We Built Invoicr for the Trades We Know

The maths everyone ignores

That plumber was right to be angry. A tradesperson working five decent jobs a week, averaging £800 per invoice, loses around £2,600 a year to card processing fees. That's real money. A new van part. A weekend away. A hire. For many sole traders, it's the difference between profit and treading water.

When we started MRVL, we weren't looking to build an invoicing app. We were looking at how money actually moved for tradespeople in the UK. Electricians, decorators, gardeners, handymen, mobile mechanics. All of them had the same complaint. Card processors felt extractive. You do the work. You send the invoice. They take a cut before you see it.

So we asked a different question. What if clients could pay you directly from their bank account? No middle man. No percentage. Just bank to bank, the way business accounts already work.

Why we started with mobile

Invoicr runs on your phone. That wasn't a trendy decision. It was practical.

When we interviewed tradespeople, we found they weren't hunched over a laptop at an office desk. They were in a van between jobs. In a customer's kitchen. On a scaffolding site with mud on their boots. They needed to send an invoice in ten seconds, from a phone in their pocket. They needed to check if a payment had come in while waiting for the kettle to boil.

The iOS app does that. You can write and send an invoice faster than you'd fill out a paper receipt. Your clients get a link. They click it. They pay. The money arrives in your account within hours. No notification three days later that "your payment is processing." No surprise fee. Just the amount you quoted.

The free tier taught us something important

We launched with a free option. Five invoices a month, three customers, bank-to-bank payments included. Not a time-limited trial that expires and pressures you to upgrade. Actually free. Forever, if five invoices is enough for you.

Within the first month, we learned that this attracted the right people. Not looking for a fancy all-in-one accounting suite they'd never use. Looking for something that solved one problem: getting paid faster and keeping more of the money.

The Pro tier added what became clear people actually wanted. Unlimited invoices. Payment reminders, so clients don't forget. Quotes, so you're not fumbling with email templates. WhatsApp delivery, because some clients never check email but they see WhatsApp in two seconds.

The Business tier? That's for teams. VAT compliance built in. CIS compliance for construction. An accountant export feature so your bookkeeper doesn't need to manually copy numbers from an app into a spreadsheet.

Why UK only matters

We don't operate in the US. We don't pretend to understand Australian taxes or European VAT differences. We're built for the UK because the UK is complicated and we know it properly.

VAT thresholds change. CIS taxable turnover rules exist for construction. Sole traders and small businesses have specific compliance needs. An app built "globally" usually means optimised for nowhere. We chose the opposite. Deep knowledge of one place.

The bank-to-bank payment feature works because UK open banking is mature and stable. The compliance features work because we actually understand the rules. That focus makes the product better for who it's designed for, not worse.

The moment it clicked

Three months in, a message arrived from a decorator in Bristol. She'd been using Invoicr for six weeks. On her last job, a £3,200 kitchen refurbishment, the client paid via bank transfer using the Invoicr link. The fee was £4. With her old processor, it would have been £80.

She said it felt different. Not because £76 is life-changing, though for some weeks it might be. But because for the first time, the tool she was using felt like it was on her side, not extracting from her.

That's not a marketing angle. That's the reason we built it.