ActiveACB for Accountants and Tax Preparers
A per-preparer license that turns raw broker files into reviewable Schedule 3 capital gains workpapers for your client engagements. You review and sign; ActiveACB does the arithmetic.
What the Accountant tier is
The Accountant tier is a professional-use license for Canadian tax preparers. It includes everything in the Pro tier plus a multi-client practice dashboard, sequential batch processing of client broker files, per-client workpaper bundles, white-label branding, transaction-level ACB continuity ledgers, and a methodology letter for every calculation. One license covers one preparer; firms need one license per preparer using the service.
It is not a T1 filing package and does not replace software like TaxCycle or Profile. It solves the step those packages leave to you: reconstructing correct adjusted cost base and capital gains from a client's raw brokerage history, including the identical-property averaging, superficial loss, foreign exchange, return of capital, option, and corporate action adjustments that make Schedule 3 numbers auditable.
The license is $199 CAD per preparer, per season: a one-time purchase covering unlimited clients and calculations for the tax season, with no subscription and no per-calculation fees. The $199 rate is a founding price for our first season. Firms license each preparer individually. You can test the engine before buying: the first calculation on any account is free.
Accountant seats include a client code that gives clients $10 off their first Standard or Pro season with no reward paid to you. If your link brings in another preparer who buys an Accountant license, you receive $50 in ActiveACB credit after their guarantee window.
What an engagement looks like
Without tooling, a client who arrives with multiple brokerage accounts and several years of history means manually consolidating exports, converting every USD transaction at the correct dates, reconstructing ACB pools trade by trade, checking each loss sale against the superficial loss window, and documenting all of it.
With ActiveACB the same engagement is a review workflow: upload the broker files, work through the surfaced warnings, make any adjustments in the trade editor, verify the continuity ledger, and export the completed workpaper packet.
Built to be reviewed, not trusted blindly
ActiveACB is calculation software, not tax, legal, or accounting advice. The preparer retains sole professional responsibility for every engagement, and the product is designed around that reality rather than against it. Every figure in the output traces back to source transactions through the ACB continuity ledger. Every assumption the engine makes is listed explicitly. Anything ambiguous in the broker data is surfaced as a warning instead of silently resolved. The methodology letter documents, in plain language, exactly how each class of transaction was treated in the specific calculation it accompanies.
The result is a workpaper you can actually verify before you sign, which is what distinguishes a professional tool from a black box.
The workpaper packet
Every calculation can be exported as a complete packet:
- Tax report PDF with the full transaction-level running-ACB ledger, per-symbol summaries, superficial loss analysis, corporate action treatment, and foreign income detail.
- XLSX workbook for spreadsheet review and carry-forward into your own working papers.
- Filing summary mapping results to Schedule 3 lines and related slips.
- Methodology letter (DOCX, on your letterhead) documenting engine treatment and assumptions for the file.
- JSON of the entire calculation record for archival or tooling.
With white-label branding enabled, your uploaded firm logo replaces ActiveACB branding on client deliverables, including document headers and filenames, and your preparer name and firm name appear on every export format.
Practice workflow
The practice dashboard organizes work by client: create client records, assign calculations, and track each file through In progress, Ready for review, and Final statuses. Queue a stack of clean client files and run them back to back in one sitting; files process one at a time by design, so no upload ever waits in server-side storage. Any calculation that needs judgment, trade edits, or refinements opens in the full calculator with the client preselected. Finished engagements download as per-client ZIP bundles or one practice-wide bundle.
Client broker files are written only to a temporary processing directory and deleted the moment the calculation completes. File contents are never retained between sessions and never written to a database; only the computed calculation record is kept, inside the preparer's own account. This zero-files-at-rest design is deliberate: your clients' raw brokerage statements do not accumulate in a third-party document store. The terms of service include explicit data processing commitments for client information under the Accountant license: purpose limitation, a named subprocessor list, encryption, deletion control, and breach notice, so you can account for ActiveACB in your own PIPEDA obligations.
What the engine handles
- Identical-property ACB averaging under section 47, across accounts and years.
- Superficial loss identification under the section 54 definition, with the affiliated-person and replacement-share caveats surfaced for review.
- Per-transaction foreign exchange conversion at Bank of Canada rates: cost at the buy-date rate, proceeds at the sell-date rate, including USD-denominated accounts.
- ETF return of capital and reinvested distributions using issuer tax factor data compiled from fund-company tax breakdowns and CDS Innovations postings, with a review panel showing per-unit amounts and sources you can edit before they apply.
- Option premiums linked to exercise and assignment stock legs.
- Corporate actions: splits, mergers, spinoffs including section 86.1 eligible distributions, rights issues, delistings, and section 50(1) elections where confirmed.
- Broker files from Interactive Brokers (Flex Query XML), Questrade (XLSX), Wealthsimple (CSV), and other brokers via column mapping.
Details, edge cases, and known limits are documented on the methodology page.
Common questions
Who is responsible for the client's filing?
The preparer, entirely. ActiveACB provides automated calculations from the data you supply; it does not provide tax advice and does not review your engagement. Outputs must be reviewed by the preparer before use, which is why every calculation ships with the ledger, assumptions, and warnings needed to do that review efficiently.
Can I put my firm's branding on the reports?
Yes. Upload your logo once in the practice dashboard and it replaces ActiveACB branding on client deliverables, including filenames. Your preparer name and firm name appear on the PDF, XLSX, filing summary, methodology letter, and in the JSON record.
Are my clients' broker files stored on your servers?
No. Uploaded files are written only to a temporary processing directory and deleted immediately after the calculation completes; file contents are never retained between sessions and never written to a database. The computed calculation record is saved to your account so you can re-export, refine, and maintain year-over-year ACB continuity.
Where is client data processed?
In the United States: application processing runs in Railway's US West region (California) and the database is hosted on AWS us-west-2 (Oregon). Uploaded broker files exist there only for the seconds a calculation takes and are then deleted; the stored calculation record remains until you delete it. PIPEDA permits using service providers outside Canada provided you remain accountable and your clients can learn where their information is handled, which is why we state it plainly here and in the privacy policy.
What if a client's broker isn't supported natively?
Native parsers cover Interactive Brokers (Flex Query XML), Questrade (XLSX), and Wealthsimple (CSV). For any other Canadian broker, the built-in column mapper imports a trade-history CSV or XLSX: upload the file, match its columns once, and the engine processes the trades like a native export, along with dividend, interest, and FX conversion rows when an Amount column is mapped. Options are recognized from a standard option symbol. Splits and ticker renames can be entered as rows; mergers and spinoffs come through native exports. See the guide for other brokers.
Can I give clients a discount?
Yes. Your client code gives clients $10 off their first Standard or Pro season. You receive nothing for client referrals, so there is nothing to disclose to them. A separate preparer referral can earn you $50 credit when another preparer buys an Accountant license.
Does this replace my T1 software?
No. It produces the capital gains workpapers and Schedule 3 figures that you carry into your filing package, along with the documentation supporting them.
How is the license scoped?
Per preparer, per season: $199 CAD as a one-time purchase (a founding price for our first season), no subscription. One license covers one preparer's client work with an unlimited number of clients and calculations; a firm needs one license for each preparer using the service. The tier includes priority email support at support@activeacb.ca.
ActiveACB is calculation software and does not provide tax, legal, or accounting advice. See the terms of service for the professional-use license.