Every invoicing app demos beautifully and dies in the van. An honest comparison of the three ways UK tradespeople invoice — and why the winner is the one you’ll actually use.
19 July 2026 · 7 min read
Search "invoicing app" and you'll drown in options. But for a tradesperson the real question isn't which app has the most features — it's which one still gets used in November. Here's an honest look at the three routes and who each suits.
Powerful, accountant-friendly, great for VAT returns — and complete overkill if what you need is to get an invoice to a customer before you leave the drive. Typical cost £15–£35/month, and invoicing means opening an app, logging in and filling a form. Best for: limited companies with an accountant who lives in it.
Built for trades with scheduling, quoting and invoicing in one — but priced per user (£28–£35+/month each) and they still depend on you living inside another app. Teams with office staff get real value; a sole trader mostly pays for screens they never open.
The third route skips the app entirely. With GraftG, the invoice happens in the WhatsApp chat you already have open: finish a tracked job and type "END JOB", or reply "ACCEPT" to a quote, and a numbered, branded PDF invoice arrives in the chat — bank details on it, optional card pay-now link, and automatic late-payment chasing on Pro. Solo is £14/month (first month free), Pro £24/month. The full how-to is in how to send invoices via WhatsApp.
On raw accounting depth, Xero wins. On team scheduling, the job apps win. On speed from "job done" to "invoice sent" — and on the odds you're still doing it properly six months in — the WhatsApp route wins, because it removes the one step where good habits die: opening another app. Many GraftG users run WhatsApp invoicing day-to-day and hand a clean export to their accountant at year-end.
Whichever you pick: invoice the same day the job finishes, number invoices sequentially, show VAT correctly if registered, put your bank details on every invoice, and chase at 7 days without fail. A £14/month tool you use beats a £35/month tool you don't. Weigh it up against whether WhatsApp invoicing is safe and the pricing page.
It depends on how you work. Full accounting software suits limited companies with an accountant; per-user job apps suit teams with office staff. For sole traders who invoice from the van, a WhatsApp-based tool like GraftG is often best because the invoice is sent from the chat you already have open, in under a minute.
Accounting software typically runs £15–£35 a month, trade job-management apps £28–£35+ per user per month, and GraftG’s WhatsApp-based invoicing starts at £14 a month on Solo with the first month free.
Yes. GraftG works entirely through WhatsApp — you sign up once on the web, link your number, and then raise invoices by message. A branded PDF invoice with your bank details is generated and sent into the chat.
Yes. Every invoice is numbered sequentially and stored, and you can export the full history as a CSV at any time from the web portal to hand to your accountant.
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