I can see a dispute coming and my records are thin

There is a moment on a souring job when you know the final account will not be agreed over a coffee. The instructions were verbal, the delays absorbed, the site diary has gaps, and the correspondence that exists was written for the relationship, not for a referee. The temptation is to wait until the dispute lands and deal with it then.

Waiting is the expensive option. Records are usually central to how a dispute is decided, and they have a shelf life: people move on, photographs never get taken, and if the other side has been building a file for months, theirs risks becoming the only organised account of the job. Every week between now and the dispute is a week in which evidence can still be captured, notices given, and positions repaired.

The work is unglamorous and decisive: identify what the coming argument will turn on, collect what exists while it exists, start the disciplines that fill the gaps from today, and find out early which parts of your position are strong, which repairable, and which not worth the fight.