How your accountant and SR&ED team work together

Your SR&ED preparer completes the technical reports and credit calculations. Your corporate accountant integrates the schedules into the tax return. Both need to use the same project scope, claim year, and financial figures.

Cedar handles the claim strategy, technical report, cost reconciliation, and SR&ED tax schedules. We work directly with your accountant to coordinate filing. Bringing them in early gives everyone time to resolve questions before the return is due.

Agree who prepares and files each part

At the start, introduce the people responsible for the technical work, company finances, and tax return. Agree on the tax year, the target filing date, and how the SR&ED schedules will reach the accountant.

The working split with Cedar is straightforward:

• Your technical team explains the work and checks the technical report.
• Your finance contact provides payroll, accounting records, funding details, and other cost support.
• Cedar scopes the claim, writes the report, reconciles the costs, and prepares the SR&ED schedules.
• Your accountant prepares the corporate return and works with Cedar on the filing details.

Set the timetable before the final week. The CRA’s preparation guidance distinguishes the corporate tax filing due date from the later SR&ED reporting deadline. Planning around the normal return date gives the team more room to resolve questions.

Use the same project names

Engineering may call the project “new sensor design” while finance knows it as cost centre 410. A short index connecting those names avoids confusion.

Use that index across the project description, contributor allocations, and cost schedules. Include the period of work covered by the claim. A product that has been in development for three years still needs a clear account of this tax year’s work and costs.

Show where the numbers came from

Cedar’s reconciliation connects the claim figures to payroll, the general ledger, invoices, and the basis for project allocations. It also accounts for grants or other assistance that affect the claim.

For example, if an employee worked on both an experimental prototype and a customer rollout, the schedule should show how the time was separated and which records support that split. The accountant should be able to trace the claimed salary amount back to payroll without having to reconstruct the technical project.

The CRA’s Guide to Form T661 explains how project information and expenditures are reported. Keeping the report and cost schedules together makes it easier to check that the same people, periods, and activities appear in both.

Review the completed claim

Cedar sends your team specific questions with the completed claim. Technical contributors check that the report accurately explains their experiments and conclusions. Your finance contact checks the people, costs, allocations, and funding against company records.

Cedar makes the corrections, confirms your approval, and delivers the final schedules directly to your accountant. We clearly identify the version to file so a revised schedule cannot be mistaken for an additional amount to include.

Keep the submitted version

Retain the submitted report and schedules with their supporting records. Keep the filing confirmation, and make sure CRA correspondence reaches the people working on the claim.

The CRA’s review guide explains that a review can cover the technical work, the expenditures, or both. Cedar’s service includes full review support: coordinating the response, preparing explanations and supporting documents, and attending review meetings with your team.

Introduce us to your accountant early. We’ll connect the claim work to their filing timetable and keep the process moving together.