Reading your claim

The status card

Every working turn ends with the card. Its sections, one at a time:

• The value and its range — the estimate and the band around it. The range narrows as assumptions are confirmed — read the range, not the exact figure. The chip is the confidence band: rough, working, or firm. It is computed from what is confirmed, not an opinion.
• Progress — where the claim stands, lane by lane: projects, write-ups, people, spend, the overhead method, and eligibility. Bars fill as items move from found to described, drafted to approved, identified to confirmed.
• Open items — ranked by what they are worth. Each states what is assumed and what confirms it. Working top-down moves the number fastest.
• Deadlines — computed from your year end. The earliest one is the one that matters.
• The review line — what a CRA reviewer would most likely probe on this claim, and what to have on hand before filing.
• Next — every card ends with the single next step worth the most.

Where the number comes from

Every dollar figure carries its chain: spend → funding netted out → federal credit → Alberta grant where it applies. Ask "where did that come from?" and SREDDY shows the chain.

How overhead is covered

SREDDY decides this one for you. There are two ways to cover overhead, and for almost every company the right answer is the standard substitute — a fixed rate applied to the salaries, rather than tracking rent, utilities and admin time line by line and defending each one under review. SREDDY uses the substitute unless you tell it you already track overhead allocated to the R&D work; if you do, say so and it will compare the two. The choice locks for the tax year, and the card tells you which was used.

The package

The filing package is what you or your accountant key into the corporate return.

Start with the filing sheet: every figure, grouped by the form it goes on, in the order it is keyed. It opens in any browser and prints to PDF. Alongside it come the working papers an accountant can audit line by line, your write-ups as a Word document, and an optional review copy of the federal form.

That last one needs Adobe Acrobat or Reader — in Preview or a browser it shows only a "Please wait…" page, which is the file's format rather than anything wrong with your computer. You can ignore it: every figure on it is on the filing sheet.

READY means nothing is outstanding. DRAFT means open items remain — they are listed on the package itself, and filing is your call.

Getting the documents out

Each document comes back two ways, and you can use either.

In the chat. Ask your AI to open the document and it reads it straight off SREDDY over the same connection it uses for everything else. This works even where the assistant cannot reach the internet on its own — which is most of them, and the reason a link alone was not enough.

As a link. Each document also gets its own link, good for seven days. That is the one to forward to your accountant or your bookkeeper, since it works without your key and without SREDDY. Anyone holding that link can open that document — there is no second password on it — so send it the way you would send the numbers themselves, and let it expire rather than posting it anywhere public. Once it expires, regenerate the package for a fresh set.

Keep the package. Download every document and file it with the return. CRA can ask for the records behind a claim for six years after the end of the tax year, and the links above are gone after seven days. The package is the record of how every figure was reached; you want it when a reviewer writes, not a fresh one generated from memory.

The one question only you can answer

The federal claim form asks whether a claim preparer was engaged, and SREDDY leaves that question to you. You prepared this claim yourself, with software and your own AI, from your own files — SREDDY is not a claim preparer and is not listed. Answer yes, and complete the table that follows, only if your corporation paid a person or firm — an accountant, a consultant — to prepare or help prepare the form. Otherwise answer no. Getting that section wrong is a $1,000 penalty, and it is your corporation that owes it. The certification and signature at the end of the form are also yours: only an officer of your corporation signs them.