What the First-Time Claimant Advisory Service (FTCAS) means, what happens in the meeting, and how to prepare.
For first-time SR&ED (Scientific Research & Experimental Development) Tax Credit claimants, or for companies that have not filed in the past 3 years, the CRA might select your claim for a “First Time Claimant Advisory Service” or “FTCAS” meeting.
This often raises questions and concerns. What does an FTCAS mean? Is this the same as a full SR&ED audit/review? Am I going to get my SR&ED tax credits?
This guide explains exactly what an FTCAS (First Time Claimant Advisory Service) is, what happens during the meeting, what it means for your SR&ED funding and how to prepare for it so that your company is confident and successful.
What is an SR&ED FTCAS?
The First-Time Claimant Advisory Service (FTCAS) is a free advisory service offered by the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) to companies that are new to the SR&ED program.
The goal of this program is for the CRA to have a chance to connect directly with these companies to help the companies better understand:
- How the SR&ED program works
- What types of work qualify for SR&ED
- What types of work do not qualify for SR&ED
- What documentation must be kept to support the SR&ED claim
- How to remain compliant with CRA SR&ED requirements
The CRA designed this program because many first-time claimants do not fully understand the technical and documentation requirements of SR&ED.
Instead of immediately auditing/reviewing new claimants, the CRA uses FTCAS as an educational meeting to help companies succeed with the program in future years.
The FTCAS meetings happen after a company has filed their SR&ED claim. The FTCAS meeting is a chance for the CRA to check on the SR&ED technical and financial merit without executing a full-blown SR&ED audit/review.
Despite what you might assume, being selected for an FTCAS is a good thing. It means that the CRA has approved the SR&ED claim, and they cannot go back and audit or reduce the SR&ED claim at that point. However, if you do not reply to the CRA to set up the FTCAS meeting within the time specified by the CRA, they can pull your claim into a full review and potentially deny the claim.
Being selected for an FTCAS means that you are required to have a meeting with the CRA, where they present to you for 2 hours about what SR&ED is. The FTCAS is a minor inconvenience, but in the grand scheme of things, it means that the SR&ED claim will be processed as filed, typically within a few weeks of the FTCAS meeting.
Who qualifies for FTCAS?
According to the CRA, FTCAS is intended for companies that are filing an SR&ED claim for the first time, or have not filed an SR&ED claim within the previous three years.
Not every first-time claimant receives an FTCAS. It is unknown what the exact percentage of first-time claimants who receive an FTCAS is.
After filing a claim, the CRA generally routes claims through one of three paths:
- Accepted as Filed
- Selected for FTCAS
- Selected for a technical and/or financial review/audit
The SR&ED FTCAS is typically offered when the CRA believes a company could benefit from guidance on the SR&ED program and documentation practices.
First-time claimants can be audited on their first claim, although we are seeing the CRA use the FTCAS more often in 2026 for first-time claimants, rather than the full technical or financial SR&ED review/audit right away.
Is the SR&ED FTCAS a good or bad thing?
An FTCAS is considered a positive outcome. If your claim is selected for FTCAS, it means:
- Your claim will be accepted as filed, and you will receive your full SR&ED credits
- Your claim was not selected for a full technical or financial SR&ED audit/review
- CRA wants to provide guidance to help you with future claims
- The CRA sees potential for your company to continue participating in the SR&ED program
The CRA sees the FTCAS as an introduction to the SR&ED program, not scrutiny for doing something wrong.
Being selected for an FTCAS means that after the meeting and a small review, you will receive your full SR&ED tax credits, without any deductions, which is ultimately a very positive outcome.
What happens before the FTCAS meeting?
If your company is selected for FTCAS, the CRA will contact you, typically via phone, to schedule the meeting.
You then receive a letter via your CRA portal, informing you that you’ve been selected for an FTCAS, and that you will be required to have the FTCAS meeting in order to receive your SR&ED tax credits.
The letter will include details about the time, location (typically Microsoft Teams), who will be joining and the agenda. Invited to the meeting will be the Research and Technology Advisor (RTA) and the Financial Reviewer (FR) from the CRA.
From the company, it is encouraged to have your technical leader and financial leader on the call. You are also permitted to invite your SR&ED consultant to the meeting. At GrowWise, we support all of our first-time claimants in the meetings if they are selected for an FTCAS.
Before the FTCAS meeting, we encourage you to prepare by reviewing your SR&ED claim, the projects, their descriptions and technical challenges, as well as which expenses were claimed under which projects. Being familiar with your claim will increase your confidence entering the FTCAS and will ensure the conversation and any questions are answered smoothly.
What happens during the FTCAS meeting?
An FTCAS meeting typically lasts 1 to 2 hours and follows a structured format.
1. Introductions + Background
Everyone in the room will be invited to do a quick introduction about their current title, where they fit into this conversation, and their background. For the company, this is your chance to get off on a good foot and show your technical and financial experience and domain expertise.
- CRA explains the SR&ED program
The meeting then starts with a two-part presentation explaining the SR&ED program. The start with the presentation about the technical aspects of the program, including:
- The purpose of the SR&ED program
- The types of work that qualify
- Examples of eligible and ineligible work
- What is considered technical uncertainty to the CRA
- How the CRA defines a technological advancement
- What is considered a systematic investigation
- How to track the technical aspects of the SR&ED projects to ensure CRA compliance
Understanding these concepts is critical for future claims. The RTA will spend about half of the meeting explaining these components in detail, so that you are clear on what does and does not qualify for SR&ED.
