Salon receipts and invoices in Canada, and where your GST/HST goes
Every payment taken through Slotora sends your client an itemized receipt by email. Slotora itself works out no sales tax on your services: a GST/HST breakdown comes from an invoice issued in your own Xero or QuickBooks, at the rate you enter. This page says exactly which document does what, so nothing surprises you or your bookkeeper in April.
Try it free for 14 daysThe receipt your client gets
The moment money is recorded against a visit — a card on the reader, a QR payment, cash, a bank transfer — your client is emailed a receipt in your salon's name. It lists what was paid, the tip on its own line, how it was paid, the total paid so far on that booking and anything still owing. If an invoice was issued for the visit, its number is on the receipt and the PDF travels with it.
What the receipt does not carry is a tax line. It shows no GST, no HST and no registration number, because Slotora does not calculate sales tax on a salon's services for you. For most walk-in clients that is fine: a person paying for a pedicure keeps the email and never thinks about it again. For a client who is a business and wants to claim the tax back, you need the invoice described below.
Two documents, two jobs
Keep them apart in your head and the rest of this page is easy.
Receipt: proof of payment
Sent by Slotora after every payment, with your business name at the top. It confirms money changed hands and how. It is not a tax document, and it does not pretend to be one.
Invoice: the tax document
Issued in your own accounting system, numbered by it, with the GST or HST split that system works out from the rate you set. Slotora sends it the booking, the services and the amount; your accounting system does the rest.
Day-end close: your own record
At closing, the day's takings are listed by payment method and by team member, with what the cash drawer should hold. Print it for the envelope you hand your bookkeeper.
Connecting Xero or QuickBooks
A Canadian salon is offered both, and nothing else: the Hungarian, Polish and Romanian invoicing services in Slotora are kept for those countries.
01
Connect your own account
You sign in with your own Xero or QuickBooks login and authorize the connection once. The connection is yours: Slotora never issues an invoice in your name without it, and you can disconnect at any time.
02
Enter your rate
In Canada the tax box starts at zero, because the rate depends on your province and on whether you are registered at all. Type yours: 13% HST in Ontario, 14% in Nova Scotia, 15% in New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador and Prince Edward Island, 5% GST in Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and the territories, as the CRA's own table lists them. Not registered? Choose the exempt setting and your invoices carry no tax.
03
Give Xero your Canadian tax code
Slotora's built-in Xero codes are the British ones. A Canadian Xero organization uses its own codes, so type the one your accountant uses for sales into the tax type field; left blank, a line at a rate Slotora does not recognize goes to Xero with no tax code, and the total is right while the tax is not reported. QuickBooks has the same kind of field for its tax code.
04
Switch on automatic issuing
From then on an invoice is created when a booking is paid, and when a visit is marked completed, which covers cash taken on the day. The PDF reaches the client with her receipt, attached or as a link; switch that off if your accountant sends invoices separately.
Where this falls short today
Read these before you rely on Slotora for your tax paperwork.
- Prices are treated as tax-included
- Slotora reads every price as what the client pays, and an invoice splits the tax out of it. Many Canadian salons show prices before tax and add GST/HST at the till. If yours does, the invoice will not add the tax on top: either show tax-included prices, or keep issuing those invoices by hand.
- The receipt has no tax line
- The emailed receipt never shows GST/HST or your registration number. A client who needs them for a claim needs the invoice from Xero or QuickBooks, which means that connection has to be set up.
- The settings were written for Europe
- The invoicing settings use European tax wording and British example codes. They work for a Canadian salon once you read the tax field as your GST/HST field, but they do not yet speak Canadian.
- No provincial sales tax
- Nothing in Slotora calculates PST, RST or QST on a sale. If a retail product you sell attracts a provincial tax, that belongs in your accounting system.
What the CRA asks for, briefly
Two federal rules decide what your paperwork needs to show. First, a small supplier — taxable revenue of no more than C$30,000 over four consecutive calendar quarters — does not have to register for GST/HST, and an unregistered business does not charge it. Second, when a client who is a GST/HST registrant claims back the tax she paid you, the Input Tax Credit Information Regulations set what her document must carry.
Under C$100, your business name, the date and the total are enough. From C$100 to under C$500, add your GST/HST registration number and either the tax charged or a statement that the price includes it. From C$500, add the client's name, the payment terms and a description of each service. Your registration number comes from your accounting system's invoice template, not from Slotora's receipt.
This is a summary of the official pages listed at the bottom, not tax advice. Your province, your trade and your own registration decide what applies to you, and an accountant who knows your books is worth the call.
Slotora's own bill to you
Your subscription is invoiced in Canadian dollars by Belavin Limited, the company that operates Slotora. Today that invoice reads: “No GST/HST charged: Belavin Limited is not registered for GST/HST in Canada.” The line is a fact of our registration as it stands, not a promise for ever: if Belavin registers, the tax will be added by your province, and the invoice will say so.
If you are registered yourself, you can enter your GST/HST registration number on the plan page. It is stored as you type it, because the CRA's registry offers no automatic check to ask.
Questions about receipts and GST/HST
Does Slotora add GST or HST to my services?
No. Slotora takes the price you set as the amount the client pays. A tax split appears only on invoices issued through your own Xero or QuickBooks, at the rate you entered there.
Is the email my client gets an official receipt?
It is proof of payment in your salon's name: amount, tip, method, balance. It carries no GST/HST line and no registration number, so a business client claiming an input tax credit needs your invoice as well.
Which accounting software works in Canada?
Xero and QuickBooks. You connect your own account; Slotora sends each paid or completed booking across and the invoice is numbered and stored there.
I am under the small supplier threshold. What should I choose?
An unregistered business does not charge GST/HST, so the exempt setting is the usual choice and your invoices then show no tax. If you are unsure whether you have passed C$30,000 in four consecutive quarters, ask your accountant before you change anything.
Does Slotora charge me GST/HST on the subscription?
Not today. Belavin Limited is not registered for GST/HST in Canada, and the invoice says so in plain words. If that changes, the tax will be added by your province and shown on the invoice.
Official sources
The federal pages the rules above are taken from, with the day we read each one.
- Canada Revenue Agency — When to register for and start charging the GST/HST — https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/businesses/topics/gst-hst-businesses/when-register-charge.html · Read on The C$30,000 small supplier threshold over four consecutive calendar quarters.
- Canada Revenue Agency — GST/HST calculator and rates (date modified 2025-04-01) — https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/businesses/topics/gst-hst-businesses/charge-collect-which-rate/calculator.html · Read on
- Input Tax Credit Information (GST/HST) Regulations, SOR/91-45, section 3 — https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/regulations/SOR-91-45/section-3.html · Read on The three tiers: under C$100, C$100 to under C$500, C$500 or more.
Set up the paperwork once
Connect your accounting system, type your rate, and every paid visit produces its receipt and, where you want one, its invoice — without anyone retyping a total.