How to Merge a Client's T4, T5 and RL-1 Slips Into One PDF

Short answer: Put the client's slips into one folder, open them in a document organizer that recognizes Canadian slip types, set the order you want (for example T4 → RL-1 → T5 → receipts), review the labels, and export one merged PDF. With PDF Insight a local AI does the classifying and ordering on your own machine in about a minute — no file is uploaded.

Stitching PDFs together is the easy part. The slow part is figuring out which file is a T4, which is an RL-1, which scanned page is a T5, and putting them in the order your firm files in — for every client, every season. This guide shows the manual way and the local-AI way.

What you're actually merging

A typical Quebec personal-tax bundle contains federal and provincial slips that report the same income twice — once to the CRA, once to Revenu Québec. The common ones:

Box numbers and which slips apply change from year to year. Always verify the current slip details against the CRA and Revenu Québec before filing.

The manual way (Acrobat or any merge tool)

1. Open every PDF and identify the slip type by eye.
2. Rename files so they sort the way you file (for example 1-T4, 2-RL1, 3-T5).
3. If a slip was scanned or photographed, retype the client name so it's searchable.
4. Drag them into your merge tool in the right order and export.

It works, but it's roughly 5–15 minutes of clicking per client, and one mis-ordered RL-1 means redoing the export. Generic merge tools don't know a T4 from an RL-1, so the ordering is always on you.

The local-AI way (PDF Insight)

1. Gather the slips into one folder Scanned PDFs, images and native PDFs all work.
2. Point PDF Insight at the folder A local LLM (via Ollama) reads each file. Scanned pages are read with on-device OCR — no connection needed.
3. Set or reuse the order once e.g. T4 → RL-1 → T5 → RL-3 → deduction receipts. The AI classifies every slip and orders the bundle to match.
4. Review the proposed order and labels Fix anything in a click. Nothing leaves your machine.
5. Export one merged PDF per client Correctly ordered and ready to file. A real 11-document bundle finishes in about 100 seconds on a 16GB Mac.

Why not just paste the slips into ChatGPT?

Because client tax slips carry SINs and full financial details. Pasting them into a cloud AI ships that data to a third party — a likely PIPEDA problem and a confidentiality risk. PDF Insight's local tier runs the model on your own machine, so the documents never leave it. There's an optional, clearly-labelled paid cloud speed lane for firms that accept it, but the default is fully local.