Waerrk

Simsalasim Formatting & Locale Standards

Purpose: Single source of truth for how Simsalasim displays numbers, currency, percentages, dates, times, data units, and relative time across every locale we serve. Governs all user-facing surfaces: app UI, emails, SMS, push, receipts, marketing.

Status: v1.0 — Active from 2026-04-16 Owner: Design System Related ticket: Define Global Country/Locale Formats

0. Design-Time vs Runtime (Critical)

This spec governs two contexts. Do not confuse them.

Runtime (Production)

Each user sees formatted values rendered per their system locale. A de-DE user sees 45,78 € and 16.04.2026. An en-US user sees $45.78 and 4/16/2026. The profiles in §5 are the Runtime reference.

Design-Time (Figma)

All Figma design files render formatted values in de-DE format only — regardless of UI text language. This convention exists because:

UI text in Figma is kept in English so the international team can read every screen
Germany is our v1 launch market, so Euro prices are expected in stakeholder reviews
Rendering multiple locales per frame is unmaintainable and C-Level-confusing

Consequences:

Audits against Figma check only de-DE formatting
English text is not a violation
Figma ≠ what a non-German user will actually see at runtime
When localizing at runtime, the locale profiles in §5 override the Figma de-DE values

Single rule for designers: if your design shows a number, price, percentage, date, time, or data unit, format it per the de-DE profile in §5. Never mix locales within a Figma file.

1. Scope & Principles

In scope

Number formatting (integers, decimals)
Currency formatting (EUR, USD, GBP primary; non-Euro EU currencies documented for display)
Percentage formatting
Date formatting (primary, secondary, numeric)
Time formatting (24h / 12h)
Data-unit formatting (GB, MB, MIN, SMS)
Relative time ("Yesterday", "Wednesday", time-only)
Date ranges

Out of scope

UI translation (handled by copywriter skills)
RTL language layout
Implementation code (separate dev ticket)

Guiding principles

Strict locale conformance. We follow CLDR/ICU conventions. Any deviation must be explicitly listed under House Style Overrides (§6) with a written reason.
Two date variants, not three in UI contexts. Primary (written out) by default. Secondary (abbreviated) only when space is tight. Numeric (DD.MM.YYYY) reserved for data/technical surfaces (invoices, CSV exports, API-rendered data).
Relative time is contextual. Applies only to activity/calls/notifications — never to billing, plans, passes, or legal artefacts.
Consistency over cleverness. If in doubt, match the CLDR default via Intl.NumberFormat / Intl.DateTimeFormat.
Currency always shows 2 decimals. No dropping of .00 or ,00 — ever.

2. Supported Locales

Three tiers based on product readiness.

Tier 1 — Detailed spec (primary markets)

Locale	Region	Language	Currency
`en-US`	United States	English	USD
`en-GB`	United Kingdom	English	GBP
`de-DE`	Germany	German	EUR

Tier 2 — Major EU markets (Euro, well-defined patterns)

Locale	Region	Language	Currency
`de-AT`	Austria	German	EUR
`fr-FR`	France	French	EUR
`fr-BE`	Belgium	French	EUR
`nl-NL`	Netherlands	Dutch	EUR
`nl-BE`	Belgium	Dutch	EUR
`it-IT`	Italy	Italian	EUR
`es-ES`	Spain	Spanish	EUR
`pt-PT`	Portugal	Portuguese	EUR
`en-IE`	Ireland	English	EUR

Tier 3 — Other EU (CLDR fallback, display-only until activated)

fi-FI, sv-SE (SEK), da-DK (DKK), pl-PL (PLN), cs-CZ (CZK), sk-SK, hu-HU (HUF), ro-RO (RON), bg-BG (BGN), hr-HR, sl-SI, el-GR, el-CY, lt-LT, lv-LV, et-EE, en-MT, mt-MT, de-LU, fr-LU.

Tier 3 locales follow their CLDR defaults. Display bugs in Tier 3 → fix against CLDR, do not invent house variants.

3. Core Formatting Rules (Tier 1)

3.1 Numbers

Rule	en-US	en-GB	de-DE
Decimal separator	`.`	`.`	`,`
Thousands separator	`,`	`,`	`.`
Integer example	`1,234`	`1,234`	`1.234`
Decimal example	`12,345.67`	`12,345.67`	`12.345,67`

Rule: Always render the thousands separator, even for 4-digit integers. CLDR permits omitting below 10,000 in some locales; we always include for reading consistency.

