Find the entity before following the name.
Distinguish the owner, contractor, consultant, related company and individual role. Record identifiers, effective dates and the source of each connection. A company association or project credit is a research lead, not evidence that a person made a particular decision.
For a portfolio, map each project and legal entity before aggregating. The party that paid, the party entitled under a contract and the party said to have suffered a loss may be different. Counsel should assess rights and standing.
Reconcile states of money, not just totals.
A budget is not a contract; an approved change is not an invoice; an invoice is not proof of payment. We join the records at item level, preserve their scope and tax basis, and identify credits and overlaps. A working variance is kept separate from causal attribution and any legal assessment of recoverability.
When quantities, timing or source identity remain uncertain, the brief states the uncertainty and the record that could resolve it. It does not turn a spreadsheet difference into an allegation.
The next search should change a decision.
Search published and routinely available sources first. A focused lawful request can target the delegation, approval register, issued revision or payment allocation that distinguishes competing explanations. Record search boundaries, custodians, fees and responses.
Third-party retrieval fees are not silently authorized. Confirm the route and estimate, then narrow the request where a smaller set can answer the decision. Private company records are not generally obtained simply by labelling a request “FOI”. Access rights and compulsory processes need the applicable official route or professional advice.
A research boundary that can be revised openly.
Send the project identifiers, the comparison you are trying to make, sources already held and any urgent deadline. We scope the research route, outputs, handling and fee in writing. Additional jurisdictions, retrieval, interviews or specialist work require agreement; there is no automatic expansion into every related matter.
Research does not guarantee a record exists, is accessible or establishes misconduct. It does not pause a deadline, provide a damages opinion or guarantee recovery. The fixed First Record Review is a separate starting option for an agreed existing record set.