If you've searched “best invoicing app for tradesmen UK reddit”, you've seen the same thread a dozen times — a one-man band sick of doing quotes at 9pm asking what everyone actually uses. Here's the straight version.
Try Amy free for 14 days →The usual answers split three ways. Free invoice generators (fine until you need VAT, CIS or chasing). Full accounting software like Xero or QuickBooks (powerful, but built for bookkeepers — most lads say they paid for it and never opened it). And a pile of trade apps that all want you to download yet another thing and learn it.
The recurring complaint underneath every thread is the same: nobody on the tools wants to *operate software*. You want the invoice sent and the record kept, without sitting down to do it.
It varies, but the through-line is “whatever I’ll actually use.” For a sole trader that almost always means the simplest possible path — not the most features. The apps people abandon are the ones that need a laptop session; the ones that stick fit into how they already work.
They’re excellent ledgers — but they’re accounting software built for bookkeepers, and the MTD-ready plans cost more than people expect. Plenty of tradesmen keep an accountant on Xero/QuickBooks and still need something simpler to actually capture the work as it happens. TradesOffice feeds them; it doesn’t replace them.
Yes — that’s the gap most threads miss. TradesOffice runs in the WhatsApp you already use all day. You save one contact (Amy), text her “invoice Dave £2,400 bathroom”, and a proper PDF invoice goes out in under a minute. No app to download, no new number, no login. £19.99 a month, 14-day free trial, no card.
Yes. It creates CIS invoices with the correct deduction (0/20/30%), records gross/deduction/net, separates VAT, and keeps everything MTD-categorised so your year-end (or quarterly MTD update) is already done.
Amy chases them for you — a polite payment reminder with your bank details and a pay link, so you’re not the one sending awkward “any update?” texts.
Save Amy, text her like a mate, and your invoices, receipts and tax records are just done. No app, no new number.
Try Amy free →