Numbers I won't put in a Kinako template

Every template inside Kinako has an opinion. The proposal templates have specific kill-fee percentages. The contract templates have specific revision caps. The welcome docs have specific communication cadences. Every one of them ships with a default.

But not every number is in a template. Some are deliberately left blank, even when we could pre-fill them. This post is about the line — what we'll opinionate, and what we won't.

What we will opinionate

Things that have a defensible right answer for most solo freelancers:

• *Kill fees.* Default 25% of remaining contract value. Lower and you're absorbing risk that's not yours. Higher and you're disincentivizing the engagement.
• *Net terms.* Default Net 7. "Net 30" is for agencies with cash buffers; solo freelancers can't afford to float clients.
• *Revision rounds.* Default two per phase, additional rounds at hourly. Three is generous; four invites scope creep.
• *Deposit structure.* Default 30–40% upfront, balance on delivery. Lower commits less; higher feels predatory on a first engagement.
• *Communication cadence.* Default weekly update on Friday. Daily is too much; bi-weekly loses momentum.

We ship these defaults because they're battle-tested across thousands of solo engagements, and most freelancers either (a) under-charge by guessing low or (b) over-charge by mirroring agency norms. The default lands in the right zone.

If your work doesn't fit one of these defaults, change it. But the default is a real recommendation, not a placeholder.

What we won't opinionate

Things that are too dependent on the freelancer or the engagement for a default to be useful:

• *Price.* We will not pre-fill the price of your work. The proposal template ships with "[your price]" deliberately blank. Software that suggests a price for your craft is either wrong or insulting, usually both.
• *Scope.* We won't pre-fill the deliverables of your engagement. We'll suggest format ("a bulleted list, not a paragraph") but not contents.
• *Timeline.* We won't suggest how long your work should take. That's craft-specific.
• *Voice.* Templates ship in a neutral first-person, but the dashboard never auto-injects "we are excited to partner with you" or any equivalent. Your voice is the product.
• *Client positioning.* We won't suggest how to describe the client's problem. Generic problem statements are the fastest way to lose a proposal.

The principle: opinionate on structural defaults, defer on creative defaults. Anything that touches your judgment is your judgment.

Why this matters more than it sounds like

Two failure modes show up in software for creators. The first is the blank-form failure: everything is empty, every freelancer reinvents the wheel, and the product is useless to anyone who hasn't already figured it out. Most CRMs.

The second is the auto-fill failure: the software fills everything in, the freelancer never thinks about any of it, and the output is generic and replaceable. Most "AI proposal generators."

The line between them — where defaults help and where they hurt — is the line we care about. The defaults we ship are the things you'd benefit from someone having decided for you. The blanks we ship are the things only you can decide.

A test for any default

When we add a new template default, the team test is:

> Would the freelancer who's been doing this for ten years agree with this default 70% of the time?

If yes — opinionate. If no — leave it blank.

It's an imperfect test. It's also why our defaults don't change much over time. The 70% threshold is hard to clear, which is the point.

The thing this rules out

This is also why Kinako will never have an "AI sets your prices" feature, or a "generate a proposal with one click" surface. Both cross the line. They opinionate where they shouldn't.

The AI surfaces we ship help you do your own thinking faster: draft a starter, surface relevant context, run the calculation. They don't make the decisions you're being paid to make.

It's a quieter version of AI in software than what most products are shipping in 2026. We think it's the right one for tools that serve people whose taste is the product.

— Jhayden