When are WorkSafeBC payroll reports due, and what do your books need for them?

 WorkSafeBC payroll reports are due quarterly on April 20, July 20, October 20 and January 20 for employers expecting premiums of $2,000 a year or more, with a reconciliation by February 28. Smaller employers report once a year on an assigned date in early March. Either way, the books need assessable payroll by period. ZeraBooks, a Surrey bookkeeping service, keeps those totals ready.

The third-quarter report was due on October 20, two days ago. If it went in late or took a scramble, this post is for you.

Quarterly or annual: which are you?

WorkSafeBC sets it. If your premiums are expected to reach $2,000 a year or more, or your classification unit has to report quarterly, you report every quarter. Under that, you report annually, on a date WorkSafeBC assigns you: March 3, 5, 7, 9 or 11.

Quarterly reporters report payroll for the quarter by the 20th of the month after it ends, then send a reconciliation for the year by February 28.

What the premium looks like, roughly

Premiums are a rate per $100 of assessable payroll. The 2026 average base rate is $1.55 per $100, though your own rate depends on your industry and can be quite different.

A fictional example to show the arithmetic. A small Surrey landscaping company has 62,000.00 of assessable payroll in the third quarter of 2026. At the average base rate of $1.55 per $100, that's 620 hundreds times 1.55, or 961.00 for the quarter.

Over a full year at that pace, premiums would run around 3,844.00, well over the $2,000 line, so this company reports quarterly. Its actual rate would come from its classification unit, not the average.

What "assessable payroll" means for the books

Assessable payroll is the payroll figure WorkSafeBC charges premiums on. Your payroll provider's reports usually show it, or the pieces to build it, and your accountant can confirm what's included for your business.

For the books, three habits make the report a five-minute job.

Record payroll from the provider's reports, not from the bank. The bank shows net pay going out and a lump of source deductions. The payroll register shows gross wages by employee, which is what WorkSafeBC and the T4s need.

Keep subcontractors separate from employees. Subcontractor invoices belong on their own account, apart from wages, so the payroll total you report is only payroll. Ask your accountant or WorkSafeBC where the line falls for your trade.

Close each quarter's payroll before the 20th. Not on the 19th. If payroll for September is booked by early October, the October 20 report is a lookup.

The rest of the BC calendar it sits in

WorkSafeBC is one of three offices a BC business answers to. GST goes to the CRA, one month after each monthly or quarterly period. PST goes to the BC Ministry of Finance on the period the province assigns. T4 slips are due the last day of February. A corporation's T2 is due six months after year-end, and a sole proprietor files the T1 with the T2125 by June 15 and pays by April 30. Each one pulls different figures from the same books.

What ZeraBooks does

ZeraBooks is a bookkeeping service based on 141B Street in Surrey. Our team keeps books in Canadian dollars on our own AI-native ledger, records payroll from your provider's reports, keeps GST and PST in separate accounts, and has payroll totals ready for WorkSafeBC and T4s each period. Every month is proven against your uploaded bank statements to the cent.

We don't file WorkSafeBC reports or tax returns. You or your accountant do, from the figures we provide. There's no bank feed; PDF statements go through an upload portal. Prices start at $150 a month, invoiced in USD, and yours is set after a free call.

More on the BC filing calendar and a worked GST and PST month: ZeraBooks bookkeeping services in Surrey, BC.

Written by ZeraBooks. We provide the bookkeeping service mentioned here.

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