Create a Home Office Working Paper

Enter household costs, calculate the business-use portion, and prepare a reviewed Home Office claim.

Use the Home Office Working Paper to document household costs and calculate the portion related to business use. The Working Paper is independent of ordinary Expense Categories: it does not collect transactions from special Utility, Internet, or Property Tax accounts.

Before you begin

Enable Home Office in Settings > Business Profile > Additional Bookkeeping Features. Gather the bills, receipts, and other support for the period you want to calculate. If Home Office is disabled, its page remains available and links back to Business Profile.

Enter household expenses

Open Accounting > Home Office.
Select the full reporting year in Period. Sole Proprietors use Year2025 style calendar years; incorporated Workspaces with a valid fiscal start use FY2025 style fiscal years. Each option includes its full date range. For partial-year or mixed use, enter the appropriately adjusted expenses and manual percentage.
These are household expense items, not Chart of Accounts references. In Home Office Category, locate Utilities, Internet, Property Tax, Home Insurance, Condo/Association Fees, Mortgage Interest, Repairs & Maintenance, or Other Home Expense.
Enter the gross amount, including applicable sales tax, in Total Expense. Amounts display with a dollar sign and two decimal places. Rows with no amount show a grey $0.00 placeholder and do not contribute to the calculation. Business Use Amount is read-only and shows each row’s gross business portion before recoverable GST/HST is deducted: $100.00 at 9.36% displays $9.36.
Select Tax when GST/HST tracking is enabled. The choices are limited to the active tax codes for the primary province selected in Business Profile, plus applicable non-taxable choices. GST/HST and PST/QST are calculated from Total Expense using the same tax calculation as Expenses. Applicable components can be adjusted separately to match the bill. The field legend follows the applicable GST, HST, PST or QST component. An unavailable component retains its label and $0.00 display with a pale disabled background; it cannot be edited. Selecting GST Only therefore leaves the PST field visible and disabled.
Choose Office Area to calculate business use from Total Home Area and Office Area, or Manual Business Use % to enter a percentage. These methods are mutually exclusive. See the calculation rules below. Save as Default, beside Office Area, stores only the area defaults for future periods. It is disabled when the areas match the saved defaults, and becomes available when either area changes to a valid different value. The calculation explanation appears beside Business Use %.
Review the gross business portion, recoverable GST/HST, and final claim.
Use the small Add Other Expense button below the table for another household-cost row. Select Attach File, or drop supported PDF/JPEG/PNG/WebP files in the adjacent Attachments area, to add supporting documents. Files use the shared transaction attachment preparation and private storage flow.
Select Save Working Paper to create or update the paper and retain its rows and attachment references. Attachments remain visible when that Working Paper is reopened. Removing a file from the draft list unlinks it when the paper is saved and preserves files referenced by older snapshots.

When GST/HST tracking is disabled, the Working Paper omits Tax, tax component amounts, and recoverable GST/HST fields and calculates the claim from the tax-inclusive Total Expense amounts. A historical claim that already contains a GST/HST amount continues to display that saved amount.

The latest active Working Paper for the Workspace and period is retained with its calculation snapshot. Saving a Working Paper does not itself affect financial reports.

Calculation methods and precision

Office Area: enter both areas in square feet. Total Home Area and Office Area must be greater than zero, and Office Area cannot exceed Total Home Area. Business Use % is calculated and disabled.
Manual Business Use %: enter a percentage greater than zero and no higher than 100%. Area inputs are disabled; their existing values are retained when switching methods.
Period always covers a full reporting year. There are no separate From/To inputs or custom date ranges. For partial-year or mixed use, supply appropriately adjusted amounts and percentages supported by your records.

Area mode displays the percentage to two decimal places but uses the full Office Area / Total Home Area ratio when calculating money. For example, 198 / 2,115 displays 9.36%. With $61,579.28 of expenses and no ITC or row overrides, the claim is $5,764.87. Manually entering 9.36% instead produces $5,763.82 because that is the entered calculation rate.

Manual percentages are rounded to two decimal places before calculation. Rows that inherit the default are totaled before gross business amounts and recoverable GST/HST are rounded to cents. Adjusted rows use their own allocations. The aggregate remains authoritative and uses the complete area ratio, not the displayed two-decimal percentage. xBoox distributes cent-rounding remainders across inherited rows so their displayed amounts reconcile with that aggregate.

Previously saved papers and posted Journal Entries are not rewritten automatically when calculation rules change. A recalculated amount is a draft until successfully saved.

How GST/HST affects the claim {#gst-hst}

The gross amount is the amount actually paid, including sales tax. This makes each row easy to compare with the original bill.

