Both, and that's the point. We're a registered tax agent and R&D tax practice, so real experts prepare and lodge your claim. But we've also built our own proprietary technology platform that helps us, and you, do the work faster while keeping the rigour we stand behind. That's why we're happy to personally defend the claims we lodge. You get the expertise of a consultancy and the speed of technology we built ourselves, not one at the expense of the other.

You've got three ways to work with us. It's your call:

‍We lodge for you: We review your evidence, prepare your claim, and lodge on your behalf. Go this way and you're covered: if the ATO or Department of Industry, Science and Resources (DISR) queries it, this is where we help defend your claim.

‍Self-lodge: Use Synnch to capture and score your evidence all year, then export a claim-ready report that mirrors the AusIndustry submission portal, so around 60% of the work is already done. Finish the rest and lodge it yourself.

‍Bring your own consultant: Prefer to keep the consultant you have? Use Synnch to capture and score your evidence all year, then hand them a claim-ready report so they've got a head start on preparing and lodging.Whichever you choose, the hardest part, substantiating your R&D across the year with contemporaneous evidence, is already done.

Yes, absolutely. As a consulting firm and registered tax agent, reducing your risk is core to what we do, on two fronts.

First, your claim is built from real, timestamped records captured as the work happened, not a write-up reconstructed at year-end. Reconstruction is exactly what tends to draw ATO attention, so building contemporaneously is one of the best protections there is.

Second, you're not doing it alone. Every claim we lodge gets two layers of review: you check your records as you enter them, and our registered tax agent QAs the claim before it's submitted. If the ATO ever does query it, we help defend it, at no extra fee.

Absolutely, plenty of members do exactly that. On a Synnch subscription, you get the tech to capture and score your evidence across the year, so your records stay clean and contemporaneous, while your own consultant handles the claim itself. The benefits in that case:

• Invite your consultant onto the platform, free, so you're both working from the same source of truth
  
• Spend far less time in meetings, chasing your team, and answering the same questions twice
• Hand over a drafted claim report that cuts their prep work significantly
• Bonus: your Synnch subscription is itself an eligible R&D expense, so you can claim it too

You keep the relationship you value, and make it work better.

You could, but it's a fast way to put your claim, and your IP, at risk.

Two problems. First, an R&D claim has to be built from contemporaneous records: evidence created as the work happened. A write-up generated after the fact, describing what probably happened, isn't contemporaneous. It's exactly the kind of reconstructed narrative that draws ATO scrutiny.

Second, sharing data with public AI tools runs the risk of being used as general knowledge or training material, meaning your proprietary R&D could be leaked.

Synnch's AI is a different thing entirely. It's not an open-source model, so your data never leaves to train ours or anyone else's. It is purpose-built for one thing: structuring your R&D the way a claim actually needs to hold up, drawing on 15+ years of R&D tax law built right into how it works.

The difference isn't speed. It's whether your claim holds up, and whether your IP stays yours.

Yes, and we treat it as seriously as you do. Synnch is ISO 27001 certified and built by security-conscious engineers to a rigorous standard. All your data is hosted in Australia, nothing is stored offshore. We don't use your data to train outside AI models, and we don't use it to train ours either. It stays yours, full stop.

You stay in control of what's uploaded: sensitive commercial detail is only ever needed if you choose to add it to strengthen your evidence score. Your proprietary work is often the most valuable thing you own, and with Synnch, it stays that way.