Both are valid options – you may even be able to split your team in two, and see one group of people who just need the updates, and the others who are still developing more fundamental skills and knowledge.
But you still need to consider how much time and effort to put into different topics. If you or your staff members spend most of their time on one area, like R&D tax relief claims, you’ll probably want training to supplement that specific discipline. Conversely, a broader purview will require training that covers a wider range of topics.
The R&D Community now offers R&D tax relief training in three different ways. These are designed to accommodate you and your team and allow you to effectively balance your priorities and training needs.
Option 1 – Individual training courses
You can currently purchase 3 of our training courses direct from our course catalogue for one or more members of your team. These three courses cover essential topics for claim preparation and working with R&D clients.
How to complete HMRC’s additional information forms
In this course, we take you through the most important aspects of the form. We will:
- explain the structure of the form and how to answer HMRC’s questions,
- give you detailed guidance on what to write in the free-text boxes,
- provide templates you can use with your clients to gather the necessary information.
This course gives you everything you need to be able to explain the R&D scheme’s eligibility requirements to clients. You’ll have:
- A sound understanding of the key information that HMRC expects to see within a claim
- A simple, effective methodology for talking to clients about R&D and recording that information in a structured way
- Downloadable resources that help you prepare your clients and produce clear and robust technical narratives to support a claim.
Qualifying Leads for R&D Claims
In this course we cover:
- The basic screening checks that you should ask every prospect,
- Competent Professionals and the information you need to get from them,
- Why grants and subcontracting arrangements can affect a claim’s risk level,
- The 5 different R&D schemes and what companies can expect back from each,
- Tips on how to reject clients diplomatically.
Each course costs £295+VAT per learner, and is delivered through a series of bite-size videos and assessments to test and reinforce your learning. Click on the course titles above to start learning straight away.
Taking any one of them will provide you with:
- knowledge of the relevant guidance and legislation for R&D tax relief
- a consistent approach and process to ensure high quality claims
- tools and templates to make it easy to apply your learning in practice.
These individual courses are a great option if you’ve got a tight budget for CPD and you want to buy training when it fits in with your cashflow. They also suit well if R&D is only a small part of the work you do, so a more comprehensive programme would take up too much of your time.
On the other hand, if R&D is a bigger piece of the pie for your day-to-day work, you might want to keep reading!
Option 2 – Certification in R&D Tax Relief
In September 2024, we’ll be starting the first cohort of our new Foundation Certification in R&D tax relief. This structured training programme covers 6 key topics that anyone working in R&D tax relief needs to know about. It’s suitable for BD teams and support staff as well as those who prepare the technical reports and the figures for each claim.
These are topics it covers:
- How to Build Strong Ethics & Good Marketing Practice into your R&D Service
- Qualifying Leads for R&D tax relief
- An Advisor’s Essential Guide to the Merged R&D Scheme
- Establishing Eligibility
- Qualifying Costs and Apportionments
- Accountancy Basics
Certification costs £1.5k+VAT per person, which includes all 6 courses, plus 6 office hours calls with our team and the rest of the training cohort. It also includes the assessment package and lots of additional support. Read all the details and join the waiting list. This bundle of courses and assessments is even better value than our individual courses – it works out at £250 per course AND includes additional assessments, support, and long-term business benefits.
This is a great option if you have staff on your team who are new to R&D tax relief and you want to make sure they have a solid grounding in all the rules and regulations. It also provides a structured and supportive learning environment, which reduces the load on your senior staff to provide internal training and mentorship. And you can use it as a selling point to your customers – certification will show them (and HMRC) that you are serious about high standards and good practice.
But what if the training you need isn’t covered by the certification programme? Or what if the fixed training schedule doesn’t suit with your workload and time pressures?
Don’t worry, keep reading, as we have one more training option built just for you.
Option 3 – Membership of The R&D Community
The fullest package that we offer includes access to our entire training academy. At the time of writing that includes 11 full training courses, 20 recorded webinars, 41 Knowledge Bank videos, and 24 additional downloadable resources. That adds up to around 50 hours of CPD! Plus, we’re adding more all the time – we create 3-4 courses per year and deliver a webinar almost every month. Whenever there’s new information or important points to clarify, we create knowledge bank videos and resources to cover them.
Our courses:
- How to Build Strong Ethics & Good Marketing Practice into your R&D Service
- Qualifying Leads for R&D tax relief
- An Advisor’s Essential Guide to the Merged R&D Scheme
- Establishing Eligibility
- Qualifying Costs and Apportionments
- Accountancy Basics
- HMRC’s Additional Information Forms
- Subcontracting: The Rules and How They’re Applied in Practice
- A Guide to Eligibility in Software (2 part course)
- A Guide to Eligibility in Construction
Recent Webinars:
- Voluntary Disclosures
- Client Education and Screening
- Support for Loss-Making SMEs
Recent Knowledge Bank Topics:
- Extended Accounting Periods – How to Notify HMRC
- Subsidised Expenditure and SMEs
- Explanations of Relevant First Tier Tribunal Rulings
Pricing for membership is scalable depending on the size of your team. If there’s 10 of you it’s only £60 per person per month. If you complete all the training and resources in 12 months, that would work out at only £14.40 per hour of learning. Explore pricing and sign up.
Membership comes with other benefits too. Members also get access to our R&D expert helpline and our private members community. You’ll get discounted rates and priority access to our claim support, and you’ll get a sizeable discount on certification, if that’s a priority for your team.
This is the best fit if you have multiple people on your team and R&D makes up the lion’s share of their work. It provides them with an ongoing resource for their own professional development and a regular stream of updates and fresh material to help them stay on top of the ever-changing world of R&D tax relief. If you need the whole team to be at the top of their game, membership of The R&D Community offers all the tools they need to get there and stay there long term.
Ready to get started?
If you want to dive straight into training today, you can
If you want to join our Certification programme, you can register for the waiting list. The places on our first cohort are almost all assigned, so make sure you sign up to get notified when Cohort 2 opens for registration next year.
If you’re thinking about membership but want to discuss the specifics, please don’t hesitate to get in touch! If you have questions about what membership includes or how it works, you can send us a message and we’ll get back to you quickly. If you have a large team and want to discuss a bespoke plan and enterprise pricing, you can fill in our enterprise enquiry form and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can.
