Keep the original purchase or lease documents, proof of payment, the cancellation or amendment, and the record of any refund, forfeiture or transfer to the new project. Then show where the recovered money went. Fact-specific review decides how a forfeited deposit or a professional invoice is treated; nothing is classified automatically.
Separate business spending from application preparation
Costs incurred to run or acquire the enterprise are analysed differently from fees paid to prepare an immigration filing, and the treatment of a particular invoice depends on what it bought. Ask counsel to review the actual expenses rather than assuming a whole category counts or is excluded. Gaps in a funding trail can usually be supplemented with bank letters, wire confirmations or vendor statements obtained later.
The licences and permits, listed with their holders and expiry dates, show that the business can lawfully operate and reveal whether a licence transfer or a qualifying employee is needed before the buyer takes over. The operating agreement, share register, purchase documents and board records should tell one consistent story about control. Where part of the price is a promissory note to the seller, note that unsecured seller financing can count as investment, but a loan secured by the coatings company's own assets does not.