Photographs are the case. Taken on the first visit, attached to the claim rather than sitting on a phone, they are what supports a figure eleven months later when memory has gone and the building has been repaired.
Correspondence runs in three directions at once: the client, the insurer and whichever contractor is quoting. Kept in one thread per claim, it is a record; scattered across inboxes, it is an argument waiting to happen.
The schedule of loss is the working document. Item by item, with values, evidence and what has been conceded, it is what the negotiation actually runs on, and it changes weekly.
Percentage fees only get billed correctly if settlements are tracked. Interim payments, agreed heads of claim and the final figure need recording as they happen rather than reconstructed at the end.