You budgeted the full amount
The project is priced, approved internally, and nobody at the table asked whether public funding existed. It's the most common case, and the costliest: funding is requested before, never after.
By situation
Your software project may be partly funded. Most owners find out after they've paid.
Investissement Québec's ESSOR program includes a stream for digital diagnostics and one for implementing the resulting plan, open to Quebec for-profit SMEs. The point almost nobody makes: sequence matters. A project already under way, or ordered before authorisation, is usually refused — the most common way to lose funding you qualified for.
What brought you here
You looked into it, and gave up
Government pages describe streams, sub-streams and declining support rates. Nothing there explains how to scope a software project so it fits the boxes — and that's exactly where it stalls.
Your accountant said "maybe"
A firm can read the program. It can't tell whether YOUR project, written the way you wrote it, qualifies — because eligibility rests on how the technical deliverable is worded as much as on the amount.
What we actually do
We check eligibility before you write anything
A reading of the parameters in force that day, applied to your real situation: legal form, activity in Quebec, nature of the project, how far along it is. If you don't qualify, you know in one call rather than three months.
The diagnostic is a deliverable, not a courtesy visit
The diagnostic stream funds a document: current state, quantified opportunities, sequenced plan. That is exactly what our diagnostic produces — and it stays with you, whether or not you hand us what follows.
The project is scoped to fit the boxes
The same system can be described as a "website redesign" — rarely eligible — or as the implementation of a digital plan with dated deliverables. The work is the same; the scoping changes what gets recognised.
We don't take a percentage of the grant
Some intermediaries take a cut of the funding obtained. We bill for the software, not the paperwork. You're free to use the firm of your choice for the application itself — and often, you should.
When this isn't for you
This isn't for you if you're looking for a grant consultancy: we don't fill in forms on your behalf and we guarantee no outcome. It isn't for you either if the project is already ordered or under way — in that case the funding is usually lost, and we'll tell you rather than let you hope.
No sales page writes this section. That's precisely why it's here: it saves you a thirty-minute call, and saves us an engagement we'd decline anyway.
Questions we get on this
Is H&S an accredited Investissement Québec supplier?
No, and be wary of anyone claiming otherwise without proof. The streams that concern us fund an eligible expense at the company, not a closed list of suppliers. What matters is the nature of the deliverable and the sequence — not the vendor's name.
How long between application and authorisation?
We won't put a number on it: the delay depends on the stream, application volume and how complete the file is, and it varies. The one rule that holds is to commit nothing before you have written authorisation. Investissement Québec answers this question directly at 1-844-474-6367.
Are the program parameters still what you describe?
They change — streams reopen, envelopes run out, rates get revised. This page describes the structure, not carved-in-stone amounts, and the official source is linked at the bottom. Check it before deciding anything: it's the only one that governs.
Neighbouring situations
Sources
Facts external to H&S are linked to their official source. Programs and laws change: check the source before deciding.
Fifteen minutes to find out whether we can be useful.
You leave with what we saw, in writing, even if we never work together.