[pcc]

Canadian customers paying in USD: I think it depends on the type of market and product. We've found competitive advantage in offering CAD pricing stability to our Canadian customers (B2B, both services and physical goods).

SR&ED: We've used it to great effect, and have never used a consultant. The rules are actually not that complicated; CRA presents seminars on how to determine what is eligible, as well as on how to complete the T661. It's a small time investment to attend those to determine if&how SR&ED can work for you. Documentation, it depends: lab notebooks and a spreadsheet of hours can go pretty far. They've tightened up process on first time claimants (all go through review now afaik), but at the same time they've introduced programs for first timers where you can get an opinion on eligibility ahead of time and can then check in with them periodically during the first period for their ongoing evaluation and comment, in which case they guarantee no surprises during the review. As always YMMV: for us SR&ED had the same effect as outsourcing our dev to a far lower cost country, but effectiveness is reduced if largely doing things like crud apps, or with single employees who are also substantial shareholders.