3.2 Currency

Rule	en-US	en-GB	de-DE
Symbol	`$`	`£`	`€`
Position	Before amount, no space	Before amount, no space	After amount, NBSP (U+00A0) before symbol
Decimal places	Always 2	Always 2	Always 2
Small example	`$9.99`	`£9.99`	`9,99 €`
Large example	`$1,234.56`	`£1,234.56`	`1.234,56 €`
Whole example	`$10.00`	`£10.00`	`10,00 €`

Never strip trailing zeros. 10 € is incorrect; 10,00 € is correct.

3.3 Percentage

Rule	en-US	en-GB	de-DE
Symbol position	After, no space	After, no space	After, NBSP before symbol
Default decimals	1 for precision contexts, 0 for counts	Same	Same
Precision example	`56.7%`	`56.7%`	`56,7 %`
Whole example	`50%`	`50%`	`50 %`

Rule: 1 decimal when precision matters (data-usage bars, accuracy readouts). 0 decimals for rounded quota displays.

3.4 Dates

Three forms. Choose by context, not by medium.

Primary (default — written out): Use everywhere unless space is constrained.

en-US	en-GB	de-DE
`March 7, 2026`	`7 March 2026`	`7. März 2026`

Secondary (abbreviated): Only when space is tight (narrow list column, compact card, activity log older entries).

en-US	en-GB	de-DE
`Mar 7, 2026`	`7 Mar 2026`	`7. Mär 2026`

Tertiary (numeric, data/technical only): Tables, invoices, CSV exports, API responses rendered as-is.

en-US	en-GB	de-DE
`3/7/2026`	`07/03/2026`	`07.03.2026`

3.5 Time

Rule	en-US	en-GB	de-DE
Clock	12h	24h	24h
Separator	`:`	`:`	`:`
Example	`9:23 PM`	`21:23`	`21:23`
AM/PM	After time, space, uppercase `AM`/`PM`	—	—

3.6 Data units

English unit abbreviations in all locales (house-style override, §6). Spacing and position follow locale number-unit convention.

Unit	Meaning
`GB`	Gigabytes
`MB`	Megabytes
`KB`	Kilobytes
`MIN` or `min`	Minutes (call quota)
`SMS`	Text messages

Rule	en-US	en-GB	de-DE
Spacing number↔unit	Space	Space	NBSP
Example	`25.3 GB`	`25.3 GB`	`25,3 GB`

3.7 Date ranges

en-US	en-GB	de-DE
`Mar 7 – 14, 2026`	`7 – 14 Mar 2026`	`7. – 14. März 2026`
`Mar 7 – Apr 3, 2026`	`7 Mar – 3 Apr 2026`	`7. März – 3. April 2026`

Separator: en dash with NBSP on both sides (–). Never hyphen -.

4. Relative Time

4.1 Thresholds

Replace absolute timestamps with relative expressions in this tiered order. Compare by calendar day, not elapsed hours.

Age of event	Format	en-US	de-DE
Same calendar day	Time only	`9:23 PM`	`21:23`
Previous calendar day	`Yesterday, <time>`	`Yesterday, 9:23 PM`	`Gestern, 21:23`
2–6 days ago	`<Weekday>, <time>`	`Wednesday, 9:23 PM`	`Mittwoch, 21:23`
7+ days ago, same year	Secondary date	`Mar 7`	`7. Mär`
7+ days ago, different year	Secondary date + year	`Mar 7, 2025`	`7. Mär 2025`

No "Last week" bucket. After 6 days → absolute date.

Day/weekday translations (Tier 1):

	en-US	en-GB	de-DE
Today	Today	Today	Heute
Yesterday	Yesterday	Yesterday	Gestern
Monday	Monday	Monday	Montag
Tuesday	Tuesday	Tuesday	Dienstag
Wednesday	Wednesday	Wednesday	Mittwoch
Thursday	Thursday	Thursday	Donnerstag
Friday	Friday	Friday	Freitag
Saturday	Saturday	Saturday	Samstag
Sunday	Sunday	Sunday	Sonntag

4.2 Where relative time applies

Surface	Relative time?	Rationale
Call history	✅	Casual recency
Activity log	✅	Casual recency
Notifications list	✅	Casual recency
In-app messages / chat timestamps	✅	Casual recency
Billing history / invoices	❌ Always absolute	Legal/financial precision
Plan expiry / validity	❌ Always absolute primary date	User needs exact date
Next billing date	❌ Always absolute	Planning context
Receipts	❌ Always numeric date	Audit trail
Recap reports	❌ Always absolute	Reporting context
Pass start/end	❌ Always absolute	Commercial validity

Rule of thumb: "When did this happen?" → relative. "When does this matter?" → absolute.

5. EU Locale Matrix

All Tier 2 + Tier 3 locales following CLDR strict. Examples: amount 12345.67, date 2026-03-07, time 21:23.

