SR&ED Documentation: What to Keep and How

Documentation is the most common weakness in SR&ED claims. CRA expects evidence that your technical work actually happened — created at the time it was done, not reconstructed afterward.

Why documentation matters

In an SR&ED review, CRA doesn't take your word for it. A reviewer will look for contemporaneous records — evidence generated during the project. Claims without strong documentation are more likely to be reduced or disallowed.

What 'contemporaneous' means

CRA prefers documentation created during the SR&ED work — meeting notes from the sprint where the technical problem was identified, Git commits timestamped during the investigation, test results logged at the time of experimentation. Records reconstructed months after the fact from memory are significantly weaker.

Time and activity records

• Employee timesheets or time-tracking exports (Harvest, Toggl, etc.)
• Project management system data — Jira, Linear, Asana sprint records
• Manager attestations or signed time allocation statements
• Payroll records showing employees involved in SR&ED activities

Technical records

• Git commit history with timestamps — shows iterative technical work
• Design documents, architecture decision records (ADRs), technical specs
• Experiment logs, test reports, benchmark results, and profiling data
• Failed experiment records — important for demonstrating uncertainty
• Code review records — show systematic evaluation of approaches
• Meeting notes, Slack threads, or email discussions about technical challenges

Financial records

• Payroll records and T4 slips for each SR&ED-performing employee
• Contractor agreements and statements of work specifying SR&ED activities
• Contractor invoices with payment records
• Materials and equipment purchase receipts and invoices
• General ledger or account summaries for SR&ED expense codes

Retention requirement

Building good habits for future claims

• Write technical uncertainty clearly in tickets or issues when problems are identified
• Log experiments with hypotheses, configurations, and results (even negative results)
• Use ADRs to document why approaches were rejected and what was tried instead
• Ensure time-tracking is accurate and separates SR&ED time from non-SR&ED activity
• Keep contractor agreements specific about the SR&ED nature of their work