For a Canadian SR&ED claim, keep a dated record of the technical question you could not answer at the outset, the approach you tried, what you observed, and what you concluded. Link those notes to the people, time, and costs involved. A lab notebook is one option, not a requirement—and documentation alone cannot make ineligible work qualify.
What your records need to show
The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) does not set out a separate documentation standard for solo founders in the guidance reviewed here. Its general claimant guidance points to evidence that explains the work and supports the expenditures claimed. The practical goal is to leave a clear trail from the technical uncertainty to the investigation and its findings.
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For each potentially relevant technical effort, record these details close to when the work happens:
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- Question or uncertainty: What result could not be achieved or explained using the knowledge and approaches available when the work began?
- Objective: What technological capability or knowledge were you trying to achieve?
- Hypothesis or approach: What did you think might work, and why?
- Experiment or analysis: What did you change, compare, measure, or investigate? Include enough detail to make the method understandable.
- Observed result: Record actual outputs, test data, failures, constraints, and unexpected obstacles.
- Interpretation: What did the result show? What did you rule out, and what did you try next?
- Timing, people, and costs: Preserve dates, activity or time records, project ownership, invoices, payment evidence, and accounting records relevant to the claimed expenditures.
This is a practical synthesis of CRA guidance, not a CRA-mandated form or checklist. CRA says evidence should address the technical details requested in Form T661 and support the expenditures claimed. See the T4088 guide to Form T661 and CRA’s SR&ED claimant guidance.
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What counts as technological uncertainty?
For Canadian SR&ED, the work must be conducted in Canada, seek scientific or technological advancement, and involve a systematic investigation or search in a field of science or technology through experiment or analysis. CRA describes technological uncertainty as uncertainty about achieving a result because the relevant scientific or technological knowledge base was insufficient at the start.
A feature being new to you, a difficult bug, a commercially useful product, or an unsuccessful build does not by itself establish that kind of uncertainty. The key question is whether the result could be achieved using knowledge and approaches available at the outset—not simply whether implementation was challenging. Read CRA’s overview of what qualifies as SR&ED.
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CRA describes a systematic investigation as forming an idea or hypothesis consistent with known facts, testing it through experiment or analysis, and drawing logical conclusions from the findings. Keep evidence as the work progresses. A record that says only “built feature” or “fixed performance problem” is less informative than one that connects the initial knowledge gap to the test and what its result taught you.
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For example, a useful record should reflect what you actually investigated: the starting question, the approach tested, the relevant configuration or conditions, the observed output, and the conclusion. Do not reconstruct experiments, dates, or results that did not happen. CRA also cautions that following a systematic process or a known design method alone does not make work eligible.
Which records can support a software project?
CRA lists a range of possible evidence, including project plans, experiment designs, project records and laboratory notebooks, software design, system architecture and source code, trial-run records, progress reports, meeting minutes and virtual chats, test protocols, data, results, analyses and conclusions, photographs or videos, prototypes, time or activity records, invoices, payroll records, and accounting records.
The examples are not exhaustive, and CRA does not expect every claimant to produce every type. Relevance depends on what a record contains, not merely on its existence. A source-code commit, issue, test output, or architecture note is most useful when it helps explain the technical work and can be connected to the question being investigated.
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Do you need a lab notebook?
No specific paper notebook is identified as mandatory. CRA names project records and laboratory notebooks as examples, while also recognizing digital and other forms of evidence. Choose a system you will use consistently and that makes entries, technical artifacts, and supporting cost records retrievable.
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- Digital records can make it easier to connect notes to code, tests, issue records, and project files. Preserve enough context to understand changes and when work occurred.
These are practical considerations, not a CRA ranking of paper and digital methods. The evidence’s content and relevance matter more than the medium.
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Why contemporaneous records matter
CRA calls contemporaneous documents—records generated while SR&ED is being carried out—the most common form of supporting evidence. Its T4088 guide says: “Most often, supporting evidence is in the form of contemporaneous documents (for example, documents generated as the SR&ED was being carried out).” The guide describes dated, signed, specific documentation as the best evidence.
If detailed contemporaneous records are limited, CRA says that alone should not automatically discourage a claim, particularly for a first-time claimant, and suggests consulting CRA about other evidence. That is not a guarantee of acceptance; the claimant still needs evidence relevant to the work and expenditures.
Keep technical evidence separate from cost evidence
Technical notes explain what you investigated and learned. Time records, invoices, payment evidence, payroll, and accounting records help support the expenditures claimed. Keep both, and make it possible to connect relevant costs and time to the work without treating a technical log as proof of every expense.
If you use a tax adviser or claim preparer, you remain responsible for the accuracy of the claim, according to CRA’s claiming guidance.
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