If the Workspace is GST/HST registered, xBoox calculates Tax Amount from the tax-inclusive Total Expense amount and the selected Tax code. It then calculates only the federal GST/HST that may be recoverable as an input tax credit (ITC):

GST-only and HST treatments treat the entered tax as federal recoverable tax.
GST + PST in British Columbia treats only the GST portion as potentially recoverable. The GST component is calculated separately; a manual GST amount is used when supplied.
GST + QST in Quebec treats only the GST portion as potentially recoverable.
PST and QST are not federal ITCs.
Exempt, zero-rated, out-of-scope, or unselected treatments do not create a recoverable ITC.
If the Workspace is not GST/HST registered, no ITC is deducted.

Example: household costs total $2,000.00, business use is 10%, and the business portion includes $9.52 of recoverable GST/HST. The gross business portion is $200.00. The Working Paper shows a Home Office expense claim of $190.48 and an ITC of $9.52. Together they equal the $200.00 gross business portion.

Compare the Working Paper with the original documents and your registration status. xBoox provides bookkeeping support and does not determine tax eligibility or file a tax return.

Choose the annual accounting source

Each reporting year uses either Direct Entry or Working Paper. The record date determines the year; other years are unaffected. The account's global posting lock is not changed.

Existing ordinary transactions, split lines or manual Journal Entries using Home Office Expense make that year Direct Entry. Multiple expenses and adjustments are allowed. Opening that period displays a notice, then retains the complete Working Paper in read-only form. Select View Home Office Entries in the notice to open the Home Office account's report detail for that period, or Got It to remain on the read-only paper. Saved data for that period remains visible; without an active saved paper, its rows are empty. Editing financial amounts, saving calculations, and annual posting are unavailable. Users with transaction-edit access can add or remove attachments on an existing saved paper and select Save Working Paper to save only those attachment changes. Period, saved history, and existing attachment viewing remain available. The notice appears once when entering the restricted period.
To move from Direct Entry to Working Paper, reclassify every direct Home Office record to appropriate other accounts. A zero net balance is insufficient: no direct records may remain in Home Office Expense for that year.
With no direct records, open Home Office and save a Working Paper; no separate mode-selection button is needed. A saved paper does not itself post an accounting entry.
Before the first direct save, a confirmation explains the annual consequence. Use Direct Entry and Save continues, Go to Home Office opens the same year without saving, Help Center opens these instructions, and the close button cancels. Any saved but never-posted paper is archived as read-only history when the direct save succeeds.
Once a Working Paper has ever posted, that year remains Working Paper even after reversal. Ordinary direct Home Office postings are blocked. Correct the paper and repost through Home Office instead.
Historical mixed sources are shown for review and block further Working Paper posting. Existing records are preserved; xBoox does not silently reclassify or reverse them.

In Bank Account-Based Tracking, a manual Expense still requires Pay From. Simple Tracking does not require a payment account.

Sole Proprietor

The Working Paper provides calculation and tax-support information. It does not automatically create a Journal Entry.

Corporation

Save the Working Paper, review the totals, then select Post Journal Entry in Home Office. The confirmation shows the saved reporting year, claim and year-end Journal Entry Date. The controlled Journal Entry:

debits 6600 Home Office Expense for the claim;
debits the GST/HST control account for the recoverable ITC, when applicable; and
credits Shareholder Loan for the gross business portion.

Once posted, inputs are read-only. Select Reverse Journal Entry in Home Office to create a linked reversal that preserves the original entry. Then correct and save the paper, and select Post Journal Entry again. The year remains Working Paper. Year End Review checks the source and linked entry and provides Go to Home Office; it does not post or reverse Home Office entries.

History and record keeping

Use Home Office history to inspect saved Working Papers. Its Search field updates the visible history rows without interrupting continuous typing. Saved snapshots retain the entered rows, Tax choices, Tax Amount, areas, percentage, and calculated totals even if Workspace settings later change. Older snapshots may also retain notes and attachment references created by the earlier Working Paper interface.

Per-row business use and manual adjustments

Each row inherits Business Use % from the area calculation or the percentage above the table. You can change a row's percentage. Business Use Amount is a disabled calculated field, not a separate amount entry. Percentages display with a % suffix. A small pink circular pencil marker at the upper-left border of a percentage or tax field identifies a manual adjustment; Its tooltip and accessible label are Manually Adjusted.

Changing the percentage above the table updates inherited rows while preserving manually adjusted percentages. Changing Total Expense or Tax recalculates tax components and clears manual tax adjustments, while retaining the row percentage. GST/HST and PST/QST adjustments must be non-negative, and their total cannot exceed Total Expense.

The circular-arrow button restores the row's percentage to the current default and restores automatic tax calculations. It clears all manual markers and leaves Total Expense and the selected Tax code unchanged. Save the Working Paper to retain adjustments; separate tax amounts and adjustment markers remain when reopened.

The summary's Default Business Use is the starting percentage, not a blended rate across overridden rows. Recoverable GST/HST is allocated using each row's effective business portion; PST/QST is not deducted as a federal ITC. Previously saved exact business-amount overrides remain readable in historical papers and are cleared when that row's percentage, Total Expense, or Reset is changed. The annual source and Home Office posting controls described above apply.

