If you’ve spent 5 minutes in a corporate office you’ve probably seen a sign that says, “Poor planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part”.
We smile at this sign because we would like to use that response when people make a request of us. It’s natural to view a request for information as an unwelcome disruption. If people are ignoring your R&D credit information request, rethink your strategy.
With over 300 billion emails sent each day, 28% of an average work week spent on email, and people checking email 36 times an hour, you must be strategic to get a response.
SPRX R&D Credit Tip – Simplify your request to improve response time.
The unwelcome request
Requests for customized information are particularly unwelcomed. These requests often require lengthy manual data manipulations.
A custom report is any variation from the standard reports generated by a system. A request as simple as adding a couple columns to a report can be a burden. Perhaps the person must run the standard report, load into a CSV file, import into a spreadsheet, add columns, cut the data, paste the data, confirm the accuracy, save the report, and then transmit the report to you. While none of these tasks are particularly challenging, they each take time and become an annoyance.
Are you requesting customized reports when standard reports will do?
Request standard reports
People spend an average of 15-20 seconds reading an email. If they can respond in less than two minutes they often respond immediately.
When you request information that is readily available, people tend to respond immediately. As soon as they see the response will take more than a few minutes, they add your response to their “To Do” list where it sits for days or weeks.
A typical R&D credit analysis takes 9 to 12 months. Most of that time is waiting for people to respond to customized requests. Consider changing your request from a customized request to a standard request.
Consider the request for a department’s project list. Perhaps the department does not have a consolidated list but each engineer in the department keeps their own list. If you request a single list for the department, someone will have to take time compiling the list. That task may be put off for weeks. However, if you ask for each engineer’s list, you can get several immediate responses.
Let technology do the heavy lifting
The key is artificial intelligence (A.I.) technology.
In our example of project lists, A.I. technology can ingest the multiple lists, combine the common projects, merge the data for combined projects, recognize the stand-alone projects and compile a comprehensive list. Users can quickly check any exceptions and resolve them appropriately.
The benefit of this technology is that you are able to request standard, available data and get immediate responses to your requests. This alone significantly shortens the time it takes to complete an R&D credit analysis.
At SPRX.tax we build the tools that save you time…and money