An audit letter arrives and the clock starts. Adobe asks for deployment data, the account team frames the gap as a settled fact, and the number on the table is built to anchor high. Most buyers feel pressure to cooperate fully and fast, which is exactly the posture that drives the claim up.
The reality is that the first compliance number is rarely the real number. Deployment counts double count machines, decommissioned installs still show, and entitlements bought under old agreements get ignored. Every one of those errors works in Adobe's favor unless someone on your side checks the math.
An audit is also leverage that points both ways. Handled well, the moment Adobe wants a settlement is the moment you can reset terms, fold the resolution into a renewal, and walk away paying far less than the opening figure.
