From raw data to defensible credit - one system, no gaps.
Most R&D credit tools are a questionnaire with a spreadsheet behind it. Ricerca is a purpose-built platform that enforces the IRC §41 statutory tests in software - collecting the evidence, screening the exclusions, computing every layer of benefit, and challenging its own work - before R&D experts review and finalize the study.
We typically reply within one business day.
Everything above runs on this rail.
Intake to finalized study, with the gates drawn where they really are.
See it as a client
The people whose data this is get their own portal - not a PDF attached to an email six weeks later. They can see where the study stands and what has been issued to them, all the way through.
Your tax preparer and your leadership read the same file from the same place. What each of them receives is listed under what you receive.
Five stages, each one accountable to the last.
Data flows one way - from source systems to a finalized study - and every stage must clear before the next begins.
The stages are not a marketing diagram; they are how the software is built. A study that skips one does not exist - see how a study runs end to end for what each stage asks of your team.
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Collect
01Payroll, general ledger, and engineering evidence flow in through secure connectors or uploads - organized automatically.
Gate: Nothing advances until every amount traces back to a source you can point at.
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Substantiate
02Every business component is documented against the §41 tests before a dollar is counted - the platform enforces it.
Gate: A component with an incomplete §41 record contributes no QRE.
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Compute
03QREs, both credit methods, state credits, and your §174A position - computed from one substantiated base.
Gate: Both methods are computed before either one is recommended.
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Challenge
04An independent AI examiner red-teams the study; a second model family runs compliance QC; humans resolve disagreements.
Gate: Disagreement routes to people. The platform abstains rather than guesses.
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Deliver
05R&D experts review and finalize. You receive the study, filing-ready forms, and an organized audit file.
Gate: No study issues without an expert sign-off on complete substantiation.
The statute, enforced - not assumed.
Thin studies fail because qualification is asserted, not documented. Ricerca refuses to count a dollar of QRE until the §41 substantiation behind it is complete.
Where the software says no
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At intake. Required facts are collected as structured fields, not free text an analyst has to interpret later.
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At submission. A component that cannot answer all four parts of the test cannot be submitted as qualified.
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Before finalization. The credit will not finalize while substantiation behind any included component is incomplete.
The portal collects employee duties and roles, component types, alternatives evaluated, supply, computer and contract screens, and trade-or-business facts as structured records - which is what makes the three gates above enforceable at all.
Four-part test, per business component
Permitted purpose, technological in nature, elimination of uncertainty, and a process of experimentation - evaluated and documented for every business component, not asserted in bulk. The badge stays at "needs review" until the answers exist.
Wages allocated row by row
Every person in the claim carries their own qualified percentage, the basis recorded for it, and the wage figure that follows - so the wage line of the workpaper is a sum of decisions, not an estimate applied to a department.
Narratives drafted, then decided by people
AI writes the first draft of each qualification write-up. A reviewer accepts it, edits it, regenerates it, or instructs the model - and the section carries who did that and when. Nothing is issued because a model produced it.
Delivery in three enforced steps
Generate as final, finalize and lock, issue to the client. The order is enforced by the server rather than remembered by a person, and every pre-issuance check has to be satisfied before the first step will run.
Four excerpts from the firm portal, cropped to the part of the screen that carries the claim. Synthetic study data throughout.
All eight §41(d)(4) exclusion screens
Research after commercial production, adaptation, duplication, surveys and studies, internal-use software, foreign research, social sciences, and funded research - screened up front so excluded work never inflates the claim.
Funded research and contract analysis
Rights-and-risk analysis on contract work, the funded-research rules applied to your agreements, and contract research capped at the statutory 65% - the analysis examiners probe first.
The rules behind each screen are written up in the guide: the four-part test applied per component, which costs become qualified research expenses (including the statutory contract-research percentages), and what documentation an examiner actually asks to see.
Every layer of benefit, from one substantiated base.
Once the facts are in, the platform computes the full stack - federal, state, payroll offset, and expensing - so nothing is left behind and nothing double-counts.
Both methods, compared
The Regular Credit and the Alternative Simplified Credit are both computed so you can see the stronger result - with the §280C reduced-credit election considered in context.
§41(f) controlled groups
Related entities are aggregated as a single taxpayer, the group credit is allocated across members on QRE share, and a standalone controlled-group statement documents the determination.
Payroll-tax offset for startups
Qualified small businesses can elect under §41(h) to apply up to $500,000 per year of the credit against payroll taxes - computed and carried onto Form 8974.
State credits, same base
State R&D credits are computed from the same substantiated QRE base, with each state’s own qualification and exclusion rules applied - the benefit most studies leave behind.
§174A expensing position
Your domestic research expensing position under the new §174A is mapped alongside the credit - deduction and credit, captured together and consistently.