Locale	Number	Currency	%	Date (primary)	Time
`de-DE`	`12.345,67`	`12.345,67 €`	`56,7 %`	`7. März 2026`	`21:23`
`de-AT`	`12.345,67`	`€ 12.345,67`	`56,7 %`	`7. März 2026`	`21:23`
`de-LU`	`12.345,67`	`12.345,67 €`	`56,7 %`	`7. März 2026`	`21:23`
`fr-FR`	`12 345,67`	`12 345,67 €`	`56,7 %`	`7 mars 2026`	`21:23`
`fr-BE`	`12.345,67`	`12.345,67 €`	`56,7 %`	`7 mars 2026`	`21:23`
`fr-LU`	`12 345,67`	`12 345,67 €`	`56,7 %`	`7 mars 2026`	`21:23`
`nl-NL`	`12.345,67`	`€ 12.345,67`	`56,7%`	`7 maart 2026`	`21:23`
`nl-BE`	`12.345,67`	`€ 12.345,67`	`56,7%`	`7 maart 2026`	`21:23`
`it-IT`	`12.345,67`	`12.345,67 €`	`56,7%`	`7 marzo 2026`	`21:23`
`es-ES`	`12.345,67`	`12.345,67 €`	`56,7 %`	`7 de marzo de 2026`	`21:23`
`pt-PT`	`12 345,67`	`12 345,67 €`	`56,7%`	`7 de março de 2026`	`21:23`
`en-IE`	`12,345.67`	`€12,345.67`	`56.7%`	`7 March 2026`	`21:23`
`fi-FI`	`12 345,67`	`12 345,67 €`	`56,7 %`	`7. maaliskuuta 2026`	`21.23`
`sv-SE`	`12 345,67`	`12 345,67 kr`	`56,7 %`	`7 mars 2026`	`21:23`
`da-DK`	`12.345,67`	`12.345,67 kr.`	`56,7 %`	`7. marts 2026`	`21.23`
`pl-PL`	`12 345,67`	`12 345,67 zł`	`56,7%`	`7 marca 2026`	`21:23`
`cs-CZ`	`12 345,67`	`12 345,67 Kč`	`56,7 %`	`7. března 2026`	`21:23`
`sk-SK`	`12 345,67`	`12 345,67 €`	`56,7 %`	`7. marca 2026`	`21:23`
`hu-HU`	`12 345,67`	`12 345,67 Ft`	`56,7%`	`2026. március 7.`	`21:23`
`ro-RO`	`12.345,67`	`12.345,67 RON`	`56,7%`	`7 martie 2026`	`21:23`
`bg-BG`	`12 345,67`	`12 345,67 лв.`	`56,7%`	`7 март 2026 г.`	`21:23`
`hr-HR`	`12.345,67`	`12.345,67 €`	`56,7%`	`7. ožujka 2026.`	`21:23`
`sl-SI`	`12.345,67`	`12.345,67 €`	`56,7 %`	`7. marec 2026`	`21:23`
`el-GR`	`12.345,67`	`12.345,67 €`	`56,7%`	`7 Μαρτίου 2026`	`21:23`
`el-CY`	`12.345,67`	`12.345,67 €`	`56,7%`	`7 Μαρτίου 2026`	`21:23`
`lt-LT`	`12 345,67`	`12 345,67 €`	`56,7 %`	`2026 m. kovo 7 d.`	`21:23`
`lv-LV`	`12 345,67`	`12 345,67 €`	`56,7 %`	`2026. gada 7. marts`	`21:23`
`et-EE`	`12 345,67`	`12 345,67 €`	`56,7%`	`7. märts 2026`	`21:23`
`en-MT`	`12,345.67`	`€12,345.67`	`56.7%`	`7 March 2026`	`21:23`
`mt-MT`	`12,345.67`	`€12,345.67`	`56.7%`	`7 ta'' Marzu 2026`	`21:23`

Matrix notes:

nl-* and de-AT put € before the amount with space. All other Euro locales put € after with NBSP.
fi-FI and da-DK use . (period) as time separator — strictly CLDR.
hu-HU and lv-LV use year-first date order.
Non-Euro EU currencies: SEK (kr), DKK (kr.), PLN (zł), CZK (Kč), HUF (Ft), RON (RON/lei), BGN (лв.).
Relative time in Tier 2/3 follows the same threshold logic — use Intl.RelativeTimeFormat + CLDR weekday names.

6. House Style Overrides

Explicit deviations from strict locale conformance. Each with written reason.

