UK R&D tax compliance, now in early access

Audit-ready R&D tax claims, built from your engineering data.

Ouzel connects to GitHub, Jira and Xero and maps your team’s work to HMRC’s technical uncertainty criteria as it happens, so your Additional Information Form is ready when it’s due. Built for UK startup CTOs, CFOs and R&D advisers who need claims that stand up to an HMRC enquiry.

15 minutes with the founder. We’re working with a small group of early access partners.

Acme Labs Ltd / FY2026 claim / Realtime sync engine Synced 2 minutes ago
Evidence captured from your tools
GitHubPR #482Merged 14 Mar 2026+1,204 −386

Replace polling with CRDT merge for offline edits

“Operational transform diverged after ~40 concurrent edits across a 2 s partition. Trying CRDT instead.”PR description, commit a3f9c21

JiraPLAT-2173 spikes over 11 working days

Resolve convergence failures during network partitions

XeroMarch 2026 payroll

Platform team: 0.6 FTE allocated to this project

Technical uncertainty summary Draft

Competent professionals could not readily determine whether an operational-transform approach would keep documents convergent when clients reconnect after a network partition, within a 150 ms p95 latency target. Three approaches were prototyped and benchmarked, and two failed convergence testing under concurrent offline edits.

Advance in technologyUncertainty not readily resolvableCompetent professional test

Sources:PR #482PLAT-217Xero payroll, Mar 2026

AIF readiness 4 of 5 sections ready
  • ✓Field of science or technologySoftware engineering: distributed systems
  • ✓Baseline knowledge and advance sought
  • ✓Uncertainties and how they were addressedLinked to 3 evidence items
  • ✓Project dates and staff time
  • !Qualifying costs: review neededContractor invoice not yet matched in Xero

Illustrative example using sample data.

Built for the form HMRC now requires.

Since August 2023, every R&D claim needs an Additional Information Form filed before the company tax return, or HMRC rejects the claim. Ouzel keeps the evidence behind that form ready all year. Read HMRC’s guidance.

Contemporaneous proof

Evidence is recorded as the work happens, with original timestamps, and linked to the project it advances.

HMRC AIF readiness

Narratives follow the structure of the form, and gaps are flagged well before you file.

Zero engineering drag

No timesheets, questionnaires or year-end interviews. Ouzel works from the tools your team already uses.

Real evidence, not generated evidence.

AI compliance tools are under more scrutiny than ever, and careful buyers are right to ask where the evidence comes from. Ouzel drafts only from records that already exist in your systems. Every statement links back to its source commit, ticket or ledger entry, and nothing is final until you and your adviser approve it.

How it works

  1. Connect your tools.Link GitHub, Jira and Xero. Your engineers change nothing about how they work.
  2. Ouzel records the evidence.Commits, pull requests and tickets are timestamped and mapped to HMRC’s criteria as they happen.
  3. Review and hand over.Approve the draft narratives, then share an AIF-ready evidence pack with your accountant.

Questions we expect

Does Ouzel replace my R&D adviser?

No. It gives your adviser contemporaneous evidence and structured drafts to work from. You and your adviser decide what is claimed and submitted.

Is Ouzel endorsed by HMRC?

No, and it doesn’t file claims for you. Ouzel organises your evidence around the criteria HMRC publishes, so the claim you file is easier to defend.

How is Ouzel different from other R&D tax tools?

Rather than assembling evidence when a claim begins, Ouzel records it throughout the accounting period and shows the source of every statement, so the file is already built if HMRC opens an enquiry.

Which HMRC deadlines apply?

The Additional Information Form must be filed before or with your company tax return. Many first-time claimants must also send a claim notification within six months of the accounting period end. Your adviser can confirm what applies to you.

Which tools does it connect to?

GitHub, Jira and Xero to start with. If your team uses something else, tell us on the call.

Can I see how my data is handled before connecting anything?

Yes. We’ll walk through what Ouzel can access and how it is handled before you connect a single tool.

Start capturing evidence before your next accounting period ends.

Tell us your accounting period end date. In 15 minutes we’ll cover which HMRC deadlines apply and what evidence your tools already hold.