Engineering payroll
Developer and technical payroll is often the largest recurring R&D cash cost.
Software & technology R&D
Bring forward capital while the team is still building.
Software and technology companies can incur significant developer, engineering, cloud and testing costs long before the relevant R&D registration and company tax-return cycle is complete.
What matters
Start with the commercial reality.
Funding should address a defined business need and sit within a credible plan for the company after the facility is advanced.
Evidence
Contemporaneous technical records and expenditure support are important to the company’s R&D process and a future credit assessment.
Runway
Early funding should be modelled against product, customer and tax-cycle milestones with a downside case for delays.
Keep technical records as work happens
Project tickets, repositories, test plans, technical decisions, experiment records and contemporaneous documents can help support the company’s own R&D assessment.
Reconcile expenditure
Management and advisers should be able to connect payroll, contractors and other expenditure to the expected R&D position without relying only on a year-end reconstruction.
Model runway beyond the expected benefit
Commercial credit should remain manageable if product milestones, customer receipts or the anticipated R&D outcome move later than expected.
Separate lender and adviser roles
SME Capital Partners assesses commercial credit. The company and its appropriately qualified advisers remain responsible for R&D self-assessment, registration and tax work.
Official sources & further reading
General information only. This page does not constitute legal, tax, financial or credit advice. SME Capital Partners is in pre-launch and is not currently offering or approving credit through this website.