Override	Rule	Reason
Data unit abbreviations	Always English (`GB`, `MB`, `MIN`, `SMS`) — never translated (not `Go`, not `Mo`, not `min` in French `Min.`)	Brand consistency; tech convention; eSIM users recognize these internationally
Currency decimals	Always 2, never dropped	Visual consistency; avoids mixed `10 €` + `9,99 €` in the same list
Thousands separator for 4-digit integers	Always rendered (`1.234` in de-DE, not `1234`)	CLDR permits either; we pick the separator variant for reading consistency
AM/PM casing (en-US)	Uppercase `AM`/`PM`	CLDR permits both; uppercase is more legible in small UI
No "Last week" relative bucket	After 6 days → absolute secondary date	Cleaner thresholds, no ambiguity of what "last week" means across weekday boundaries

Any future override must be added to this table with a written reason and approved by Design.

7. Examples — Correct vs Incorrect

Every Recap Email inconsistency (the trigger for this spec) mapped to the fixing rule.

Incorrect (current)	Rule violated	Correct (de-DE)
`25.3 GB` in a de-DE email	§3.1 decimal separator	`25,3 GB`
`98,3 €`	§3.2 currency 2 decimals	`98,30 €`
`45,78€` (no space)	§3.2 currency spacing	`45,78 €`
`23.8 %` (period in de-DE)	§3.1 + §3.3	`23,8 %`
`7 Mar` in de-DE email	§3.4 date locale	`7. März 2026` (primary) or `7. Mär` (secondary)
`March 7, 2026` in de-DE email	§3.4 date locale	`7. März 2026`
`10 €`	§3.2 currency decimals	`10,00 €`
`1234,56 €` in de-DE	§3.1 thousands separator (override §6)	`1.234,56 €`
`9:23pm` (no space)	§3.5 AM/PM spacing	`9:23 PM`
`21.23` in de-DE	§3.5 time separator	`21:23`
`last week` in call history	§4.1 no "last week" bucket	`Mar 7` (absolute secondary)
`Yesterday at 9:23 PM`	§4.1 format	`Yesterday, 9:23 PM`

8. Implementation Notes

For developers implementing this spec in frontend/backend.

Frontend: Prefer Intl.NumberFormat(locale, {style: ''currency'', currency: ''EUR'', minimumFractionDigits: 2, maximumFractionDigits: 2}) and Intl.DateTimeFormat(locale, {dateStyle: ''long''}) — both resolve to CLDR defaults that match this spec.
Secondary (abbreviated) dates: {dateStyle: ''medium''} in Intl.DateTimeFormat.
Tertiary (numeric) dates: {dateStyle: ''short''}.
Relative time: Use Intl.RelativeTimeFormat(locale, {numeric: ''auto''}) for the localized words. Threshold logic (§4.1) is ours — implement on top of the library.
Always set locale explicitly. Never rely on browser/system default. Pass the user''s locale preference from their profile.
Backend / email templates: Server pre-formats every number, price, date, and time to a string using the user''s locale before rendering into the template. Templates never do formatting themselves.
House overrides (§6) must be applied after Intl.*:
- Force 2 decimals on currency (Intl respects minimumFractionDigits)
- Swap data-unit translations back to English (Intl.NumberFormat with style: ''unit'' returns Go in French — override to GB)
- Enforce thousands separator below 10,000 (use useGrouping: ''always'')

9. Self-Check Checklist

Run before shipping any user-facing artefact (email, screen, notification, SMS, push).

Every number uses the correct decimal and thousands separators for the locale
Every currency amount shows exactly 2 decimal places
Currency symbol position and spacing match the locale
Percentage spacing follows the locale (NBSP for de-DE, none for en-US)
Date uses primary (written) form unless space demands secondary
Time is 12h for en-US, 24h elsewhere
Data units use English abbreviations (GB, MB, MIN, SMS)
Relative time is used only in activity/calls/notifications — not billing/plans/receipts
No mixed conventions within the same surface (e.g., no 25.3 GB next to 45,78 € in a German email)
Date range uses en dash with NBSP, not hyphen

10. Maintenance & Distribution

Canonical source of truth: This Brand Bible entry (content_pages.slug = ''formatting-locale''), served via brand-read?slug=formatting-locale.
Notion mirror: Auto-synced from Supabase via simsalasim-sync-mirror. Do not edit in Notion.
Figma mirror: Manually maintained "Formatting & Locales" page in Simsalasim Design System (Figma). Update in same PR/session as Supabase.
Change process: All edits originate in Supabase. Notion mirrors automatically; Figma is updated by Design in the same session.
Skills that must fetch this spec when producing or reviewing content:
- simsalasim-copywriter-pro-s
- simsalasim-copywriter-basic-s
- simsalasim-copywriter-partner-s
- simsalasim-email-builder
- simsalasim-qa-review-s

Change Log

2026-04-16 — v1.0 — Initial spec. Triggered by Recap Email audit. Covers en-US, en-GB, de-DE at Tier 1 detail; all EU27 at Tier 2/3 reference. Relative-time rules added per scope extension.