GIFI Codes

The GIFI (General Index of Financial Information) is an index of items generally found on balance sheets, income statements, and statements of retained earnings.

The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) uses GIFI Codes to support their electronic filing and T2 processing system. As of the year 2000, all corporations (except for insurance corporations) must report financial statement information using the GIFI.

For more information, see The Guide to the General Index of Financial Information (GIFI) for Corporations at the CRA site.

Assigning GIFI codes to accounts

If your company uses one of the company templates shipped with Sage 50 Accounting, your accounts already have codes assigned to them. You may need to change or add GIFI codes if you add or change any accounts.

However, you need to assign GIFI codes to your accounts in the following instances:

• If you file your corporate tax returns (T2s) electronically, you are required to assign a GIFI (General Index of Financial Information) code to each account. In order to file a T2 electronically, you need to export your GIFI codes to a file which you then import into your tax reporting software.
• If you created your accounts one at a time, you will need to add a GIFI code to each account.

We recommend that you ask your accountant to review your chart of accounts to ensure that the codes are correct.