d&t Enables WorkBuzz to Claim Valuable R&D Tax Rebate

Chartered accountants and business advisory organisation d&t, has enabled WorkBuzz to claim £63K tax rebate for R&D work.

WorkBuzz provides franchise satisfaction and employee engagement surveys for around 200 franchise brands including 18 of the top 25 franchisors in the UK, plus many other companies outside of franchising, like Shell Energy and The Royal British Legion. WorkBuzz also supplies the surveys for the Best Franchise Awards which are unique, as they are based on feedback from thousands of actual franchisees.

Richard McDermott, head of tax at d&t explains: “Currently, HMRC is actively promoting research and development (R&D) tax relief for qualifying organisations. The R&D tax relief is designed to support companies that work on innovative projects in science and technology. It can be claimed by companies that seek to research or develop an advance in their field.

“WorkBuzz’ FY19 project focused on developing a new “smart” engagement platform, which would combine the best features of available solutions – highly customisable survey dashboards; automated trending; the ability to reach both online and offline employees through multiple channels and provide real-time feedback.

“These new dashboards go beyond merely reporting feedback in real-time. Sophisticated algorithms review and analyse survey responses and identify what factors contribute to employee engagement and retention the most for the client (and different types of employees they have), with nudges and recommendations to help managers act on their feedback. Over time and with more data, the WorkBuzz platform learns about a client’s culture and optimises these recommendations.

“We managed the process of reclaiming the rebate including submitted a technical report outlining the R&D work which was undertaken on WorkBuzz’ new survey platform. This was a detailed document illustrating how they faced and overcame the technical uncertainties and how they eventually delivered their propriety algorithms to finalise the platform. The result was that we secured a tax credit of £63k.”

Steven Frost, CEO WorkBuzz explains: “The team at d&t do all our end of year accounting plus payroll and have more recently, have been able to guide us in relation to raising external finance. We have even done one or two surveys to analyse and help improve d&t’s own staff engagement too!

“This year d&t has been able to make a valuable additional contribution to our business in relation to HMRC R&D tax relief. We had originally used a specialist firm which offered a 99% success rate for claiming R&D tax relief, but they charged 20% of the rebate as fee and so d&t was able to provide an alternative option which reduced this by half.

“By working with d&t over the years, we have developed a real partnership. The team are friendly, accessible and we trust their advice. They add value to our business not just numbers!

Any franchisor or business investing in R&D needs to speak with d&t – you can’t afford not to.”