Prior years & amendments
Open prior years, base-period amounts, and amended-return posture are handled from the same books-and-records trail, so history and current-year positions stay consistent.
How the two methods differ - and what the §280C(c) election does to the net number - is explained in calculation methods. The startup cash path lives in the §41(h) payroll offset, the state layer in state R&D credits, and the deduction side in §174A expensing. Want a rough figure before you talk to anyone? The estimator runs entirely in your browser.
A deliverable set built for three audiences.
Your leadership gets clarity, your preparer gets filing-ready forms, and - if it ever comes to it - an examiner gets organized, contemporaneous substantiation.
The study report
Credit summary plus rich technical narratives per business component, per employee, and per expense category - mapped to the four-part test.
Filing-ready forms
Form 6765 (Dec. 2024 revision, Sections A-G) that reconciles on its face, Form 8974 for the payroll offset, and a pro-forma Form 3800.
QRE workpapers
Wages, supplies, contract research, and cloud/computer rental - every figure traced back to payroll, GL, or invoice source.
The audit file
Contemporaneous evidence, exclusion screens, and the controlled-group and funded-research analyses - organized the way an examiner will ask for them.
From the system it comes out of, to the page of the study it lands on
| What you connect or send | Where it lands in the study |
|---|---|
| Payroll register and HRIS roster | The wage allocation grid - a qualified percentage and its recorded basis on every row - footing to the wage line of the QRE workpaper and Form 6765 Section F. |
| General ledger detail | Supply and computer-rental categories in the QRE workpaper, each figure tied back to the account it came from. |
| Vendor and cloud invoices | The supply, cloud, and computer-rental lines, with the invoice retained as the exhibit behind the figure. |
| Contract-research agreements and statements of work | The funded-research and rights-and-risk analysis, and the contract-research line capped at the statutory 65%. |
| Issue tracker and source-control metadata (never source code) | The contemporaneous record behind each business component narrative, and the evidence rail a reviewer opens next to it. |
| Short technical sessions with your engineers | The four-part-test record for each business component, and the Section G business-component detail. |
| Entity and ownership structure | The §41(f) controlled-group determination and the allocation statement issued with the study. |
Built like the tax data it holds is sensitive. Because it is.
Payroll files, general ledgers, and engineering records are among the most sensitive data a company has. The platform treats them that way at every layer.
We don’t advertise certifications we don’t hold. What follows is what the system does - controls you can ask us to walk through, not badges on a wall.
Encrypted everywhere
Data is encrypted in transit and at rest, with integration tokens sealed under dedicated key encryption.
§7216 confidentiality, automated
Taxpayer-identifying data is automatically redacted before any AI processing - confidentiality enforced in code, not policy documents.
Enterprise AI routing
In production, AI calls route exclusively through enterprise Azure AI Foundry endpoints. Your data is never used to train public or third-party models.
Read-only, minimal connectors
Accounting and payroll connections are read-only; engineering connectors collect metadata only - never your source code.
Modern access control
Sign in with Microsoft 365 single sign-on, role-based access, and tenant isolation between firms and clients.
E-signed engagements
Engagement letters are signed electronically in the portal, so scope, terms, and authorization are on record before work begins.
We meet your data where it lives.
Ricerca pulls wages, the general ledger, and engineering evidence from the tools you already use, so intake is near-effortless and every qualified dollar traces back to source. And you can always start from a secure spreadsheet, GL, or payroll export - no integration is ever required.
- Live Connect today with a direct OAuth link
- Rolling out Connector built - being enabled now
- Planned On the roadmap
Accounting & ERP
QuickBooks Online connects directly today. The rest connect through our unified accounting connector - one secure, read-only link to your general ledger.
- Live QuickBooks Online
- Rolling out Xero
- Rolling out NetSuite
- Rolling out Sage Intacct
- Rolling out Dynamics 365 Business Central
- Rolling out FreshBooks
Payroll & HR
One secure connection reaches the major payroll and HRIS systems through one unified connector - these are the ones we see most.
- Rolling out ADP
- Rolling out Gusto
- Rolling out Paychex
- Rolling out Justworks
- Rolling out Rippling
- Rolling out TriNet
- Rolling out Workday
- Rolling out BambooHR
Engineering evidence
Contemporaneous proof of experimentation from the tools your engineers already use. Metadata only - commits, pull requests, and tickets. Never your source code.
- Rolling out GitHub
- Rolling out Jira
- Planned GitLab
- Planned Bitbucket
- Planned Linear
- Planned Azure DevOps
Don’t see your system? Tell us what you use - our connector layer reaches the major payroll, accounting, and HRIS platforms through one unified connector, and secure exports work today regardless.
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Next: how a study runs, phase by phase, or the rules the platform is applying in the §41 guide.