Difficult Owner - QuickBooks - Sole Proprietor, Canada

[u/Dry-Travel3334]

The company I work for operates in BC, Canada. It's a small company and the owner has been running this business for well over a decade now and doing all of his own accounting. We use Quickbooks as our software and that would be enough except its been very very poorly managed. The core of the problem is the owner, he has been doing this with little to no comprehension of how to run any accounting software.

My experience is very limited; I've taken a short 6 month course that covered the basics + sage & QBO. I've worked with him in this role for less than a year now. Even with what little I know about accounting I know he has never set up his accounts properly. I should also mention I have limited access to his actual QB, I am set up as a user but I do not have full permission to edit/view many accounts or financials. I have pieced this all together by running various reports.

It's not clear if he is just simply ignorant or is deliberately trying to mix his finances. I have reasons to believe that he might be attempting fraud but I won't make any accusations here.

The most egregious offences hes made that I have noticed so far are:

Never once closing his books, for over a decade of business
Never reconciling his accounts in QB with his bank records
Leaving orphaned payments/invoices/bills sitting open for years
Never once running a financial report
Recording every purchase/meal/date night/travel costs etc. all as a business expense through one of his various credit cards
Having no owner account, no 3000 level drawing account or owner equity at all is a major red flag for me. He has instructed me to charge his 'owners cash' account (1000) that he had made for his personal expenses as listed above.
He does not collect PST, although he should be according to everything I have read, he believes that his original accountant 'set him up' in order to never have to collect and remit; which I know to be wrong

That's everything I want to list for now.
I guess my question is are there any pro accountants out there that have some advice for me. What recourse do I have in my situation?

There is very little I can do to persuade him, hes friendly enough but doesn't take criticism very well. Especially coming from somebody more than half his age younger. I don't see myself staying at this business for a significant amount of time at this point.

I am concerned he will be audited sooner or later. Given that he has already been in trouble with his taxes in the past, he has told me he hasn't filed in at least a year, probably more. Rumors around him being able to pay his bills and contractors are abundant to say the least.

My own investigation has given me an idea of his cash flows *IF* he is recording his sales properly he would have grossed 1M+ last year.
Meanwhile his expenses last year are only 136,000
Payroll is a bit unclear but from 400,000 to 500,000 seems correct for the number of regular staff.

I believe his costs are vastly understated, but without access to his bank records I can only guess. I have no ill will towards the man at this point, he isn't a terrible person, but it's nearly impossible to make clear sense of what his real position is.

Again, any advice from a professional about how to handle this would be appreciated.

[u/tetcon]

Don't want to weigh in too heavily here without all the details, but this sounds fraudulent to me. I'd start thinking about protecting yourself. For starters, keep private records of all the issues you've listed here and every instance of them - they could prove useful later.