Everything qualifies
An adviser who finds that all of your work qualifies may have looked carefully at a business that does a lot of qualifying work. Or may not have looked at all. Ask what was left out.
A red flag is a reason to ask more questions. It does not mean an adviser has done anything wrong. This page describes a practice in general terms and is not about any particular firm.
When it is a problem
- The conclusion arrived before anyone had talked to your technical staff or read your project records.
- Nothing was excluded, and the adviser cannot name a project or a cost they considered and left out.
- The fee rises with the claim, and the adviser has not explained how they separate the work that qualifies from the work that does not.
- Your own technical people, reading the descriptions, would not recognise some of the work as the kind the test describes.
When it is not a problem
- The business genuinely does mostly qualifying work, such as a small company whose whole activity is developing one new product, and the adviser can explain why.
- The adviser has looked at everything, excluded the routine work and the ineligible costs, and can show you the list of what came out.
- The claim is modest in proportion to the business, and the technical case for each project is specific.
- Your technical people have read the claim and agree with it.
What to do
- Ask the adviser what they considered and excluded, and why.
- Ask them to walk your technical people through the test and apply it to one project together.
- Read the technical descriptions yourself before filing, and ask whether the people who did the work agree with them.
- If the fee is a percentage, ask whether it applies to the amount claimed or the amount received, and what happens if the claim is reduced.
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