A client asked me last week: "Will my accountant know exactly what time you worked each day?"
No. Here's why, and what she sees instead.
What appears on the PDF
A Sablio invoice contains, in order:
- Your name, address, GST/QST numbers,
- The client's name and address,
- The invoice number, issue date, due date,
- A Project section with the name and, if applicable, the PO number,
- An Hours section: list of billable grains, dated by day, with the short description you wrote,
- Subtotal, GST, QST, total,
- Payment instructions (wire, cheque, etc.).
That's it.
What never appears
The exact start time of each block. The client doesn't see 10:47 to 11:32. They see March 12 — 45 min.
The apps used. They don't see that you were in Figma, or Notion, or VS Code. They see final mockup, 45 min.
Days with no activity. If you didn't work on the project Wednesday, the invoice doesn't carry an empty line saying Wednesday — 0h. It skips to the next day.
Screenshots. Sablio doesn't take any. So there are none to show.
Internal comments. If you wrote annoying client on a block in your journal, that text doesn't migrate to the invoice. The short descriptions you write for billing are separate from your internal notes.
Why this discipline
Two reasons.
Respect for the freelancer. A client who sees 10:47 to 11:32 on an invoice starts wondering why you began 47 minutes past the hour. None of their business. You delivered 45 minutes of work. The rest is harmful noise.
Respect for the client. A client who receives an invoice with app names and screenshots also receives, by extension, the idea that you're being surveilled. That changes the relationship. We don't want Sablio to change the relationship.
The contrast
I've seen invoices generated by US tools that included, by default, the list of URLs visited during each session. For a client. It's a privacy nightmare for the freelancer, and a credibility nightmare for the client. Nobody wins.
In Sablio, the default is the inverse. If you want to share more, you click to add. The default is minimal, factual, dignified.
— Patrick