Running next year's project claimably

This year's claim works from whatever records happen to exist. Next year's claim can be effortless — if the project is run claimably from day one. None of this is extra process; it is six habits, most of them one line at a time.

The six habits

1. Write the unknown down first. The day you start something hard, capture one paragraph: what are we trying to achieve, why doesn't existing knowledge or tooling get us there? That paragraph — dated — is the spine of the whole claim.
2. Log attempts as they happen. One line per attempt: date, what you tried, what happened. Failures are the proof the problem was real. A running doc, a Slack channel, commit messages that say why — any of these work.
3. Keep the data. Test results, benchmarks, profiles, error logs — the raw outputs of trying things.
4. Track who works on what — even roughly. Real timesheets are gold, but a weekly one-liner ("Maria ~70% on calibration") is enough to substantiate salaries later. Note anyone doing the work who owns part of the company; their pay is treated differently and it is better known early.
5. File the paper as it arrives. Contractor invoices, supplier receipts, and every grant or funding letter, straight into the project folder. Funding must be netted out of the claim, so every letter has to be in.
6. Start the folder now. One folder, from day one. Everything above goes in it. When the tax year closes, that folder is the claim — point SREDDY at it and the First Take arrives in minutes.

What makes work claimable, in one breath

You were trying to achieve something a competent professional could not just look up or buy; you proceeded by testing ideas rather than guessing blindly; and win or lose, you learned something about how — not just whether — it could be done. Routine work, styling, and configuration around the hard part belong in the story as context; the hard part is the claim.

CRA also offers a free Pre-Claim Consultation where they will tell you, before you file, whether work like yours qualifies. For a first claim or an unusual project it is worth knowing about; SREDDY prepares the claim either way.