How to Use Engineering Intelligence for Better, Audit-Ready SR&ED Claims

You’re constantly pulled into meetings, juggling deadlines, and trying to make sure every hour your team spends can be justified. But when it’s time to file your SR&ED claim, things get messy. Work that should count slips through the cracks. You spend hours trying to retroactively explain what happened and why.

If this sounds familiar, you’re not alone. In this article, you’ll learn how Engineering Intelligence gives you the visibility, structure, and confidence to fix all of that. You’ll see how it helps you stay audit-ready, make better claims, and finally take control of your R&D reporting without the extra work.

Before you can fix the process, you need to understand what SR&ED really is and why it’s worth getting right.

What Is SR&ED?

SR&ED is a Canadian government program that gives tax credits to businesses that invest in research and development. If your team works on solving technical problems, building new systems, or improving how things run, there’s a good chance you qualify.

In the 2024-2025 fiscal year, the SR&ED program paid out $4.5 billion in tax credits across 22,738 claims. Of those, 90% were accepted as filed, 6% needed changes, and only 4% were denied. Claimants received a mix of 58% refundable and 42% non-refundable credits.

That shows the opportunity is real, but so is the pressure to get things right. 

Another issue with this is that even if your work qualifies, proving it can be a serious hassle. You need to track what was done, by whom, when, and why it counts. If you’re not capturing the right details or if your documentation falls short, you’re leaving money on the table. 

Knowing what SR&ED is only scratches the surface, but filing a claim comes with its own set of roadblocks.

Why Is SR&ED Challenging for Engineering Teams

If you’ve ever tried filing an SR&ED claim while running an engineering team, you know the process can slow you down fast. Here are the common blockers you face:

• Complex compliance requirements: You’re expected to meet strict reporting rules that usually change and require a high level of detail.
• Manual time tracking is error-prone: You rely on engineers to remember what they worked on weeks ago or to log their own hours correctly. Both typically lead to missing or wrong entries.
• Difficult to categorize engineering work correctly: Not all R&D work looks the same. Mapping daily tasks to eligible activities takes time and usually requires manual interpretation of complex guidelines.
• Lack of visibility into claimable work: Without a clear view of what qualifies, you either over-report and risk audits or under-report and lose credits.

That’s exactly where Engineering Intelligence steps in to solve these day-to-day struggles. But what is it exactly? Let’s break that down next…

What Is Engineering Intelligence?

Engineering Intelligence is a way for you to understand how your team works by pulling data from your everyday tools and turning it into useful insights. It brings together information from calendars, project boards, code activity, and time tracking tools so you don’t have to dig through five places to figure out what’s going on.

You get real-time visibility into where time is spent, what work is eligible for R&D claims, and how efficiently your team operates. It also auto-categorizes work based on set rules, so you’re not stuck sorting tasks line by line.

Unlike basic dashboards or reporting tools, Engineering Intelligence doesn’t just show you numbers. It gives you the full context behind them. You can actually see how projects move, where your claimable work lives, and how much of your engineering time is investment-worthy. In short, it helps you lead with facts.

Now that you know what it is, let’s see how Engineering Intelligence helps you improve SR&ED claims in real, practical ways.

How Engineering Intelligence Improves SR&ED Claims

Staying on top of your SR&ED claims shouldn’t feel like a full-time job. When your team is heads-down building, the last thing you want is to pause everything to gather evidence, categorize work, and double-check every detail.

That’s where Engineering Intelligence changes the game. It gives you real-time insight and automated systems that help you improve SR&ED claims without interrupting your flow.

Here are the core ways Engineering Intelligence helps you automate SR&ED, optimize reporting, and get your time and money back where they belong.

Automated Time Tracking for Audit-Ready Records

If your team still tracks time manually (or not at all), you’re probably missing hours that could be claimed. You don’t need to rely on memory or scattered notes anymore. Engineering Intelligence connects directly to the tools your team already uses, such as Jira, your calendar, and code activity. It quietly records time in the background without adding work.

That’s exactly what helped Empego. Before Chrono, their engineers were stuck logging hours manually, and plenty of eligible time went unrecorded. Once we activated Chrono’s time tracking, they captured 3,586.75 hours on just one infra project (automatically).