Compact results

The right panel shows the claim, recoverable GST/HST, default Business Use %, status and available actions. Open Calculation Details or Journal Entry Details for supporting information. View Journal Entry opens the current Working Paper’s Journal Entry in the shared detail drawer without leaving Home Office. The claim equals the gross business portion less recoverable GST/HST. Default Business Use is the common starting percentage and is not a weighted average of manually adjusted rows.

Current Status distinguishes:

Not Saved: no active paper has been saved for the period.
Saved — Not Posted: a company paper is saved, but its Journal Entry has not been posted.
Working Paper Saved: a Sole Proprietor paper is saved without an automatic Journal Entry.
Posted: the company paper has a linked Journal Entry. The status includes its actual entry date and reference.
Unsaved Changes: the form has changed, or its recalculated gross expense, business portion, ITC or claim differs from the saved values, including after a calculation update.

Posting is disabled for an unsaved paper. Close any old confirmation, save the current paper, and then select Post Journal Entry. The confirmation uses the saved amount; it must agree with the current preview. A linked posted paper still requires Reverse Journal Entry before a changed paper can replace it. Reversal remains available even if recalculation detects a difference.

When Home Office appears in reports

Enabling Home Office or saving a Working Paper does not add an expense to Profit & Loss. In Working Paper mode, a Corporation's posted Journal Entry records the claim in 6600 Home Office Expense, dated at the selected period end. A report containing that date can then show the amount. A Sole Proprietor's Working Paper alone does not create that posting.

In Direct Entry mode, ordinary posted Home Office transactions or manual Journal Entries appear according to their own dates. Those records also determine the annual source restrictions described above. Do not add a duplicate direct entry for a year already using a posted Working Paper.

For a posted company paper, the summary actions are arranged in two rows: Save Working Paper and View Working Paper, then View Journal Entry and Reverse Journal Entry. View Home Office Entries remains available in the restricted-period notice to review the account’s existing transactions. Reports reload their data after accounting changes. Saved Working Paper History retains snapshots; it is separate from the financial ledger.

Other Home Expense includes one standard row. Add Other Expense permits up to nine additional rows, for ten Other Home Expense rows in total. At the limit, the button is disabled. Saving more than nine additional rows is rejected; rows are never silently truncated.

Saving and changed settings

Invalid or negative Total Expense entries block saving until corrected. Changing Period with unsaved edits, including attachment changes, asks whether to discard those changes. Saving an existing paper checks the version originally opened; if another window has saved a newer version, refresh and review it before trying again. A reporting year is identified by its date range, independent of its relative Period label.

Reopening a saved paper preserves its tax component snapshot even when current tax settings differ. A posted paper displays its saved amounts. Saving checks current Workspace tax tracking, available province tax codes and their effective rates; incompatible settings block the save without changing history. Restore the appropriate settings or review the tax selections before saving. Automatically calculated split taxes are verified by the server; permitted component adjustments remain explicit. The API also rejects invalid calendar dates and ranges other than a complete reporting year.

Changes made while another window is open

Posting and reversal use the saved version shown in the confirmation. If another window changes the Working Paper or its linked Journal Entry, refresh, review the current values and confirm again. The outdated confirmation cannot post or reverse the changed version.

Manual GST/HST and PST/QST adjustments remain editable after reopening a saved Working Paper. Editing one component preserves the other saved components. After all direct Home Office entries are reclassified, a previously withdrawn Working Paper can be saved again for the same period.

Calculations retain the full area ratio. Rounding remainders are distributed among eligible rows so row totals reconcile to the aggregate claim and recoverable tax; recoverable tax allocated to a row cannot exceed its business-use gross amount.

Annual period and attachment protections

Saving and posting reject a period overlapping another active Working Paper or a period with Home Office posting history. A withdrawn paper that was never posted does not reserve its period. An active paper or posting history also prevents a change to the company fiscal year start; reversing a posting preserves that history.

Withdrawal checks the version originally opened. A concurrent save or post blocks the outdated withdrawal. Posted financial calculations remain locked. Users with transaction-edit access can add or remove attachments and select Save Working Paper to save only attachment changes, without changing amounts or the Journal Entry. Existing saved papers also allow this when Home Office is disabled or the period has direct entries. The loaded revision is checked; previous snapshots and files are preserved. Read-only users may view files. Custom Range remains a preview.

A posted company's recoverable GST/HST contributes to Line 106 of the GST/HST report for its Journal Entry date. Its linked reversal cancels that ITC in the reversal period. Historical controlled Home Office entries are recognized without rewriting their original financial amounts. Saving a paper alone creates no ITC ledger posting.

History uses the shared Bank Transactions pagination footer: 50 rows by default, with 50, 100, 200, 300, or 500 rows per page and Previous / Next controls.