Code the trial balance by GIFI item (Taxprep, TaxCycle)

The GIFI (General Index of Financial Information) is the CRA's list of four-digit items used to fill schedules 100 (balance sheet) and 125 (income statement) of the T2 return. Each account in the trial balance has its item; TeeTax remembers it from one year to the next, so next year's trial balance arrives already coded.

Code the accounts

Import a trial balance that is already coded

If your accounting software (or your workbook) already gives each account's item, add a fifth column with the four-digit code and a “GIFI” or “GIFI code” header. The import preview shows how many codes are recognized, which are ignored (unknown item, or one the tax software calculates) and which accounts will take last year's item.

• An account with no code in the file takes the one the client had last year.
• A code in the file replaces the one that was remembered.
• The sample file on the Trial balance page already contains the GIFI column.

Check and export

In the GIFI panel, the Checks tab verifies that every account with a balance has an item, that the trial balance is balanced (adjustments included), that no profit-and-loss account is coded to a balance-sheet item and that net income per the items equals the financial statements. The Export tab produces:

• Excel (.xlsx): the trial balance account by account with its GIFI item, the summary by item and the checks;
• Detailed CSV: the same trial balance as text, which re-imports as is into TeeTax;
• Simple CSV: two columns (item, amount) in whole dollars, the usual shape for loading GIFI amounts into tax software.

Amounts start from the final balance (imported trial balance, accepted adjustments and reclassifications) and follow the item's own side: assets and expenses debit; liabilities, equity and revenue credit. Contra items (accumulated amortization, allowance for doubtful accounts, dividends, closing inventory) are reported as positive: Taxprep subtracts them itself.