Software capitalization and R&D tax credit automation

Turn engineering activity into finance-ready capitalization.

CapSquid connects repositories, issue trackers, contributors and cost policy, so finance can trace every capitalized euro back to the commit that earned it — and turn the same evidence into WBSO hour logs without asking anyone for a timesheet.

  • Traceable to the commit — no spreadsheet reconstruction.
  • Capitalization, amortization and WBSO in one period close.
  • Locked periods and versioned rules your European auditor can follow.
Reads from
GitHubBitbucketGitLabJiraLinearPayroll CSV

Why now

The biggest line in the R&D budget is the one nobody can see.

Until recentlyIllustrative
PayrollTooling

Engineering cost was payroll. A salary ledger and a defensible split were enough to answer what the year’s development had cost.

TodayIllustrative
PayrollAI toolingAgents

Model subscriptions, token spend and coding agents increasingly rival payroll — and each carries its own treatment: capital or operating, subsidy-eligible or not.

26%

of companies fully understand their AI costs

Adoption is running well ahead of the ability to account for it.

KPMG, 2026

1 in 3

decision-makers can tie AI spend to financial growth

The spend is visible on the invoice and invisible in the accounts.

Forrester, 2026

0

timesheets required to close the gap

Hour logs are derived from activity your engineers already produce.

CapSquid

A number built from headcount alone no longer describes what R&D costs. CapSquid attributes an agent’s commits back to the engineer who directed them, so capitalization does not quietly fall as more of the work is written by tools rather than people.

What it covers

Four obligations, automated end to end.

01

Capitalization

Software and R&D capex

Engineering effort is classified as the work happens, and reaches the balance sheet with its evidence attached.

02

Compliance

EU GAAP and IFRS

Capitalization criteria applied continuously as a versioned rule set, not reconstructed from memory once the year is closed.

03

Audit readiness

From the first period

A complete trail from commit to journal entry, exportable at any point — not a fortnight of preparation when the request list arrives.

04

R&D tax credit reporting

WBSO and equivalents

Claim packs backed by code, with hour logs built from activity your engineers already produced. No timesheets.

What it does

Four things standing between commits and a defensible number.

Allocation engine

Maps commits and work items onto capitalizable effort with a confidence score on every link.

Confidence score per link

Control layer

Issue-type governance, useful-life assumptions and contributor role policy, versioned per period.

Versioned per period

Source visibility

GitHub, Bitbucket or GitLab connected without losing ownership, language or branch context.

Ownership · branch · language

Explainable output

Every euro traces back to a commit, an issue and a rate — so a reviewer can defend the number.

Commit → issue → rate

How it works

From code to compliant reports, with no developer overhead.

One commit, followed the whole way through the close:

Commit

a3f9c21

Author, branch, timestamp

Issue

CAP-1042

Work type: development

Contributor

€96.00 / h

Rate effective 01 Jan

Capitalized

€1,824.00

19.0 h · policy v4

Journal entry

JE-2026-06-118

Intangible assets

01

Connect the sources

Repositories and issue trackers come in with their ownership, branch and work-type context intact.

  • Repository commits and contributor activity
  • Issue types and labels, from Jira or Linear
  • Payroll: cost, FTE hours, eligibility
02

Set the policy

Decide which work types capitalize, what a contributor costs, and when a period locks. Every rule is versioned.

  • Capitalization criteria under GAAP or IFRS
  • Contributor rates, effective from a date
  • Useful life and amortization assumptions
03

Close the period

Review the matches that need a human, lock the period, and export a figure with its evidence attached.

  • Capitalization by epic, contributor and period
  • WBSO claim packs with hour logs
  • Full trail: commit → issue → classification

What changes

Same period close, without the reconstruction.

The usual close

Spreadsheets, reconstructed months after the workEngineers filling in timesheets nobody trustsWeeks of audit preparation, every yearSubsidy left unclaimed because the evidence is goneFinance and engineering arguing over one number

With CapSquid

Traceable data, produced as the work happensZero developer overhead — no time trackingReports in hours, from evidence already collectedEU GAAP, IFRS and WBSO out of the same closeOne number both teams can defend

The platform

Three modules on one audit-grade data foundation.

Capitalization

Live

Classifies engineering effort into capitalized and expensed — per period, per epic, per contributor — with the commit-level evidence behind every euro.

Capitalization and amortization schedulesPeriod locking and versioned rulesExport for your ledger
FY26 · Q1€184,900
FY26 · Q2€171,240
FY26 · Q3€152,080
FY26 · Q4€138,610

WBSO tracking and reporting

Live

Turns the same data into a subsidy claim: eligible projects, hours per contributor, and documentation that traces back to the work it describes.

Project-level hour logsContributor eligibilityClaim-ready export
M. de Vries142.5 hEligible
J. Okonkwo118.0 hEligible
S. Brandt96.5 hEligible
Contractor pool54.0 hExcluded

Insights

In development

The financial lens on engineering spend: what the investment builds versus what it maintains, and how the composition shifts quarter to quarter.

Building versus keep-the-lights-onCost by work type and teamSpend composition over time
Q1 '25Q2 '25Q3 '25Q4 '25Q1 '26Q2 '26

How we differ

Engineering dashboards and US tax filings are not the same job.

The adjacent tools either measure engineering productivity or file a US tax credit. CapSquid is the European alternative: EU GAAP, IFRS and national R&D schemes like WBSO, in a figure a European auditor will sign off on.

Engineering metrics toolsUS R&D tax toolsCapSquid
Built for finance, not only engineeringTax filing only
EU GAAP and IFRS, audit-ready
Software capitalizationPartialPartial
Subsidy reporting (WBSO, CIR)US only
R&D cost derived from codeFTE equivalents
Evidence trail from commit to journal entry

What they say

Finance teams, CTOs and the auditors who review them.

Big 4 auditor

CapSquid removes a key friction point we encounter when auditing tech companies. Very exciting, and happy to refer clients once you're past MVP.
Audit partner, Big 4 firm

Listed company CTO

Really awesome what you're building. We have 150+ engineers and this is exactly what we need. We're excited — very slick tool.
CTO, publicly listed tech company

Tech founder

Boosting EBITDA and properly showcasing the value of our intangible assets in a manageable way. Sign me up!
Founder, tech company

Tech CTO

This is fantastic, my team hates time tracking for WBSO subsidies. This would be perfect.
CTO, tech company

Ready to leave the spreadsheet

Give finance and engineering one shared source of truth.

Replace manual reconciliation with capitalization controls, contributor economics and traceable engineering signals — in one workspace.