currency, and exchange differences post explicitly. Holding a US-dollar bank account and receiving payouts in US dollars is a decision worth testing against the conversion costs this reveals.

Margin per order then follows a stated calculation:

1. Sale after discounts and refunds, converted at an agreed rate.
2. Minus landed cost, with freight, duty and brokerage on imported goods.
3. Minus pick, pack and shipping, including cross-border carrier costs.
4. Minus processor, marketplace and conversion fees.
5. Minus allocated advertising from Google, Meta and marketplace campaigns.

That final layer connects to my paid marketing work, so campaigns targeting US and Canadian audiences are judged on margin in one currency.

French for Quebec, consent rules and customer privacy

Quebec shoppers generally expect French on the storefront, in product information and in order communication, and Quebec's language rules apply to many commercial documents. Your legal advisor can confirm what your business must provide. For the ERP, this means item records carrying French names and descriptions, French versions of templates for confirmations, invoices and return documents, and a customer language field that drives which version is sent.

Email and text marketing in Canada falls under anti-spam legislation that requires consent and identification in commercial messages. Privacy laws, federally and in some provinces, with Quebec's rules among the more demanding, govern how customer information is collected, used and retained. I design so that consent is recorded with its source and date on the customer record, marketing lists are built from that record, and personal data is not copied into spreadsheets for ad audiences without a defined process.

Returns need recorded reasons, inspection outcomes and refund timing, with the refund posted back through the original payment method and the tax reversed for the correct province. A clean returns record also shows which products and provinces generate the most returns, which feeds buying and marketing decisions.

Choosing a platform and leaving QuickBooks plus apps

Many Canadian online brands run a hosted storefront, QuickBooks Online, Sage or Xero, a marketplace connector, a shipping app and a returns app. The decision is between adding a stronger order and inventory layer above the accounting package and moving to a complete ERP, which tends to make sense once you have wholesale accounts, US fulfillment, manufacturing or several entities.

I build a scoring sheet weighted on your scenarios: destination tax handling, bilingual output, two-currency settlements, US fulfillment partner integration, marketplace coverage and reporting. Vendors and implementers demonstrate against scripted orders, not their standard demo.

Migration covers product masters in both languages, bundles, open orders, customer accounts with consent records, gift card and store credit balances, unpaid marketplace funds and stock at each Canadian and US location, counted near cutover. I avoid switching in the run-up to Black Friday, Cyber Monday and the December holidays.

Calls are remote and set in head office hours; people in other provinces catch up through recordings. For more background, read the Canada hub, the eCommerce overview and how I approach connecting channels to an ERP.