Guide
SR&ED consultant fee models and what each one rewards
Updated
We publish no rate for SR&ED preparation on this site, and that is a deliberate decision rather than an omission. No Canadian authority sets or publishes one, and a range invented for the page would anchor you on a number that describes nobody. What can be said usefully is what each model rewards.
Contingency
A share of the refund. It removes the cash barrier completely, which is why first-time claimants and pre-revenue companies use it, and it means the consultant carries the risk of a claim that fails.
It rewards claim size. That is genuinely useful when it funds a proper argument for work you would otherwise have left out, and it applies pressure toward the boundary of the definition, which is the same force pointing the other way. The clause to read is what happens if the claim is later reduced or denied after the fee has been paid.
Fixed fee
Agreed before the work. It suits established claimants filing similar claims every year, and it makes the cost predictable for a board.
It rewards efficiency rather than thoroughness, which is the right incentive for a mature claim and the wrong one for the year the company did something genuinely new. A fee anchored on last year's claim can quietly stop covering the year that needed the most work.
Hourly
Rare in this market and worth considering where the technical narrative already exists and what you are buying is review and assembly rather than discovery.
It is the only model with no structural incentive about claim size in either direction, which is occasionally exactly what a nervous board wants.
The clause that matters more than the model
Review support. A CRA review is where a claim is actually settled, and an engagement that excludes support at that point converts the review into a second negotiation at the moment you have least leverage.
Ask for it in writing, and ask specifically what is included: correspondence only, or attendance at a technical review, and by whom. A contingency arrangement usually includes it because the fee is already at risk; a fixed fee may not, and that is the difference the two quotes are not showing you.
Financing, priced separately
Where an advance against the expected refund is arranged alongside preparation, they are two charges even when they arrive on one page. Ask for them separately before signing either.
The combination deserves a moment's thought on its own. An aggressive claim is worth more to finance against and is more likely to be reduced, and an advance already drawn has to be repaid whatever the CRA concludes. Where the same party arranges both, ask directly how each side is paid.