We settle low because the records are thin

The settlements follow the same shape every time: your number, their lower number, and the gaps in your file deciding who moves. The dayworks that were never signed get dropped, the half-evidenced variation gets halved, and the discount is named commercial reality when its real name is the state of the records. Do that on every job and it compounds into a standing tax the business pays for filing.

For the account in front of you, the job is retrieval: the evidence that does exist, in emails, photos, minutes, applications and delivery tickets, swept up and attached to the lines it supports, so the account you table is the strongest one the file can honestly carry, and the concessions you do make are choices rather than surrenders. For the next job, the fix starts on day one, and the Records & Tracking theme exists for exactly that.