Treat them clause by clause. A payment that is refundable on demand looks different from one committed for a fixed term or released from escrow on milestones. Ask counsel to review the actual terms rather than assuming every deposit counts or that a refundable amount never can.
Keep business spending and case preparation apart
Build one schedule of business expenditure — subscription, implementation, integration work, hardware, insurance, marketing — and a separate list of costs to prepare and present the case. They are not automatically treated alike, so have the actual items reviewed. Confirm government charges when each step arrives, and keep an operating reserve as a planning choice for your own cash flow, not because a fixed reserve period is required.
Before authorizing more work, ask whether the quoted scope covers reading the amended documents, redoing the at-risk analysis, revising the investment schedule, and updating the business plan's funding narrative. The proportional test is genuinely different from the fixed amounts used in immigrant investment programmes, and confusing the two leads people to save toward a number that does not exist. The family home, personal savings held in reserve and refundable deposits do not.
Equipment purchased outright is committed, and its price is evidence.