# Get WSIB sorted before a builder turns you away at the gate

In Ontario construction, WSIB is the paper a site asks for before it asks anything else about you. Most people meet it backwards: they incorporate, buy the tools, line up a first job, and only then find out at the gate that coverage was expected long before they got there. The rules about who has to register are genuinely hard to read, and the people giving conflicting answers include accountants and WSIB's own phone line.

This page shows where WSIB sits in the rest of your setup, so it stops being the thing you discover late. By the end you will know where the two WSIB steps sit alongside everything else your business needs, what the clearance certificate costs before you meet it, and where your WSIB account number lives once it arrives instead of being buried in an email. What you will not get here is a ruling on whether you personally must register. That question belongs to WSIB, and this guide points you at them rather than guessing on your behalf.

## How contractors describe the problem

These are real posts from people who found out the hard way:

> "Being business noobs I had no idea WSIB was mandatory and even if it wasn't all builders ask for it."
>
> [a new plumbing company founder on r/SmallBusinessCanada](https://old.reddit.com/r/SmallBusinessCanada/comments/1khb6rl/on_how_does_wsib_work/)

The same poster phoned WSIB and posted what he was told. Read it as one contractor's account of one phone call, because that is all anyone reading it can know:

> "If you're doing service work and getting paid by the home owner you don't need WSIB. You need it legally as soon as you step on a job site."
>
> [the same plumbing founder, relaying WSIB's answer](https://old.reddit.com/r/SmallBusinessCanada/comments/1khb6rl/on_how_does_wsib_work/)

Checking an answer like that against the source material is its own job:

> "I'm a pretty savvy guy but I find a lot of confusing info on their site, even though there's 1000's of charts, articles and sections."
>
> [an Ontario contractor on r/SmallBusinessCanada](https://old.reddit.com/r/SmallBusinessCanada/comments/ybyp08/sole_proprietor_ontario_wsib_question/)

Then the premium itself surprises people. Here is a sole proprietor describing the bill he says he gets:

> "For example if I bill 1000 for a job. I bought a new tool some nails and fuel expenses which totaled 300. I pay wsib on the full 1000 i billed. I can't understand the reasoning for this and it just seems to make sense to incorporate even if I only were to bill for 50000 in a year."
>
> [a sole proprietor contractor on r/SmallBusinessCanada](https://old.reddit.com/r/SmallBusinessCanada/comments/ybyp08/sole_proprietor_ontario_wsib_question/)

Every one of those threads treats WSIB as a toll booth standing between them and the tools. The worst part of it is not knowing the toll until you are already at the barrier.

## Where WSIB sits in the rest of your setup

The launch dashboard counts your whole setup in one place. In the demo business below that is 48 actions, and Provincial Registrations, the stage WSIB lives in, holds three of them.

![The AEC Stack launch dashboard for the demo business Lakeshore Electric Ltd.: a Next actions card reading 0 of 48 done, a stage tracker with Provincial Registrations at 0 of 3, and a document drop zone that names WSIB clearances](https://ardhbbgplznadlvhywms.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/guide-assets/wsib-for-ontario-contractors/launch-dashboard-hero.png "WSIB is counted here as steps inside Provincial Registrations, alongside everything else your setup needs.")

So WSIB stops competing for space on a sticky note with the CRA business number and your trade licence. It sits in the same list, with a status on it, until it is done.

## WSIB is separate from the incorporation

If you are starting from nothing, the order matters, because everything else attaches to a corporation that has to exist first. The review screen of the incorporation wizard says so in plain words: the filing on that screen is the Articles of Incorporation, and the other registrations, CRA business number, WSIB, trade licences, come afterwards, and you run them from the dashboard.

![The wizard review step with the filing authorization checkbox and a note that CRA Business Number, WSIB, and trade licence registrations are handled separately from your dashboard once the corporation exists](https://ardhbbgplznadlvhywms.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/guide-assets/wsib-for-ontario-contractors/wizard-authorize-note.png "Incorporation is what gets filed on this screen. WSIB, CRA, and licensing run from your dashboard once the corporation exists.")

