Six reasons small businesses still order invoice books
Invoicing software is good and getting better, so it is fair to ask why a printed book is still on the van. The honest answer is that the two are not doing the same job.
1. It works where your phone does not
A basement, a site with no signal, a phone at four per cent at half four on a Friday. The book opens every time.
2. The customer leaves with a copy, signed
Not a promise of an email later. A physical copy, in their hand, with a signature on it, made at the moment the work was agreed and done. Disputes about what was ordered tend not to survive contact with a signed docket.
3. It is faster for small jobs
For a fifteen minute call out, writing four lines beats unlocking a phone, opening an app, finding the customer and typing. The paperwork should not take longer than the job.
4. It is a numbered record you cannot lose to a sync error
Your copy stays in the book, in order, whatever happens to the tablet. Sequential numbering means the gaps are visible, which is what makes a book worth auditing at all.
5. It carries your brand as far as the customer's kitchen drawer
A printed book puts your logo, phone number and website on something they keep. Anything with your number on it that survives in a drawer is doing work for you months later.
6. It costs very little
A book of 100 sets covers months of small jobs for the price of a couple of takeaways, and the design is free with a new order.
When software is the better answer
Be fair about this. If you invoice large amounts, need VAT returns pulled automatically, take card payments online or send most invoices by email, software will beat paper and you should use it. Plenty of businesses run both: the book on site for the signature and the docket, the software in the office for the accounts. The book is not a replacement for a system. It is what you use when you are standing in a customer's hallway.
Picking a book
Two parts for you and the customer, three if the office needs one. A5 is the common choice and fits a glovebox; A5 personalised invoice books are the ones most trades order. If you want more room for a line by line breakdown, go A4. The whole range is on the NCR books page with prices shown before you order.
