Reminder: Preparing for your technical meeting

As many of our clients have undertaken the process previously, you will be aware that the technical report is the key document explaining what R&D activities were undertaken, what scientific or technical challenges the R&D helped to solve and how the activity meets the current legislation. By working together, the report will detail:

• The advancements made, or attempted to be made, as part of the project
• The work that was undertaken to address this advancement
• The roles that your employees play throughout the project, and whether any sub-contractors were brought in
• The raw materials that were consumed

Preparing for your technical report

It is important to prepare for the meeting so that as much of the information is readily available and limits the need for follow up conversations. You might want to consider the following before the call / meeting:

• An overview of the work carried out – If the work was of a technical nature then you might want to consider involving the project lead in some capacity, wither providing a written overview of the project or involving them in the call
• Consider which personnel worked on the project – Whether these are internal employees or external sub-contractors, the time they spent on the project, and their associated salary costs, will need to be documented
• The challenges that were overcome – Consider and document why the challenges faced could not be solved easily with an existing process or an “off-the-shelf” system
• Other costs – What materials were purchased/consumed and did the project require any prototyping to provide a proof of concept?

Where possible, please make accounts and payroll records for relevant employees available on the call so that we may easily determine the associated costs and the tax paid towards the project.