And we can help you as well.

Our platform gives you audit-ready records with every time entry matched to a task, team member, and timestamp. That means you’re not scrambling at year-end. Everything’s already clean, clear, and complete.

Accurate Categorization of SR&ED-Eligible Work

Knowing your team put in the work isn’t enough. You also need to show what type of work was done and why it qualifies. With Chrono, you don’t have to figure that out manually. Our system auto-categorizes activity based on your rules, your project structure, and your engineering setup.

Instead of second-guessing what counts or digging through notes, you see a breakdown of SR&ED-eligible time sorted by category in real time. For example, if your team spends 40% of their time prototyping a new feature, that time is already labeled and tracked.

Our users report recovering up to 40% more in SR&ED credits simply because they weren’t missing the work anymore. Chrono makes that possible by surfacing eligible work and tagging it correctly from the start.

Real-Time Visibility Into Claimable R&D Activities

You can’t optimize SR&ED if you don’t know where your team is spending their time. Chrono gives you a live view of claimable activity as it happens. Not weeks later. Not during tax season. Right now.

With Chrono, you can open your dashboard and see how much of your engineering time qualifies. You’ll know if one project is absorbing too much non-claimable work or if another is full of high-value R&D that’s slipping under the radar.

This kind of real-time visibility helped Empego and our other clientsoperate smarter every day, not just during filing. They no longer had to ask, “How much time are we putting into R&D?” They already knew. That clarity led to better decisions, faster delivery, and more money back at the end of the year.

Easier Collaboration With Finance and SR&ED Consultants

You don’t need to be the one explaining technical work to your finance team. With Chrono, all your data is organized and ready to hand off. Every time, entry, category, and project are clearly laid out, so finance can pull reports and prep claims without asking you to translate.

You can also give your SR&ED consultants access to exactly what they need, and there will be no more back-and-forth emails, confusing spreadsheets, or gaps in documentation. Everything they need is already labeled, logged, and linked. It’s cleaner, simpler, and faster.

Chrono users have cut SR&ED prep time by up to 80% thanks to this level of automation and transparency.

Reduces SR&ED Audit Risks

Trying to pass an SR&ED audit without proper documentation is stressful. But it doesn’t have to be. Chrono helps you reduce SR&ED audit risks by keeping every part of your engineering process clear and traceable.

Here’s how we do it:

• Clear, defensible documentation: Every tracked hour has a reason behind it. Your records show who did what, when, and why it qualifies.
• Automated compliance checks: Our platform flags inconsistencies or missing details before they become problems. You fix issues while they’re still fresh.
• Full traceability across engineering tools: All your project data (tasks, commits, meetings, time) is linked together in one place. That makes it easy to defend your claim if you ever need to.

With Chrono Platform, you don’t hope to pass an SR&ED audit but you walk into it prepared. Using Engineering Intelligence allows you to improve your SR&ED claims and take the stress out of the entire process. You optimize SR&ED tracking without slowing down your team, and you automate SR&ED workflows that once required weeks of prep.

Whether you’re a growing team such as Empego or running a more established operation, the results are the same: less work, more accuracy, and more money coming back into your business.

If you're looking for the right platform to support all of this, you should first learn the key features you should watch for. So, let’s talk about that for a second…

Key Features to Look for in an Engineering Intelligence Platform for SR&ED

If you're looking to streamline your SR&ED process and avoid the year-end confusion, the right tools matter. You don’t need more spreadsheets, but smart systems that work behind the scenes while your team builds. That’s where the best SR&ED software can make a difference.

Here are the features to look for in engineering SR&ED software that actually helps you move faster, stay compliant, and claim more without the manual overhead.

Automated Time Tracking

You can’t report what you can’t track. A strong platform captures your team’s hours automatically by syncing with the tools they already use. That means no manual entries, no forgotten work, and no second-guessing.

With Chrono, all of that happens in the background. Time is logged, tied to real tasks, and ready when you need it.

