After a strop stroke, a careful hand wipes the leather and notes what the edge feels like. Side work needs a similar wipe. Without a short mark, next week starts blind: you remember effort, not hours; invoices, not rates after costs.
Keep the mark small. Three lines are enough: hours used from the free block, money in, costs out. That is the compound note. It is not a second accounting system. If the note takes longer than the stroke, the note has become the work.
When to write it
Write it once the free block ends, or on Sunday evening before the main week returns. Do not wait for a perfect spreadsheet. A line in a notebook or a single note on a phone is enough if it is honest.
What the mark is for
The mark answers one question: was this stroke worth the leather it used? Strop Pad does not publish earnings promises. The mark is for your own next decision — keep the offer, shrink the block, or leave that work off the strop.
If an evening was spent only on unpaid setup, write that too. Paste that never becomes an invoice still belongs in the compound column.
Read next: free hours along the leather strop and strokes that wear the main steel.