R&D tax credit consultants: how to refer clients with deep engineering records

Why R&D credit consultants are well placed to refer

A credit study is one of the few engagements where an outside adviser sits with both the CFO and the engineering leads and asks, year after year, which projects ran, who worked on them and where the evidence lives. That gives credit consultants an accurate picture of a client's engineering records before anyone mentions data licensing.

The study work itself shows the fit: payroll exports used to allocate wages by employee, project lists by year, contractor invoices, interviews with engineering managers, and supporting documentation drawn from ticketing systems, code repositories, design reviews and test logs. Those same facts answer SourceX's first questions: how many full-time employees the company had at its peak, how many years of engineering history it holds, and which systems hold it.

The demand side is specific. AI labs and data buyers training agents to do technical work need records of real engineering: a ticket opened, investigated, discussed and closed; a pull request reviewed, revised and merged or rejected; a design choice made and later revisited. Complete records like these sit inside companies and are thin on the public web.

Which clients in your book fit

Favor clients that build their own products or run their own engineering processes: B2B software companies, IT services firms, product companies with in-house hardware or firmware teams, and manufacturers with process engineering groups.

The four-file test

Before mentioning SourceX, check four files you already hold. Use them only for your own judgment; the client decides what, if anything, to share. A clear no on any line means park the client for now.

• Payroll file: at least 50 full-time employees at the company's peak, with contractors excluded.
• Project file: several years of documented projects, not only the current year.
• Evidence file: the systems you pulled evidence from still hold the full history, and someone at the client can export it.
• Contract file: the company did the work for itself, or its customer and development agreements leave it the rights to its own engineering records.

Two more answers have to come from the client: is there an owner, CEO, CFO or authorized representative willing to sponsor the process, and would that person accept a one-time payment in return for granting rights that typically run exclusively for AI training over an agreed term? The who qualifies page sets out the full baseline, and the company fit checker runs a preliminary, non-binding screen with no contact details required.

When to raise it during the study cycle

Hold the topic when the client is responding to an IRS examination of a prior credit. Substantiation work comes first, and a new subject at that point looks like a distraction.

How the introduction works

Your part ends at the introduction. You never collect, export or describe the client's records.

1. Ask the owner or CFO whether they want an introduction, and get that permission before naming the client to anyone.
2. Register as a partner, then send the client your referral link to apply at sourcex.si/apply, or submit the company through the referral form. Either route attaches your credit.
3. SourceX talks with the client's sponsor about size, history, breadth of records and rights.
4. The client maps its systems with SourceX in a data inventory: what each one holds, how many years back it goes, and what can be exported. Your study documentation plays no part in it.
5. SourceX and the client settle one all-in price and the license terms before the opportunity reaches AI labs and data buyers.
6. Buyers review, and the client signs only if it accepts the deal. Redaction and de-identification rules are agreed before any preparation starts, and records move only after an executed agreement and the client's authorization.
7. The client is paid, and your reward follows once SourceX has received its fee.

Attribution goes to whichever valid partner introduces the company first, provided that introduction produces a verified application inside the attribution window, so act promptly once the owner agrees.

What to say at the results meeting

How rewards and professional rules work for credit consultants

Partners earn 25% of the eligible platform fees SourceX actually collects from the referred company's licensing deals, capped at $100,000 per referred company. The reward becomes payable only after the buyer pays and SourceX receives its fee; an introduction, a meeting or a signed agreement alone does not trigger it, and no reward is guaranteed. It comes out of SourceX's fee and is never deducted from what the client receives. The rewards page and the program terms carry the current details.

Check three things before you register:

• Firm policy. If you work inside a CPA firm or a specialty tax firm, read its policy on fees from third parties connected to clients.
• Professional rules. CPAs are bound by the AICPA Code's commissions and referral fees rule and by their state board. Some states adopt the AICPA rule into their own regulations, as Kansas does, while others write their own terms. If your firm also audits or reviews the client, read how CAS teams screen attest clients before a compensated introduction first.
• Tax paperwork for your reward. US partners can expect a request for Form W-9 so payments can be reported, and payments to independent contractors may be reported on Form 1099-NEC. The reporting threshold depends on the year of payment, so check the current IRS instructions.

Disclose the referral relationship to the client in writing before the introduction. This is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Confirm with your own counsel, tax adviser or professional body before acting.

When not to bother

• Most of the engineering was contract research for customers who own the results.
• An outsourced development shop did much of the work, and the client cannot show it owns what was produced.
• The company never reached 50 full-time employees, even in its best year with contractors set aside.
• Repositories or trackers were deleted in a migration, and only recent history survives.
• The records are mainly clinical or patient data, as at some medical device clients, without HIPAA authorization or de-identification.
• The engineering records have already been licensed for AI training.
• The owner will not consider an exclusive license. Before writing that off, walk them through what exclusivity really costs a licensor.

A client that fails today can still qualify later, for example once an archive is preserved during a tool migration.

Next step

Pick one client from this year's study list and run the four-file test. If it passes, register as a partner and make the introduction with the owner's permission, or share your referral link so the company can apply at sourcex.si/apply. If you also advise owners on broader tax planning, the referral program for tax advisors covers that relationship.