SR&ED is one of those programs that belongs to everyone in theory and no one in practice. Engineering thinks finance is handling it. Finance thinks the consultant is handling it. The consultant is waiting for documentation that no one remembered to keep. The result is a last-minute scramble that produces a weaker claim than the company deserved.
The fix is simple: someone inside the company needs to own SR&ED. Here’s how to structure that ownership.
The two roles that matter
Effective SR&ED programs inside growing companies typically have two internal roles, which may or may not be the same person depending on your size.
The technical lead is the person — usually the CTO, VP Engineering, or a senior R&D manager — who owns the identification of qualifying projects and the quality of technical documentation. They know which work involved genuine uncertainty, they can speak to the engineering team’s investigative process, and they’re the primary interface with CRA in a technical review.
The finance lead is the person — usually the CFO or controller — who owns the financial side: tracking eligible expenditures, coordinating with payroll on time allocations, managing the consultant relationship, and ensuring the claim is filed on time.
💡 In companies under 50 people, these roles often sit with one person — typically the CTO for technical ownership and the CEO or bookkeeper for financial coordination. What matters is that both functions are clearly assigned, not that they’re separate people.
What the owner is responsible for
- Maintaining a running list of potentially eligible projects throughout the year
- Ensuring the team’s documentation practices capture the information SR&ED needs
- Conducting a mid-year check-in with the SR&ED consultant
- Coordinating year-end documentation collection and review
- Acting as the primary contact for CRA in the event of a review
Getting buy-in from the engineering team
The biggest internal SR&ED challenge in most companies isn’t ownership — it’s getting engineers to treat documentation as part of their job. The most effective approach is to make the business case directly: the SR&ED credit funds R&D investment, which funds salaries and new hires. Engineers who understand that their documentation habits directly affect the company’s R&D budget are significantly more engaged than those who see it as administrative overhead.
Training and onboarding
New engineers should be introduced to SR&ED documentation expectations during onboarding — not six months later. A 15-minute onboarding session explaining what SR&ED is, what the company claims, and what good documentation looks like takes almost no time and establishes the right habits from day one.
When to bring in a consultant
Internal ownership doesn’t mean doing everything in-house. The internal owner’s job is to ensure the company is ready to work effectively with an SR&ED consultant — organized documentation, accurate time records, and a clear project list. The consultant’s job is to turn that material into a defensible claim. The two roles are complementary, not redundant.
