Why We Built Invoicr Instead of Just Using Wave

Wave works for someone. It's just not you, if you're in the UK.

Wave is a genuinely solid platform. Free accounting, invoice templates, expense tracking. It launched in Canada and has grown into something millions of small businesses use across North America. The product is mature. The company is well-funded. But here's the thing I learned: Wave was never built with a UK plumber in mind.

When a plumber in Sheffield uses Wave, they're forced down a Stripe-powered route. Card processing. 1.4% plus 20p per transaction. On a £500 invoice, that's £7.20 gone before you've even cashed it. And Wave doesn't flag that clearly when you're setting up. You discover it once you start getting paid.

Wave also doesn't understand CIS (Construction Industry Scheme). It doesn't know VAT thresholds in the way HMRC actually enforces them. These aren't edge cases for us. They're the whole picture.

The moment we chose bank-to-bank over everything else

Here's what happened. Early in Invoicr's development, we could have gone the obvious route: integrate Stripe, Square, or PayPal. Everyone does. The integrations exist. The support infrastructure is there.

Instead, we spent three months building something different. Bank-to-bank payments through UK open banking. Your client clicks a link, authorises the payment from their own bank account, and the money lands straight in yours. No card. No processor standing between you.

The fee is roughly £4 per invoice instead of £12.50. That's not a rounding error when you're invoicing hundreds of clients a year. A gardener doing five jobs a week saves over £1,000 annually. A electrician, two or three times that.

But the real win isn't just the money. It's the simplicity. Your client's bank handles the security. You don't need to worry about card data. And for you, the invoice payment link is just... there. No separate payment gateway to manage.

The feature set question: depth or focus?

Wave does accounting. Real accounting. Profit and loss statements, balance sheets, quarterly reports. If you're running a bookkeeping operation or a small agency with complex finances, Wave is closer to what you need.

Invoicr doesn't touch that. We built invoicing, reminders, quotes, and client portals. We made sure they work beautifully on your phone because you're not sitting at a desk. Pro tier adds WhatsApp delivery so clients can get invoices while you're on site. Business tier adds team seats and VAT/CIS compliance so your accountant can pull everything they need automatically.

It's a narrower choice. But it's deliberate. A plumber doesn't need general ledger management. They need to send an invoice quickly, get paid faster, and have proof for their accountant. That's the problem we solved.

Why a mobile-first invoice app matters more than you think

Wave's interface works on mobile. But it's built for desktop first. You notice it when you're on a job site trying to create an invoice while standing in someone's kitchen. The buttons are small. The forms feel clunky. You end up emailing yourself a note to do it properly later.

We started with iOS and built backwards. The entire flow is optimised for your phone. Create an invoice, add items, send it - all in 90 seconds from a single hand. The client portal uses a secret token URL, so no login screens that clients forget.

Wave is free, which is genuinely impressive. But free at a desktop is different from free in your pocket.

One last difference: who's optimising for your problems?

Wave's roadmap is driven by millions of users across the US, Canada, and beyond. Their engineers are solving for accountants in Toronto, contractors in Denver, consultants in Vancouver. The problems are real, but they're not your problems.

When we shipped Invoicr, we were solving for a specific person: a UK sole trader or small tradesperson who gets paid by the job and needs to prove it to HMRC. Every decision we make goes through that lens. VAT thresholds change? We update it. CIS rules shift? We're already on it. A customer asks if WhatsApp invoices work with business numbers? We build it because it matters to them, and it'll matter to others like them.

That focus is either a strength or a weakness, depending on what you need. If you're running a complex business with multiple revenue streams and you need serious accounting features, Wave probably belongs in your toolkit. If you're a plumber, electrician, gardener, or consultant sending invoices in the UK, the economics and the interface are built for you at Invoicr.