One place for your research allowance. From entrepreneurs, for entrepreneurs.
In the portal you record projects, hours and costs – with the mechanics of the research allowance built in. You can see where your BSFZ application stands at any time.
What the fundloop portal handles for you
A clearly structured process
Your R&D adviser guides you all the way to the research allowance with the help of the fundloop portal – from your company profile through to your development project. You can see what comes next at any time.
- Guided onboarding: company, shareholdings, employees, projects – step by step instead of a maze of forms
- Progress is visible for each section individually
- Deadlines are built in – you can only record what falls within the eligible period: up to four years retroactively
- Set up once, carried forward year after year – without starting from scratch again
Time tracking that does the maths
You enter project hours in the calendar: click or drag across days, assign the working time, done. From those hours the portal calculates the eligible personnel costs using the German Federal Ministry of Finance scheme.
- Usable without training – full day, half day or your own value
- Public holidays for your federal state are built in automatically; leave, sickness and other absences feed into the relevant annual working time as an annual figure
- Gross salary and the employer social security contribution are applied in proportion to project hours
Take over payroll data without handing it over
You upload your payroll journal as a PDF, Excel or CSV file. It is read directly in your browser – and exactly three figures per employee are taken from it.
- Only the name, taxable gross salary and employer social security contribution are read – nothing else
- Everything else stays on your machine: church tax, absences, address and bank details are neither evaluated nor stored
- DATEV specifics are handled – the employer contribution split across health, pension, unemployment and long-term care insurance is added up correctly
The BSFZ application grows with your entries
What you record about your projects goes straight into the BSFZ application; hours and costs are gathered alongside it for your tax advisor to file later. No hunting for documents at year-end – and you can export the current state as a PDF at any time.
- Organised into sections, with visible progress per section
- Exportable as a PDF – for your records, your tax advisor or a later tax audit
- Compiled from your ongoing entries rather than reconstructed afterwards
- Carried forward year after year: the next funding year does not start from scratch
AI suggests, you decide
You upload invoices and the portal reads out the invoice number, contractor, payment year and net amount. Nothing is adopted automatically: you see the suggestion next to the document and confirm it.
- Scanned receipts and photos are captured via text recognition as well
- The suggestion sits next to the original – you check, correct, confirm
- AI processing runs through a European provider and its EU endpoint
- The AI never sees your payroll records – those are read exclusively in your browser
- Uploaded documents are stored encrypted
SME classification under the GBER
Whether you qualify as an SME decides your funding rate – 35 % or only 25 %. The portal derives that status from your figures and structures instead of simply asking you for it.
- Classification under the GBER from headcount, turnover and balance sheet total
- Shareholdings count: partner enterprises (25 to 50 per cent) pro rata, linked enterprises (over 50 per cent) in full
- Groups formed through individuals are covered too – shareholders holding further companies in the same or an adjacent market
- The two-year rule is built in: a single outlier year does not yet flip the status
- If a figure is missing it says “cannot be determined” – it does not guess
Data security
Your data is valuable and sensitive – we treat it accordingly. Data minimisation is not a footnote here, it is built into the workflows.
- Operated and stored in Germany
- Documents stored encrypted, transmission encrypted
- Two-factor sign-in is mandatory for everyone on our side who sees your data; it is available for your team
- Role and permission management, with access logged
- Specially protected data such as health or religious affiliation is never taken in to begin with
Why the portal
One place for everything
Evidence, documents and the status of your BSFZ application are bundled in one place – no digging through email threads.
Guided step by step
You see what comes next. We guide you through both stages professionally – no maze of forms.
Progress always visible
From the assessment through the BSFZ certificate to filing by your tax advisor, the status stays transparent.
Newcomers to funding benefit most
You supply figures, not applications
You enter hours and costs – the portal does the rest: public holidays for your federal state, absences, gross salary and employer contributions in proportion to project hours. Your team stays on the shop floor.
We have been through it ourselves
For our own company the research allowance was paid out four years running, 2022 to 2025 – through both stages, including the follow-up questions in stage 1. We know the procedure from our own books, not from a seminar.
Never filed a funding application?
That's fine. The portal guides you step by step and only asks for what is needed. Terminology, forms and the R&D assessment against the Frascati criteria are our side – not yours.
Saves time and nerves: how your research allowance runs (almost) by itself with fundloop
- 1
Non-binding assessment
Our R&D consultants get into your project, check whether it qualifies and estimate the potential – often there is more in it than you think. Free and without obligation.
- 2
Assessment & preparation
We get your innovation to the point. We handle the technical and formal write-up against the Frascati criteria in full and file it with the BSFZ. Your effort: one interview and some input.
- 3
Documentation & AI
Track your effort in no time. The fundloop portal converts hours and salaries into eligible costs, the AI reads your receipts – you simply confirm. Nothing left to reconstruct at year-end.
- 4
Claim and payout
The payout runs through your tax office: the allowance is offset against your income or corporate income tax and any surplus is refunded. Our R&D report gives your tax advisor exactly the figures required – documented in line with GoBD.
Do I need technical knowledge?
No. You provide your data and answer follow-up questions – we handle the professional preparation.
What do I need to supply?
Information on your development projects, staff and effort. We tell you exactly what's needed.
What does my tax advisor do?
They review the tax part independently and file the research allowance with the tax office. No money flows between fundloop and your tax advisor.
What does it cost?
Success-linked, with no setup fee. We name the concrete rate in the assessment – tied to your real funding amount.
Let's take a quick look.
See what's realistically possible in a few minutes – non-binding.