Organizations Are Burdened with Over 120 Hours Annually Just to Track Cost Capitalization, According to New Research from Boast

CHICAGO, Feb. 8, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Boast^®, the R&D tax credit FinTech, today announced key findings from its custom research into the state of digital transformation, cost capitalization, and R&D tax credits for U.S. businesses.

The new Boast research reveals finance and c-suite leaders want to utilize government tax incentives and cost capitalization opportunities, but the burden remains high for teams, both in hours spent and in manual tools and level of work required.

CEOs, C-suite, and finance leaders participated in the research, sharing their views which are summarized in the Boast report, Understanding the State of Digital Transformation, Cost Capitalization, and Tax Credits. When asked about how to improve the process of R&D tracking and cost capitalization, one respondent commented, "I would require my team to use a project management software to document software enhancements solely to support capitalization calculation."

The report reveals:

1. Digital transformation is ranked as highly important (8 out of 10) by respondents
2. Over 60% are taking advantage of government tax credit incentives in some way
3. Respondents are less satisfied with their R&D tax credit claim preparation process, rating it just 5.8 out of 10
4. Only 37% have used outside resources to assist with R&D tax credit claim preparation process, and only 40% have evaluated a software solution for R&D tax credit preparation
5. Over 60% of respondents spend over 60 hours a year on their R&D tax credit preparation process—an expensive and time-consuming process for senior team members
6. Over half of respondents use a manual spreadsheet to calculate their data

NOTE: The details for each of these summaries, and more, are available in the new Boast report.

According to Forrester, companies that lead in innovation grow 260% faster than average companies. UNESCO data shows global spending on research and development (R&D) tops USD 1.7 trillion annually. According to Boast's own 2021 research, 86.5% of business leaders rank investing in innovation as very or extremely important, yet 40% don't track it in any formal way.

Respondents suggest improvement to the process of tracking and calculating cost capitalization and R&D tax credits would include a greater understanding by teams of the R&D process, use of technology—specifically software— to enable teams to better collaborate and document eligible activities, and a continual process throughout the year instead of only at the end.

"This research showcases the need for dramatic improvement," said Russ Armstrong, Boast U.S. head of new business. "Digital transformation is highly important to respondents, yet very few are moving toward using modern, scalable, more accurate approaches. Only 58 percent of respondents are satisfied with their current R&D tax credit claims approach. There is significant opportunity to improve the processes for overall R&D intelligence, including how companies track and document their innovation processes and costs throughout the year."

• Attend Boast's March 2, 2022, webinar to learn more
• Get a copy of the full 11-page report: Understanding the State of Digital Transformation, Cost Capitalization, and Tax Credits

About Boast
Boast helps organizations accelerate innovation through government R&D tax credits and R&D intelligence. Boast software integrates financial, engineering, and project data to increase the speed, accuracy, and size of eligible R&D tax credits. Boast removes the mystery, complexity, and difficulty from the process to become the R&D source of truth. With operations across the U.S. and Canada, more than 1,000 innovative companies have leveraged Boast to get more money, faster, for less time and risk. boast.ai

SOURCE Boast