Consistent content is essential to clear communication as well as creating cohesive, enjoyable experiences for our users.

The Jack Henry Design content guidelines focus on product- and platform-specific conventions and overrides. They are built upon the following style guides.

Resource	Description	Availability
JHA Style Guide for Technical Communication and Training	Covers specific grammatical and stylistic guidelines used throughout all internal and customer-facing Jack Henry publications	Online (JHA employees only), PDF available upon request
Chicago Manual of Style	Comprehensive style guide that covers a wide breadth of grammatical and editorial guidelines	Online (paid subscription), Hardcover
Microsoft Manual of Style	Comprehensive style guide with greater focus on writing for computer technology	Online (free)

These style guides should be referenced in the above order. For example, if you are unable to find guidance on a stylistic question on Jack Henry Design, then you should refer to the JHA Style Guide and so on.

Dates

Used in headlines

• Spell out the full day of the week and abbreviate the month—exceptions can be made if space is limited.
• Use a three-character month abbreviation.
• Don’t include a period after the month abbreviation.
• Don’t include ordinal indicators such as 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th.

• Spell out the full month and include the four-digit year—exceptions can be made if space is limited.
• Don’t include the day of the week.

Used as supporting information

• Use a forward slash to separate the month, day, and year.
• Don’t include a 0 before numbers less than 10.
• Don’t use hyphens.

Used within large transaction lists

• Include the four-digit year under the icon when appropriate.
• Don’t colorize.

Used in sentences

• Spell out the full month.
• Include the four-digit year when appropriate.
• Don’t use abbreviations.

Used as part of the datepicker

• Use a three-character month abbreviation.
• Include the four-digit year.
• Use a hyphen to show a period of time.
• Put spaces around the hyphen.
• Don’t include a period after the month abbreviation.
• Don’t include a 0 before numbers less than 10.

Money

Amounts

• Use a dollar sign.
• Use a decimal point.
• Use a comma for numbers over three digits.
• Don’t superscript the dollar or cents sign.

Cash deposit

• Use a ‘+’ to signify a deposit.
• Use bodyTextDepositColor to color the text.
• Don’t bold the text.

Cash debit

• Don’t show a ‘-’ for a debit.
• Don’t use red.

Credit and loan deposit

• Use a ‘-’ to signify a deposit.
• Use bodyTextDepositColor to color the text.

Numbers

Phone number

• Use parentheses around the area code.
• Use a hyphen.
• Don’t use periods.

Account number

• Use a lowercase ‘x’ followed by the last four digits of the account number.
• Use parentheses when the account name is used in the same label.
• Don’t put a space between the ‘x’ and the numbers.

Time

Specific time

• Capitalize AM and PM.
• Include a space after the minutes and before the AM or PM.
• Always include a colon followed by the minutes, even if it’s on the hour.
• Don’t include periods in the AM or PM.

Time range

• Use a hyphen to indicate a range of time.
• Include spaces around the hyphen.
• Don’t use the word “to.”

Calendar time

• Use when representing date and time within two weeks of the creation date.
• Use in both past and future tense.
• Spell out the full day of the week.

Last updated time increments

• Time increment labels should display the plural label when appropriate.
• Do not graphically or textually indicate the number of seconds the account was last updated.

Use the following patterns for formatting last updated time:

Last updated time	Format
Less than five minutes	Just updated
Less than 10 minutes	5 mins ago
Less than 15 minutes	10 mins ago
Less than 30 minutes	15 mins ago
Less than 60 minutes	30 mins ago
Less than 24 hours	# hr[s] ago
Less than one week	# day[s] ago
Less than one month	# week[s] ago
Less than one year	# month[s] ago
Greater than or equal to one year	# year[s] ago