One of the most exciting moments I get to experience is that moment when I see the light bulb go on for a business person who has been on the outside of SR & ED looking in and suddenly understands how the program applies to them and how to get the refunds.

Previously, as general manager of a furniture manufacturing company, I was in the same position. I had a salesman from a consulting company trying to convince me to get involved and I refused. I sent him packing four times after which my controller said to me "I looked this up on the CRA website and it seems we might have a shot". Based on my controller's prompting and his commitment to "take care of it" I decided to give it a try. To make a long story short the result was a refund cheque of $93,000.

In coming to EMC almost 3 years ago it became apparent very quickly that many members were in the same position I was in not so long ago and needed independent help navigating the realities of the SR & ED program. With this in mind we developed the EMC SR & ED program.

As an organization, EMC has the unique ability to learn successful strategies from companies of all shapes and sizes. This becomes incredibly useful when sitting down with someone who is considering SR & ED but is fearful of what the program entails and/or whether they even qualify.

The reality is that there are very few companies who don't qualify and there are hundreds of companies who could be qualifying but simply don't know what's involved and are afraid of the unknown.

After a brief tour of your facility we can sit down and with some basic information develop a model which identifies potential projects and what the associated claim value might be. With this in mind, we can then develop strategies and timelines to get to the money.

This process, known as the "informal SR & ED assessment" is a valuable part of your EMC membership and is only a phone call or an e-mail away.