This month, we’re also continuing our series about why it is beneficial to use an outside R&D tax consulting firm to calculate your R&D credits. This time, we discuss the importance of data formatting & analysis!
Reason Number 1: It’s All About that Data!
Wages, project expenses, contractor expenses, historical revenue, and time tracking are just a few examples of the types of data a taxpayer might need to analyze to properly calculate its R&D Tax Credit. The data analysis process looks something like this:
- Data Cleaning – this is the process of taking raw data and translating it into a format that is easy to analyze and decipher. This might involve removing erroneous or extraneous values, converting file types, and/or reorganizing the data to make it more readable.
- Data Analysis – this is where the fun begins! Once the data is cleaned and organized, our team of experts digs in and investigate the data. What kinds of activities are tracked in the data? Are there trends in year-over-year wages? Does it look like the data is complete? Or is it possible that we need additional data to complete our analysis? What kinds of projects have the most time/expense cost? These are the types of questions we look to answer in the analysis phase.
- Data Interpretation – once the data has been analyzed, it’s time to figure out what it means for the R&D tax credit and determine the best way to present the data so it’s clear and concise.
Analyzing all that data can seem like a lot, which is one of the big advantages of hiring an R&D consulting firm – we take that burden off you, transferring it to us!
How Can EPSA Help You Use Data to claim the R&D Credit?
Data analysis and statistics is one of the specialties of EPSA’s team of experts. We’ve seen a lot – from handwritten project lists to QuickBooks to sophisticated time tracking systems, and everything in between! We also take data privacy seriously. We provide secure methods for data exchange, and we implement measures to safeguard whatever data you share with us.
Ready to hire a team of experts to calculate your R&D Tax Credit? Reach out to us today to learn more about our process and we’ll get back to you within a few hours!