The invoice payment problem nobody talks about

How we discovered the real cost of being paid

When we first started MRVL Technologies, we spent time talking to UK tradespeople and consultants about their biggest frustrations with invoicing software. I expected to hear complaints about design, speed, or features. Instead, I kept hearing the same thing: 'Why do I lose 2.5 per cent every time someone pays me by card?'

A consultant invoicing £500 to a client loses £12.50 to card processing fees. A plumber issuing five invoices a week at that rate is handing over £3,250 a year to payment processors. For people working on thin margins, that's real money. That's a day's work, gone to percentage cuts.

The obvious solution was already there. UK banks have been moving towards open banking for years. Yet invoicing apps kept routing payments through card processors because that's what they'd always done. We thought: what if we made bank-to-bank payments the core of the product, not a nice-to-have add-on?

Building around what consultants actually need

Once we locked in on bank-to-bank payments, everything else fell into place. When a client pays you directly from their bank account, the invoice itself becomes simpler. No card details to enter. No security theatre. Just a link, a bank account, and done.

We kept the free tier small on purpose. Five invoices a month, three customers. That's just enough for someone to test the water. We've found that consultants and tradespeople don't need to feel locked into a premium plan; they need to know the product actually works before they commit. On a free plan, you see the real value immediately: your payment fees drop from £12.50 to about £4 on that same £500 invoice.

The Pro plan adds what matters when you scale. Unlimited invoices. Automated payment reminders, which sounds dry until you realise it means you don't have to chase clients manually. WhatsApp delivery, because your customers are already checking WhatsApp at 7 a.m., and quote generation so you're not rebuilding the same invoice structure twice.

And because we're UK-focused, the Business tier isn't trying to be everything to everyone. It's built for people who've hired their first employee or two. VAT and CIS compliance aren't afterthoughts; they're baked in. Accountant export means your bookkeeper gets clean data, not a mess to untangle.

Why mobile-first matters when you're on the road

A gardener once told me she'd been using a major invoicing app on her phone via a web browser. She'd spend ten minutes trying to navigate forms on a four-inch screen, squinting and tapping the wrong fields. She started invoicing clients three days late just to wait until she got home.

We built Invoicr as a native iOS app first because that's how sole traders work. You finish a job. You're standing on someone's driveway. You pull out your phone, create an invoice, send it. The client clicks a link, pays you from their bank app. You're done before you get back in the van.

The client portal runs on a secure token system. No username and password to remember or reset. Your client gets a unique link, clicks it, and sees an invoice they can pay immediately. Simple enough that a 72-year-old electrician's customer can use it without calling for help.

The payment fees are the story, but culture is why we keep building

We could have packaged Invoicr as a generic invoicing app with a payment method built in. Instead, we've positioned everything around the fact that UK open banking lets you keep more of what you earn.

That Manchester plumber's £340 saving wasn't luck. It was the maths of bank-to-bank payments working the way they're supposed to work. A flat-rate fee instead of a percentage. The difference adds up fast when you're issuing invoices every week of the year.

This is why we've stayed UK-focused even as we've been tempted to expand. VAT thresholds, CIS deductions for subcontractors, the way HMRC expects data. Those aren't complications we've bolted on; they're part of the foundation. We're not trying to serve the world. We're trying to serve UK consultants and tradespeople properly.

What happens when payment friction disappears

I've noticed something since we launched. Consultants tell us they invoice faster. Not because the app is fractionally quicker than something else, but because there's no friction to overcome. No fear of 'will my client actually fill in their card details?' No guilt about handing someone a payment link that feels like you're nickel-and-diming them.

A decorator sent me a note saying he'd raised his prices slightly because he wasn't losing as much to payment fees. He didn't need the price increase to survive; he'd just spent years absorbing those costs and never thought to pass them on. Now he could.

That's the real shift. When invoicing software stops being a compliance burden and starts being a tool that protects your margin, it changes how you work.