Help & How-To

Get the most out of Shield

Short walkthroughs for the parts that matter most — from first setup to reading your tax snapshot with confidence.

Getting started

First Setup — Opening Balance & Profile

Shield needs a few things on day one to start calculating accurately: your province, work type, whether you're GST-registered, and your opening income-to-date for the current tax year.

Select your province — tax rates are applied automatically
Choose your work type (trades, gig, freelance, etc.)
Enter any income you've already earned this year
Set your GST registration status

If you start mid-year, the opening balance is what makes your forecast accurate from day one — don't skip it.

Video coming soon First Setup Walkthrough · ~3 min

Core feature

Recording Your First Income

Every time you receive a payment, Shield breaks it down instantly — federal tax, provincial tax, CPP contributions, and GST collected. What's left is your Safe to Spend.

Tap Income → enter the amount and income type
GST is split out automatically if you're registered
The Compass Engine calculates your set-aside in real time
Your running tax snapshot updates immediately

Income type matters — business income, rideshare, and employment income are each taxed differently. Pick the right one and Shield handles the rest.

Video coming soon Recording Income · ~2 min

Tax clarity

Understanding GST — It's Not Your Money

One of the most common mistakes self-employed Canadians make: spending GST they collected. Shield tracks it separately so you always know what belongs to the CRA.

GST collected on invoices is a liability — not income
Shield shows your GST balance separately from your income
Rideshare drivers must register from dollar one — no threshold
ITCs (input tax credits) are tracked and applied at filing

If you're a rideshare driver, Shield auto-enables GST with no registration threshold and applies industry code 48520 — CRA's rules, automatically.

Video coming soon GST Explained · ~3 min

For rideshare drivers

Importing Your Uber Earnings Report

Shield can read your Uber weekly or annual earnings report directly — PDF or CSV — and parse income, GST collected, and deductible expenses automatically.

Download your earnings report from the Uber driver portal
In Shield, go to Income → Import Uber Report
Shield previews the full breakdown before anything is saved
Confirm once — your ledger updates instantly

Always review the preview before confirming. If Uber's report format changes, Shield will flag any fields it couldn't parse so nothing gets misrecorded.

Video coming soon Importing Uber Reports · ~3 min

Reading the numbers

Reading Your Tax Snapshot

The Compass Engine gives you a live running forecast of what you owe — not what you filed last year, what you owe right now based on what you've earned this year.

Forecast obligation — your estimated annual tax bill based on current income
Set aside to date — what you've reserved so far
Safe to Spend — what's yours after taxes, GST, and CPP
The red/green bar shows whether you're on track

Forecast vs. Final are kept separate. The forecast updates every time you record income. Your final obligation only comes from filing with the CRA — Shield never guesses that number.

Video coming soon Reading Your Tax Snapshot · ~4 min

For drivers & trades

Mileage Log & Odometer OCR

Shield's mileage log tracks your business-use percentage live. Tap the camera on any odometer field and Shield reads the display for you — no manual entry.

Tap the camera icon → snap your odometer
Enter your Uber trip distance from your weekly summary
Business-use percentage calculates automatically
14-day history with tap-to-edit

CRA requires a mileage log to claim vehicle expenses. Keeping it current in Shield means you have a defensible record at filing — not a rushed reconstruction in April.

Video coming soon Mileage Log & OCR · ~2 min

Still have questions?

Reach out during the Beta — your feedback shapes what gets built next.

Email us