Have you outgrown your R&D consultant?

Have you outgrown your R&D consultant?

Let me guess, likely you are a growing company in a competitive industry, probably making R&D claims already. You selected your current R&D provider because they offered the greatest benefits, they are friendly and helpful, the claiming process is relatively smooth. And you, generally are quite happy with the service.

However, what we find is that many companies tend to outgrow their R&D providers over time, and this happens for many reasons.

If you notice that the claim takes too much of your time, that’s the first sign that something has to change. Often, we see that if a company relies on their accountant to prepare the claim, the writing of technical justification falls within the company’s responsibility. In the beginning, it could have been just one or two projects and the information was still fresh and accessible. However, as the company grows, the number of projects and their complexity also grows, meaning you might not have the time or resources to concentrate on collecting information and writing comprehensive reports to meet strict HMRC’s guidelines.

As your claims grow, managing the claims process becomes more time-consuming. The more people who participate in the project, the more parties you have to engage with to complete your claim; your engineering team, your accountant, multiple subcontractors – you need to bring them all together to prepare a robust claim.

Once the claim is submitted and you receive your payment, you continue to follow the same path every time. However, payments without questions or an enquiry do not mean acceptance or no errors. Having someone looking at your activities and qualifying expenditures may highlight any inaccuracies, including underclaiming or overclaiming.

However, in the opposite scenario, when you receive an enquiry, which, in many cases we find occurs when the claim is submitted by an accountant or other non-specialists, you are left to deal with it on your own.

It’s a big step to change any aspect of how you manage your business. If you feel that any of the above relates to you and you are ready to consider other options, we are here to answer all your questions.

Another article you might be interested in:  https://www.randdtax.co.uk/what-standards-should-an-rd-tax-credit-adviser-meet-tw highlighting key areas to look for when deciding between switching to a new R&D adviser; So why not try switching R&D consultants?