AI-Powered Categorization

Sorting work into SR&ED-eligible vs. ineligible is one of the biggest time drains. Good SR&ED tools help you collect data and help you understand what to do with it.

Chrono uses AI to classify your team’s work based on your rules, your projects, and your workflows. You stay in control, but you’re not stuck doing it line by line.

Integration With Existing Engineering Tools

The best SR&ED software doesn’t ask you to change how your team works. It connects with what you already have, such as Jira, Azure DevOps, Slack, and Google Calendar. Chrono was built to sync with your stack. That way, your engineering team keeps its focus while your data stays complete and consistent.

Real-Time SR&ED Accrual Reporting

You shouldn’t have to wait until the end of the year to see where you stand. Real-time reporting allows you to track how much of your work is claimable as you go. Chrono gives you a live view of SR&ED accruals by project, so you can plan with confidence and adjust before it’s too late. But we’ll share more about that in a second.

Audit-Ready Documentation Generation

When it’s time to file, you want everything ready to go. Your engineering SR&ED software should create clear, defensible reports without making you dig. Chrono does just that. You get full traceability across time, tasks, and people, so you’re always prepared for audits. If you're serious about simplifying your SR&ED workflow, make sure you're using tools built for the job. Chrono Platform checks every box.

All of this takes us to our next important point...

Chrono Platform Improves Your SR&ED Claims

If you're tired of chasing down missing data or patching together SR&ED reports at the last minute, you're not alone. We built Chrono to remove that chaos from your workflow, with AI agents that accurately and automatically capture what matters.

We already shared some of our platform’s functions, but here are the features that make Chrono different from anything else you’ve used.

Reverse Engineered Time Allocation Without Manual Entry

When SR&ED rules shift mid-project or vary between provinces, it’s on you to go back and reclassify hours. That’s nearly impossible if you're relying on memory or manual logs.

Chrono gives you a smarter way. Our AI re-applies updated rules to past data automatically, without touching a single timesheet. You won’t experience extra logging and version confusion. However, you’ll do have accurate records, even when the requirements change.

Continuous SR&ED Accrual View

If you wait until the end of the year to figure out how much you’re claiming, you’re already behind. Most tools leave you guessing until it’s time to file. Chrono doesn’t. Our AI-powered continuous SR&ED accrual view shows how much claimable work you’re generating (week by week, project by project).

You can answer, “How much SR&ED will we claim this year?” without far-fetched assumptions. And if something looks off halfway through the quarter, you catch it early instead of having 12 months of activity to review in one go.

Chrono’s continuous tracking gives you a proactive advantage. You know where you stand, and you can shift your resources or timelines before anything slips through the cracks.

Automated Time Tracking With AI Categorization

Some tools say they’re automated, but they still expect your team to fill in the blanks. That’s not the case here. Chrono’s AI agents pull time data straight from Jira, calendars, and other sources, then automatically tag it correctly. Work is matched to the right project and category as it happens.

When audit time rolls around, you’re already prepared, with AI-generated, audit-ready documentation that maximizes your claim. You stay focused on building, while we keep everything aligned in the background.

AI-Powered SR&ED Audit Prep

Stop wasting days on tax credit documentation. Chrono’s SR&ED Audit Prep Agent automatically documents all eligible R&D activities as you work, creating audit-ready reports that save weeks of effort annually. The result is fully compliant SR&ED claims without the administrative burden.

Join forward-thinking engineering leaders who’ve already seen the impact: up to 22% more productivity and as much as 40% improvement in SR&ED claims. With Chrono’s AI doing the heavy lifting, your team builds with confidence while your credits get maximized.

Conclusion: Turn Engineering Work Into Maximum SR&ED Value

You put time, talent, and money into building great products, and your SR&ED claims should reflect that. Engineering Intelligence allows you to stop relying on scattered notes and manual reports. Instead, you’ll track eligible work as it happens, reduce audit stress, and recover more without the extra effort.

Chrono gives you real-time insight, AI-powered tagging, and audit-ready documentation, and all is built to match how your team actually works. If you’re ready to modernize your SR&ED process and stop leaving money behind, we’re here to help.

Book a demo or try Chrono Platform today and see what your team could unlock.