What shapes a software project in Canada
Canada looks like one market from outside and behaves like several from inside. Privacy, language and tax are set partly in Ottawa and partly in the provinces, so the first design question is where your customers, staff and data are.
| Topic | What it means for your system | Decide early |
|---|---|---|
| Privacy law | PIPEDA is the federal law for personal information in commercial activity, and Quebec, Alberta and British Columbia have private-sector laws of their own. A federal bill to replace PIPEDA was before Parliament when this page was reviewed | Which provinces your users and staff are in, and whose law covers each set of data |
| Quebec's Law 25 | Quebec asks for a privacy impact assessment before personal information leaves the province, a named person in charge of privacy, and notice when a decision is made by automated processing alone | Whether Quebec residents' data will be stored or reached from outside the province |
| French | Under the Charter of the French Language, businesses established in Quebec serve customers and staff in French, which reaches websites, contracts and the software employees use | Whether screens, documents and notifications ship in French in the first release |
| Accessibility | Ontario's accessibility law sets web content standards for larger organizations, and the Accessible Canada Act covers federally regulated ones such as banks, telecoms and transport | The WCAG version and level you will build and test against |
| Electronic messages | Canada's anti-spam law requires consent before commercial emails and texts, a sender who is identified and an unsubscribe that works | How consent is captured, stored and withdrawn for each contact |
| Sales tax | GST, HST, QST and provincial sales taxes apply in different combinations, so an invoice is calculated from where the customer is | Which system holds the tax rules, your accounting package or a tax service |
| Payments | Interac debit and Interac e-Transfer are everyday ways to pay, beside credit cards and pre-authorized debits from bank accounts | The methods your payment provider must support on day one |
Workflows we build for Canadian businesses
Four examples of systems where the Canadian details change the design. Yours will differ, and discovery is where we find out how.
Quotes and work orders across provinces
For trades, equipment and field service companies with branches in more than one province.
- Request arrives in English or French
- Quote priced with the right provincial tax
- Customer accepts online
- Work order scheduled
- Technician completes it on a phone
- Invoice paid by card or Interac
Member and client portals
For associations, insurers, clinics and professional firms that hold personal files.
- Sign in with two-step verification
- See documents and balances
- Submit a request or a claim
- Staff review in one queue
- Decision sent with a record
- Consent preferences kept up to date
Bilingual intake and case handling
For organizations that serve the public in both official languages.
- Form opens in the visitor's language
- Details checked as they are entered
- Case routed by region and language
- Reply drafted from a template in that language
- Case closed with an audit trail
From shared spreadsheets to one system
For operations teams whose workbooks have become the business.
- Map who enters what
- Import the existing sheets
- Add roles and approvals
- Reports replace manual summaries
- Old files retired
The last of these is the most common starting point. Our guide to replacing business spreadsheets with software shows how to tell when the move is worth it.
What we build
Web applications and internal tools
Systems for operations, sales and service teams, written in mainstream languages that your own developers could take over later.
English and French interfaces
Every label, email and document template held in both languages, with a review step so your team approves French copy before release.
Privacy built into the data model
Consent records, retention rules, access logs and export tools, so a privacy officer can answer a request from the system itself.
Accessible screens
Interfaces built and tested against the WCAG level you choose, with keyboard, contrast and screen reader checks in each release.
Integrations
Connections to accounting, CRM, payment and tax services through their APIs. Our system integration page explains the approach.
Hosting in Canadian regions
Deployment to the Canadian regions of the major cloud providers when your contracts or your sector call for data to stay in the country.
What we need from you
- The provinces you operate in and sell to
- A privacy officer or adviser who can answer questions on PIPEDA and Law 25
- Access to the systems that will be connected
- A reviewer for French copy, if French is in scope
- One decision maker for scope and priorities
Ownership and licensing terms are defined in the project agreement.
A readiness checklist for a Canadian project
Before development starts
0 of 7 checkedWhat to do next
Tell us what the system should do, which provinces it serves and what it has to connect to. We will reply with how we would approach it and which decisions come first. Start a conversation or book a 30-minute call.
Comparing suppliers? Our guide to choosing a custom software development partner lists the questions worth asking each one.
Common questions
Does our software have to store data in Canada?
Federal privacy law does not, in general, require it. It holds you accountable for personal information wherever it is processed, and expects you to be open with people when it may be handled in another country. Quebec asks for an assessment before information leaves the province. Some public-sector and health contracts go further and name a location. Decide with your adviser, then record the reason.
Do we need French if we are not established in Quebec?
In most cases the law does not demand it. The Charter of the French Language is aimed at businesses established in Quebec, and the language office has taken a softer line with those that only sell into the province from outside. If Quebec customers matter to you, plan French early all the same, because adding a second language to a finished system touches every screen, email and document.
How should our system handle sales tax across provinces?
Store the customer's province on every order and let one place decide the tax. GST applies across the country, several provinces use the combined HST, Quebec adds QST and some provinces charge their own sales tax on certain goods and services. Rates and rules change, so most systems call a tax service or keep the rules in the accounting package instead of in custom code. Your accountant confirms which registrations you need.
Which accessibility standard should we build to?
Most Canadian organizations work to WCAG at Level AA. Ontario's law names it for the public websites of larger organizations, and federal rules point the same way for the bodies they cover. We ask you to choose the version and level in the brief, because it changes design, content and testing. Meeting it in the first release costs far less than repairing a finished system.
Where to go from here
Related serviceCustom Software DevelopmentSoftware that fits the process you already run