... clawbacks, penalties, or even reputational damage. Conversely, a well-prepared claim stands up to scrutiny and maximises eligible relief. For these reasons, many companies engage specialist advisors such as Swanson Reed to guide claim preparation from assessing eligibility to assembling the technical narrative. 1. Establish Eligibility: Where to Begin Before preparing a claim, a business must determine if its work qualifies as R&D under HMRC rules. It s common for companies to assume they re not eligible, when ... ... Involved the resolution of uncertainty that a competent professional could not easily solve; Used systematic or investigative approaches to resolve that uncertainty. This can include work such as: Developing new software or improving existing systems; Creating prototypes or testing alternative