Build an R&D claim

Use this after accepting a suggested claim, or when you know a project qualifies and Flowstate hasn't suggested it.

You need access to R&D claims — ask your Flowstate admin. To see a claim's costs, you also need access to financial figures.

Create a claim yourself

If you accepted a suggestion, it's already a claim — skip to Check the costs.

1. Go to Finance → R&D tax claims → Overview and select the add button in the toolbar. If you have no claims yet, select Create Claim.
2. In Create R&D Claim, choose the Project.
3. Choose the Framework.
4. Check the Fiscal Year. It's always the framework's current fiscal year.
5. Select Create Claim.

With no claims yet, start from Create Claim on the Overview tab.

With no claims yet, start from Create Claim on the Overview tab.

The claim opens at Draft. A project can have one claim per fiscal year. For earlier years, see Set up R&D claims.

Check the costs

Open the claim's Overview tab.

• Costs by quarter & source shows the project's effort cost in the claim's dates, by quarter, for employees, contractors and AI.
• The band at the top shows the spend, the framework's credit-rate range and the expected return.
• Why this is R&D explains why Flowstate suggested it, if it started as a suggestion.

If a figure looks wrong, correct the effort or the person's pay — the claim updates to match. See How spend and expected return are worked out.

Set the submission deadline

A new claim shows No deadline.

1. Select the Submission deadline at the top of the claim.
2. Pick the date. It saves straight away.

A deadline within the next 6 months shows red, and counts under Due soon on the Overview. To remove a date you set, select Reset to computed.

Write the narrative

1. Select the Rationale tab.
2. Read each section. The sections come from the claim's framework — see Frameworks.
3. Correct anything that's wrong by editing the text. Flowstate won't rewrite a section once someone has typed in it.
4. If a section says No draft yet., select Draft with AI. If it says AI drafting failed, select Retry.
5. To reword part of a section, select the text, choose Ask AI, and pick Rewrite, Fix grammar, Shorten or Expand.
6. Optionally, open AI Interview and answer the questions the evidence couldn't. You can skip any of them.

Drafting works the same way as for CapEx justifications. See How CapEx justifications are drafted.

What happens next

When every required section has text, submit it for review.

If something's not right

"No frameworks found". No R&D framework is available to your organisation. Ask your Flowstate contact.

Creating a claim fails. The project already has a claim for this fiscal year. Open it from the Overview.

You need a claim for last year. Claims you create yourself are always for the current fiscal year. Set the scan to look back at earlier years — see Set up R&D claims.

A section says there isn't enough project data. Add a project description and link its tickets, then select Draft with AI anyway.