During this time, it is encouraged that you ask questions.
Next, the Financial Reviewer (FA) will go through the second half of the presentation, where they review:
- What expenses are eligible and ineligible for SR&ED
- Proxy vs Traditional SR&ED calculation approaches
- How to quantify the SR&ED refund
- How to allocate costs to various projects (more info here)
- Financial documentation requirements such as:
- Employee time tracking
- Payroll allocation
- Contractor invoices
- Material costs
- Capital Costs (more info about the recent changes to include capital costs here)
3. Discussion about your business and technology
The CRA would like to understand the basics of what your company does. They will ask questions to understand what your company does, what challenges you face and what types of projects you work on.
4. Discussion about documentation and record keeping
One of the most valuable parts of FTCAS is the discussion around documentation practices. The CRA will ask how your company currently tracks SR&ED work. Examples of documentation that support SR&ED claims include:
Technical documentation
- engineering notebooks
- experiment logs
- prototype iterations
- testing reports
- simulation results
- version control history
Project documentation
- design documents
- project timelines
- development milestones
Financial documentation
- employee time tracking
- payroll allocation
- contractor invoices
- material costs
The CRA has very high expectations of documentation and record-keeping. In 99% of cases, they will recommend that you do more documentation and record-keeping to increase the strength of your SR&ED claim.
This conversation is a great opportunity to ask specifics about how they would like to see you track your information better, so that you can improve the quality of your claim in future years.
4. Discussion about the technical merit of your application
You may be asked to explain:
- Technical challenges your team faced
- How you attempted to solve those challenges
- What experiments or iterations were performed
- What the results and/or learnings from the work were
The Research and Technology Advisor (RTA) is typically experienced or has some background in the field of science or technology in which your business is, so they will ask topical questions pertaining to your business and industry.
What the CRA is trying to determine
The goal of the FTCAS and specifically this discussion, is to answer one core question: if this SR&ED claim was selected for an SR&ED review/audit, would your claim be approved, reduced or denied?
It is critical that you convey significant technical challenges, experimentation, systematic investigation, and learnings during this conversation to prove to them that this claim would withstand the CRA scrutiny of a full SR&ED review/audit.
What happens after the FTCAS meeting?
After the meeting, the CRA records internal notes about the discussion.
Possible outcomes include:
Positive feedback
The CRA may determine that:
- Your documentation practices are strong
- Your technical work appears consistent with SR&ED principles
- Your company understands the program
This usually means future claims should proceed smoothly. This is the ideal situation.
Recommendations for improvement
In most cases, the CRA comes back after the FTCAS with suggestions for improvements, such as:
- Tracking time more accurately (more information about time tracking here)
- Documenting the technical details of experiments more clearly
- Keeping better technical records of experiments and what was learned
In most cases, we see the CRA come back after the FTCAS with some recommendations. The CRA expects very high-quality documentation and tracking, and first-time claimants rarely meet their high expectations.
It is important that the company actively works to implement these recommendations, so that if the claim is reviewed/audited the following year, the CRA can see that their recommendations were taken seriously. These recommendations help reduce risk in future claims.
Significant SR&ED FTCAS Concerns
If the CRA identifies serious concerns in the FTCAS, it is very likely that the next SR&ED claim will be audited/reviewed.
This may occur if documentation appears weak or the technical or financial merit of the projects seems insufficient.
In these situations, companies should focus first on identifying whether or not their work qualifies for SR&ED. If it does, they should implement strong tracking processes so that they can adequately support an SR&ED review for their projects when they apply next.
Conclusion – FTCAS
If you are going into the SR&ED FTCAS process, or have just finished the process, this is where the SR&ED experience of a consultant like GrowWise comes in handy. At GrowWise, we work with companies to first identify what is eligible for SR&ED, and then work year-round to track the SR&ED projects in a way that withstands CRA scrutiny.
If you need help with your FTCAS, or if you want to submit strong, audit-ready claims, reach out to us at GrowWise: contact@growwise.ai
Common FTCAS questions
What does FTCAS stand for?
FTCAS stands for First-Time Claimant Advisory Service, a support program offered by the Canada Revenue Agency to help new SR&ED claimants understand the program.
Is FTCAS an audit?
No. The SR&ED FTCAS is an advisory service, not a technical review or audit. It is not nearly as involved, time-consuming or risky as a full technical/financial SR&ED audit/review. After your FTCAS, your SR&ED claim will be approved; there is no risk that the claim will be reduced.
Does FTCAS mean my claim was approved?
Yes. Companies invited to do an FTCAS have already had their claims processed. You will receive your SR&ED tax credits in full once you complete the FTCAS meeting. If you do not attend the meeting, you will not receive your SR&ED tax credits.
Can FTCAS deny my SR&ED claim?
No. The SR&ED FTCAS process is designed to provide education and guidance rather than determine claim eligibility.
How long does an FTCAS meeting take?
Most meetings take about ninety minutes to two hours, depending on the size of the company and the complexity of the work discussed.
Key takeaway
FTCAS is an opportunity rather than a risk.
It allows companies to:
- learn directly from CRA SR&ED specialists
- understand what documentation CRA expects
- improve processes for future claims
Companies that take the meeting seriously and demonstrate strong technical documentation are usually well-positioned for successful SR&ED claims in future years.
