5 tips for WBSO administration

It must be possible to clearly deduce from the records what research and development work has been carried out and how much time has been spent on it by the employees involved. The subsidy provider (RVO) carries out random checks to find out whether the described WBSO projects have actually been carried out. This means that as an organization you must have your WBSO administration in order, to avoid reimbursement or even fines.

1. Keep track of activities on a weekly basis

It is important to regularly update the WBSO administration. Various activities often overlap and if you wait too long to record information and hours, this can cause confusion over time. You do well to make it a habit to process all administration once a week.

2. Time administration

You can only deduct WBSO hours for the R&D withholding tax credit that were spent in the period to which the application relates. The subsidy provider states that a time administration consists of at least:

• Registration per day and per project how many hours an R&D employee has spent on R&D work. In principle, this is already sufficient to meet the legal requirements.

We recommend that you also register the following activities:

• other hours worked per day, (this need not be specified);

• leave and absenteeism hours, in the event of an audit, a cross-check with the absenteeism or leave administration may be carried out.

3. Project administration

Only R&D activities may be included in the R&D project administration. From a good project administration, the following things can be easily traced per project:

• the nature and content of the work;

• the progress and results of the work related to goal, phasing and time planning.

Make sure to:

• list all relevant project numbers;

• list all employees involved;

• mention the planning / phasing - preferably that used in the WBSO application. If it doesn't quite fit, provide a logical link to another schedule. Make sure that documents are provided with data and preferably to which phase in the project they belong. This creates a clear relationship with the phasing and therefore with the time administration. The time and project records must be ready within two months of the end of the period for which the R&D statement was issued. You are also obliged to keep the time and project administration for seven years

4. Check the timesheets

The timesheets do not have to be sent to the subsidy provider. The timesheets must be available for inspection during an inspection by the subsidy provider. It is important that the right employees register their hours. An important condition is that these persons are on the payroll and have a real employment relationship. This is usually not the case for trainees or graduates. In addition, only technically skilled employees may be taken along.

5. Keep everything in one convenient place

Keep all project documents in a digital folder or ring binder. Do not throw away any relevant documentation. Save applications, decisions, questionnaires, timesheets, etc. These types of documents can sometimes come in handy during an inspection.

Finally: Many modern organizations use systems such as Git, Trello and Slack in addition to email. Use these media to your advantage by creating separate WBSO projects, channels or email addresses (CC: wbso@yourcompany). This way you automatically aggregate a large part of your R&D project documentation, without any extra effort.