Building a Year-Round SR&ED Documentation System (Not a Year-End Scramble)
Most companies treat SR&ED documentation as a fiscal year-end problem: a mad scramble to reconstruct what happened eight or ten months ago. Reconstructed records are weaker evidence than contemporaneous ones — and they’re far more work to produce. A lightweight system built into the regular workflow removes almost all of that year-end effort. The Core […]
In-House vs. Outsourced SR&ED Claim Preparation: Weighing the Trade-offs
As a company’s SR&ED claims grow more complex — more projects, more staff, larger dollar amounts — the question of who prepares the claim becomes a real operational decision, not just a formality. There’s no universally correct answer, but the trade-offs are consistent enough to reason through clearly. The Case for In-House Preparation ● Technical […]
SR&ED for Pre-Revenue Startups: Claiming Before You Have Customers
Founders building a pre-revenue product often assume SR&ED is something to think about once the company is generating income and has an accountant deep in the weeds of corporate tax. In practice, SR&ED has no revenue requirement at all — and pre-revenue companies are frequently the ones with the most claimable work, because nearly everything […]
Could Your R&D Project Qualify for SR&ED? A Practical Self-Assessment
By now, you’ve seen what SR&ED eligibility looks like across industries — from AI and software to manufacturing, construction, and life sciences. This self-assessment pulls the eligibility test into one practical scorecard you can run against your own projects in a few minutes. Score Each Statement (0 = No, 1 = Somewhat, 2 = Yes) […]
SR&ED Case Study: Carbon Capture Technology
Background A cleantech company was adapting a carbon capture sorbent technology for a specific industrial facility, but the facility’s flue gas contained impurities not present in the conditions the sorbent was originally developed and validated for. The Challenge It was unclear whether the sorbent’s capture efficiency could be maintained in the presence of these impurities, […]
SR&ED Case Study: Battery Technology & Energy Storage
Background An energy storage company was developing a battery system for use in extreme cold-climate conditions, but existing cell chemistries showed significantly accelerated capacity degradation when repeatedly cycled at low temperatures. The Challenge It was unclear whether any combination of cell chemistry modification and thermal management could achieve acceptable cycle life under the target operating […]
SR&ED Case Study: Precision Agriculture & AI
Background An AgTech company wanted to develop a crop stress detection system using drone-captured multispectral imagery, but existing published detection models were trained on different crop varieties and growing conditions than those used by the company’s target customers. The Challenge It was unclear whether existing detection models could be adapted to the target crop and […]
SR&ED Case Study: Plant-Based Food Development
Background A food manufacturer wanted to develop a plant-based product replicating the texture and mouthfeel of an animal-based product, but existing plant protein formulations produced a texture consumers rated as noticeably inferior in early testing. The Challenge It was unclear whether any combination of plant proteins, binding agents, and processing methods could replicate the required […]
SR&ED Case Study: Laboratory Research
Background A biotech company developing a biologic product needed a potency assay to measure the product’s biological activity for quality control and stability testing, but no published assay existed for this specific mechanism of action. The Challenge It was unclear whether an existing assay format could be adapted to reliably and reproducibly measure this product’s […]
SR&ED Case Study: Drug Delivery Technology
Background A pharmaceutical development company was working with a compound that showed strong efficacy in vitro but very poor oral bioavailability, limiting its viability as an oral therapeutic. The Challenge It was unclear whether any delivery formulation could sufficiently improve the compound’s absorption without altering its therapeutic activity or introducing stability problems. Technological Uncertainty It […]