I know it happened, but I can't prove it

Everyone on site knows the story: the areas handed over late, the drawings that arrived after the work needed them, the extras done on a nod. Then the account is argued, someone asks you to prove it, and what you hold is a programme, a folder of photos nobody can place, and the memories of people who have moved to other jobs. The gap between what happened and what you can show is exactly the discount the other side will ask for.

The contract makes that gap expensive by design. The burden of proving a claim sits with the side making it, and the documents that carry it are the ones made at the time: the diary entry from the day, the notice sent inside its window, the register kept as the drawings moved. Some of what is missing can still be rebuilt honestly, from emails, delivery tickets, payroll and third-party logs, but the rebuilt version is always smaller than the loss, and shrinks further with every month that passes.

There are two answers, and they are not alternatives. Rescue what can still be rescued, while the memories are warm and the phones still hold their photos. And stop the same gap opening from today, which costs minutes a day and is the cheapest evidence you will ever buy.