Worth reading that note twice if you have been told a package will "take care of everything". Incorporation is one filing. WSIB is a separate registration with WSIB, and it stays a separate line on your list until it is finished.

## The two WSIB steps, with the cost named up front

Open **Provincial Registrations** on the checklist and the WSIB work is two rows in the order you meet them.

First, **Register with WSIB**. That row carries an outbound link to WSIB's own registration page, because the registration happens at WSIB, with WSIB, under WSIB's rules. No software stands between you and that.

Second, **Get initial WSIB clearance certificate**, the document a builder actually asks to see. That row carries its price on a badge: $250, described on the row as an advance applied to premiums. Naming it there is the point of the row. It is the cost you would otherwise meet at the till, which is the complaint running through the threads above.

The third row in the stage is **Register for Employer Health Tax (if applicable)**, which the row says is required if payroll exceeds the exemption threshold.

## Put the account number where you can find it again

When WSIB writes back with your account number, it lands in an inbox and then it is gone. The **Reference Numbers** panel on the launch dashboard is where it stops being lost. Click the **WSIB Account** field, type the number, and the format hint sits right under the box: seven digits.

![The Reference Numbers panel on the launch dashboard with the WSIB Account field open for editing, a seven digit account number typed in, and the format hint underneath](https://ardhbbgplznadlvhywms.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/guide-assets/wsib-for-ontario-contractors/wsib-number-editing.png "When WSIB emails your account number, it goes in one field, once, with the format hint right under it.")

Saved, it sits in the same panel as the fields for your Corp number, business number, HST account, and payroll account, so the next time a general contractor's office asks for "your WSIB number" you are reading it off a screen instead of searching mail from eight months ago.

![The Reference Numbers panel with the WSIB account number saved and shown next to the still empty Corp, Business Number, HST, and Payroll fields](https://ardhbbgplznadlvhywms.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/guide-assets/wsib-for-ontario-contractors/wsib-number-saved.png "Saved. The number now lives on your business record, in the same panel as the other numbers people ask you for.")

It works the same from a phone, which is where you will be standing when the letter arrives:

![The launch dashboard on a phone: checklist steps with Mark done buttons stacked above the Reference Numbers panel, where the saved WSIB account number sits among the still empty Corp, Business Number, HST, and Payroll fields, with the main navigation across the bottom](https://ardhbbgplznadlvhywms.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/guide-assets/wsib-for-ontario-contractors/dashboard-mobile.png#portrait "The same panel on a phone. Add the number from the truck the day the WSIB letter lands.")

## What it costs, and what it does not do

Looking costs nothing. The launch dashboard, the checklist, and the reference numbers panel are part of your account, and you can walk all of it in a demo business before you commit to anything. The platform fee is 2.5% of each invoice processed through AEC Stack.

That $250 on the clearance row does not go to us. It is what the row names as an advance applied to your premiums, and it is paid where the registration happens.

Now the part that matters more than any of the above. This is not legal or accounting advice, and this guide deliberately does not tell you whether you must register, or what your premium is charged on. Read the quotes again: one contractor got his answer from WSIB's phone line, a second could not get a straight one off WSIB's own site, and a third says he pays on money he never kept. Their accountants, WSIB's phone line, and the policy pages do not give the same answer. That disagreement is real and it is not ours to resolve. Whether your situation makes you an independent operator, whether a hirer's questionnaire can pull you in as someone else's worker, what the premium is reckoned on in your case, all of that is WSIB's to answer about your specific business, and worth an hour with an accountant who works with trades. What this back office does is keep the steps visible, name the cost before you hit it, and hold the number afterwards.

> **On AEC Stack:** once you have the clearance certificate, drop the PDF into the upload zone on the same dashboard. It takes WSIB clearances, insurance certificates, trade licences, and CRA letters, works out what each document is, and updates your checklist, so the paper you were sent is filed where the next person asking for it can be answered in a minute.

Start at [the launch dashboard](/start-your-business/dashboard) and open Provincial Registrations. If you do not run your business on AEC Stack yet, [open the demo business](/start-your-business) and look at those three rows, with the clearance certificate's $250 sitting on the one that costs money. Getting turned away at a gate is expensive in a way no premium is: the job goes to whoever had their paper ready.
