USDC payroll in the US: should I invoice in USD or USDC — and what proof stops disputes later?

I’m US-based and a company wants to pay me in USDC for a contract role.

Everything sounds normal… until I hit this one annoying question that feels like the start of every future argument:

Do I invoice in USD or invoice in USDC?

If I invoice $X USD, they’ll probably say “we’ll send the equivalent in USDC” — but equivalent when? Which rate? And if fees get deducted, am I supposed to just accept being a few dollars short every time?

If I invoice X USDC, it’s clean on-chain, but then I worry they’ll later say “we meant USD value” and I’m stuck in a weird back-and-forth.

I’m not looking for tax advice — I’m just trying to make this boring and dispute-proof, because I’ve seen too many “we paid you” / “no you didn’t” situations.

For people who’ve actually dealt with this (either as contractor or hiring team):
What would you put on the invoice / in writing so it’s hard to dispute later? Basically: what’s the minimum “proof stack” that keeps this clean?

(Also asking because I’m seeing more posts about remote web3 jobs and stablecoin payroll lately, so I’m guessing this is becoming common.)

The clean way to think about this is: pick one unit of account and treat USDC as the settlement rail unless your entire agreement is crypto-native.

If you choose USD as unit of account, your invoice is USD. USDC is just how the money moves.

If you choose USDC as unit of account, your invoice is in USDC and you’re basically agreeing that USDC itself is the obligation (not “USD value of USDC”).

Most disputes happen because people mix the two without realizing it. They invoice in USD emotionally, but write nothing, and then USDC payment becomes this gray zone.

If your client is a normal company (not a DAO treasury), USD invoice + USDC settlement is usually the least chaotic option because their approvals, budgeting, and vendor system are in USD anyway. That’s true even for teams serious about “web3 talent acquisition strategy” — finance still wants predictable obligations.

Proof stack when USD is the unit: invoice + written approval + conversion rule + tx hash. That’s your whole case in one page.