Number of general ledger accounts, Number of business days to produce draft financial statements, Number of business days to file financial statements with regulatory agency

Number of accounts reconciled at least quarterly, Tool/System used for account reconciliation (developed internally, third-party software, manually reconcile), Primary financial system used (ERP, Software as a Service, In-House). Brand of ERP used, Brand of SaaS system used, Budgeting & planning tools used, Long-term planning tools used

Outsourced financial functions [outsourcing], Functions within shared services centers, Functions within shared services centers, Locations of internal shared services centers

Ownership of key internal controls, Number of key controls, Cost of compliance, Compliance burden over time, Factors that might ease compliance burden,

Average payroll function TCO per paycheque (in-house vs. outsourced), TCO (per paycheque) comparison by method across payroll and time & attendance

Enterprise main strategic focus for different activities in 2009 (Existing, New or improved) - Goods & services, Organizational and management practices, Operations and business activities, Marketing practices or methods

Enterprises with a main strategic focus on new or significantly improved products in selected industries, Sales from enterprise’s main product by region (manufacturing vs. non manufacturing)

Business activities undertaken in Canada in 2009 by % outsourced in Canada (e.g. HR management, Call centres & help centres, Software development, Legal services)

Location of decision-making for business activities

Enterprises that exported or attempted to export products in 2007-09 by business size, Enterprises that relocated or outsourced business activities abroad by business size, by type of activity, Country of destination of business activities outsourced abroad [outsourcing], Reasons for relocating or outsourcing, Obstacles

Enterprise market share for their main product in their principal market in 2009 by business size, Number of competitors reported, Enterprises that competed against multinational enterprises, Enterprises that faced entry of new competitors, Response of enterprises to the entry of new competitors

Type of innovation introduced by enterprises (process, organization, product, marketing), Mode of acquisition of advanced technologies (off-the-shelf, customizing, developing, licensing, leasing), Use of government support programs for innovation-related activities

Results by major sector and for manufacturing major sub-sectors

Which do you consider to the higher priorities for your business in order to improve competitive performance? (e.g. Improving processes, Reducing costs of operations, Improving staff skills, Better targeting of customers, Staff retention, Outsourcing/offshoring)

Expect performance over the next 12 months [business confidence], Do you anticipate to raise your target growth rate, how do you plan to achieve growth? (e.g. improved sales and marketing, market share gain, expanded operations, improved internal systems, mergers, acquisitions, entering new foreign markets)

How do you plan on accessing additional financing [access to credit], Top issues that have influenced company over the last year and for coming year

Succession planning, have you developed a plan for corporate responsibility

Also see Stats Link Canada ID# 39272193 and 39272194

Non-core tasks small business owners are taking on themselves - % report: secretarial work [virtual assistant], technical support, office/property repairs and cleaning, own website construction [web design]

% of small business owners don't want to give up control over any aspect of their business, desire to maintain quality, reluctant to spend the time it takes to hire and manage outsourced contractors, outsourcing is too expensive % say they waste a lot of time doing things that other people would be more qualified to do

% of small businesses have actually hired help for at least one task in the last six months - % hired help for: Business taxes, Website construction/maintenance, Technical support.

Of those who have embraced outsourcing, % cited the main reason as the recognition that other people are more qualified to do the work, say their time is best spent focusing on things they do best

% identified growth as their main priority over the next six months, % willing to take significant or above average risks in the next six months, % are seeing an improvement in their business, % are still experiencing a downturn, % hopeful that business will get better [business confidence]