What do you need from us to start?

The contract, the records, the heads of claim you intend to run, meaning the separate items of money you are pursuing, and the format the output has to land in: quantum, the valuation of what is owed, is built from documents, not briefings. The records matter most, because a valuation is only as strong as the documents behind it: applications for payment, valuations, allocation sheets showing where cost was booked, invoices, timesheets, drawings and correspondence. A ragged file is not a reason to wait, it is itself information; part of the work is telling you early what the records will and will not support, because a figure with no document behind it invites a discount later. So the claim is shaped around the evidence that exists rather than what everyone wishes existed, and you learn the weak points from me, not from the other side.

Say you hand me a variations claim for a mechanical subcontractor on an office refurbishment: the client wants £120,000 for extra ductwork. You send the subcontract, the instructions that triggered the extra work, the labour timesheets and a folder of site photographs. I trace each figure to a document. Twenty of the days claimed have timesheets behind them, but eight do not, and the ductwork quantity is asserted with no measure or drawing to check it against. Rather than submit a round £120,000 that unravels on the first challenge, I tell you on day two which parts stand up and which need more records or a trim. That is quantum built from documents: the file you give me sets the ceiling on what can safely be claimed, and hearing the gaps from me early beats hearing them from the other side.