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Copy Guidelines

Rules for consistent brand voice and messaging across all platforms.

Copy Guidelines

These guidelines ensure consistent brand voice and messaging across all platforms. Adhering to them strengthens brand recognition and builds trust with our audience.

Capitalization

  • Use sentence case for all product UI, including buttons, field names, labels, descriptions, headings, empty states, dialogs, menus, table headers, filter names, toast messages, tooltips, and helper text.
    • Examples: "Create deal", "Company type", "Add status", "No companies found", "Select an email to view", "Use light mode", "Toggle columns"
    • Sentence case does not mean all lowercase. Standalone copy still starts with a capital letter: "Recent terms access is currently limited", not "recent terms access is currently limited".
    • Lowercase the first word only when the copy is an inline continuation or fragment inside a larger sentence.
  • Use Title Case only for proper nouns and canonical names. This includes:
    • Product, app, service, and feature names: "Lev", "Lev Agent", "Lev Agents", "Deal Assist", "Import Hub", "Support Center", "Memo", "Memo Editor", "Vault", "Vault Checklist", "Lev Memo", "Lev Vault"
    • Memo and Vault stay capitalized when used as product nouns, including plurals and named Vault surfaces: "Recent Memos", "Recent Vaults", "Untitled Memo", "Create new Vault", "Deal Room Vault", "Private Vault", "Intake Vault"
    • Modifiers before product names follow sentence case unless they are part of a canonical name or start the sentence: "Search shared Vaults", "No shared Vaults found", "Shared Vault"
    • Company, contact, deal, Vault, pipeline, Memo, and other user-entered names: preserve source casing
    • Do not apply product-name capitalization to code identifiers, API values, GraphQL enum values, URLs, route paths, data attributes, or file extensions (e.g. type="memo", /vaults, .memo)
    • Formal roles, job titles, personas, and relationship types when used as named types: "Insurance Broker", "Debt Broker", "Investment Sales Broker", "Admin", "Editor"
    • CRE taxonomy values and controlled CRE, loan, request, document, and report type names: "Office Condo", "General Multifamily", "First Mortgage Loan", "Preferred Equity", "Bridge", "Construction", "Permanent"
    • Controlled loan request/type abbreviations and combinations: "Perm - Refi - 1st", "Perm - Acq - 1st", "Bridge - 1st", "Mezz", "Pref", "Subr"
    • Document, template, and report names when they are canonical types: "Rent Roll", "Operating Statement", "Offering Memorandum", "Term Sheet", "Tear Sheet", "Marketing Status Report"
    • Generic finance phrases that are not canonical names use sentence case: "sources and uses", not "Sources and Uses"
    • Named plans, packages, permissions, and legal/policy documents: "Pro", "Enterprise", "Lev Pro", "Pay As You Go", "Legacy Plan", "Full Access", "View Only", "Invite Only", "Limited Access", "Read-Only", "Privacy Policy", "Terms of Service"
    • When a named permission is part of a longer phrase, use sentence case around it unless the full phrase is the canonical name: "Full access to Lev CRM", not "Full Access to Lev CRM"
    • Geographic proper nouns: "New York", "San Francisco", "United States", "Los Angeles County"
  • Preserve established acronyms and initialisms (e.g. API, HQ, NOI, DSCR, LTV, PSA, LOI, AUM, CRM)
  • Use sentence case for statuses by default, unless the status is a user-defined value or a canonical pipeline stage/type name.

CTA Words

Use these standard action words consistently across the product:

  • New: Creates a new item from scratch (e.g. New deal, New slide, New message)
  • Add: Includes an existing item in a given context (e.g. "Add a placement to a deal")
  • Save: Commits unsaved changes
    • Use Update when the distinction between saving and updating matters
  • Delete: Permanently removes something
    • Remove: Removes item from the collection but does not destroy it
  • View: To look at something (e.g. View contacts)
    • Open: "View", specifically for documents, modals, and files
  • Cancel: Exits without saving changes
  • Dismiss: Closes a notification or message without taking action

Commas

Always use Oxford commas (serial commas) in lists of three or more items.

✓ "deals, placements, and messages"

✗ "deals, placements and messages"

Punctuation Standards

  • No periods in headlines, buttons, or labels unless they contain multiple sentences or they are used for effect
  • Use em dashes (—) for breaks in thought, not hyphens or double dashes
  • Use double quotes ("") for primary quotations and quoted speech
  • Use single quotes ('') for quotes within quotes
  • Semicolons (;) only when joining related independent clauses; prefer periods or separate sentences

Numbers and Metrics

General Number Formatting

  • Spell out one (1) through nine (9) in body text
  • Use numerals for 10 and above
  • Exception: Always use numerals with units (5 days, 3 deals)
  • Large numbers: Use commas for thousands (10,000+)

Currency

  • Format: $1,234,567 (with commas for thousands)
  • Decimals: Show cents only when necessary ($50 not $50.00)
  • Large numbers: Use K, M, B notation when space is limited
    • $1.2M (not $1,200,000)
    • $850K (not $850,000)

Percentages

  • Format: 15.5% (no space between number and %)
  • Decimals: One decimal place for precision, whole numbers when possible
  • Ranges: 10%–15% (use en dash, no spaces)

Units of Measure

Area

  • Square feet: 1,200 sq ft
  • Square miles: 5.2 sq mi
  • Acres: 2.5 acres (spelled out)

Distance

  • Miles: 15 miles, 2.3 mi (spell out in body text, abbreviate in tight spaces)
  • Feet: 500 feet, 500 ft
  • Kilometers: 10 kilometers, 10 km (when relevant)

Weight

  • Pounds: 150 pounds, 150 lbs
  • Tons: 2.5 tons (spell out)

Volume

  • Gallons: 500 gallons, 500 gal
  • Cubic feet: 1,000 cu ft

Date and Time

Date Formats

  • Default format: Aug 27, 2025 (abbreviated month, no leading zeros)
  • Short format: 8/27/25 (when space is very limited)
  • ISO format: 2025-08-27 (for technical contexts only)
  • Ranges: Aug 27–30, 2025 (en dash, no spaces)

Time Formats

  • 12-hour format: 2:30 PM (no leading zeros, space before AM/PM)
  • Time ranges: 2:30–4:00 PM (en dash, repeat AM/PM only when crossing)
  • Duration: 1h 30m (no spaces around units)

Relative Time

  • Recent: "2 minutes ago", "1 hour ago", "yesterday"
  • Future: "in 5 minutes", "tomorrow", "next week"
  • Always spell out time units in relative formats

Days of the Week

  • Full names: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday (in body text and formal contexts)
  • Abbreviations: Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri, Sat, Sun (in calendars, tables, tight spaces)
  • Ranges: Monday–Friday (en dash, no spaces), Mon–Fri (abbreviated)
  • Today/Tomorrow: Use "today" and "tomorrow" instead of day names when referring to current/next day
  • Capitalization: Always capitalize day names and abbreviations