NSW Have received a low settlement offer for unpaid invoices dispute, how to proceed from here in negotiating?

[OSW_0101]

So this post is an update to my original post found here.

After being unable to resolve the dispute with Company discussed in the post linked above, I sent two Letters of Demand to Company (Registered Post tracked).

After ignoring the first Letter of Demand, the second Letter of Demand prompted Company to respond with an offer to settle for $X amount.

However, there's two issues regarding their proposed $X settlement:

• In that the original dispute, Company asked me to remove one of the specific rates that I had listed in my Invoice and would pay me for the other services/rates (this was despite this specific rate being agreed to in writing prior to the work being done, and had been approved and paid in previous invoices, and was also approved and paid in a subsequent invoice ---- an invoice I submitted for work completed AFTER the disputed invoice had the same rates and a similar total $ amount and was paid in full ).
  
  
• The settlement for $X amount that Company has offered is almost identical to the total amount I would have received from the disputed Invoice had I removed that specific rate from my Invoice as Company had asked.

I would be interested in potentially settling; however, I feel that the settlement amount is quite low given what I asked for (40% less than what I'm claiming and barely above what I would have got had I changed my Invoice as asked).

Based on that, I had the following questions:

• Should I ask Company to explain/justify how they calculated their settlement offer for $X amount?
  I know that the amount they're offering is similar to what they originally wanted my Invoice to be but that's based on my calculations, not theirs (Original Invoice amount - the specific rate disputed is almost identical to their settlement offer).
  
  
• I am willing to compromise to a lower amount than my original claim but how much of a reduction would be reasonable for my first offer before gradually working towards the actual minimum amount I'd be willing to accept to settle?
  e.g. start off by reducing the original claim by 10%? 20%?
  
  
• Any pointers for how to best phrase my counteroffers?
  e.g. Based on our agreement as well as the expenses (and time spent on) for x/y/z that I had to bear in performing x work/services/duties, I don't believe the offer for $X amount would be fair. I am willing to come down to *10-20% less than original claim* to resolve the dispute.
  
  
• Any other tips for negotiating a small claims level settlement that could be helpful?