Notepads and NCR books your trade actually uses

NCR stands for No Carbon Required, and it sounds simple because mostly it is. But a job sheet that is wrong is wrong for the next 500 jobs, so it is worth ten minutes now.

Parts, and who gets them. A duplicate set is two sheets: top copy for the customer, second for you. A triplicate is three: customer, office, engineer. Decide who keeps what before we print, because the sheets are colour coded, usually white on top then yellow then pink, and people learn the colours.

Write with a pen, not a pencil. NCR works by pressure. A ballpoint transfers cleanly, while a fine gel pen or a pencil often does not reach the bottom sheet of a triplicate. Worth telling your team.

Leave enough room to actually write. The most common design fault is boxes sized for typed text rather than for handwriting in a van. Give yourself generous line height on anything handwritten.

Numbering. Sequential numbering runs across the whole order, so every job sheet is traceable and you can spot a missing one. If you invoice from these, or need them for VAT or warranty records, get them numbered. It is a small addition and it turns a pad into a record system.

Perforation and a writing shield. Perforation lets the top copy tear off cleanly without dragging the set apart. A writing shield is a stiff card flap that goes under the set you are writing on, so you do not emboss the next three jobs down the pad. On any pad that lives in a van, both are worth having.

Design the form once, properly. We will lay out your job sheet or invoice form from £15, including fields, boxes, terms on the back and your logo. Getting it right once pays for itself across every pad you ever order.

Everything else on our site has a price in a box. Pads do not, and that is not evasion. It is that a pad has too many variables for a single figure: sheets per pad, number of parts, size, numbering, perforation, whether there is print on the back, and how many pads. Any honest number would have to assume all seven and it would be wrong for most people.

So email us what you need and we will quote the same day. Useful things to include are the size, whether A4 or A5, duplicate or triplicate, how many sheets per pad, how many pads, numbered or not, and whether you have artwork or want us to design it. If you have an existing pad you are reordering, a photo of it tells us almost everything, and emailing that photo to info@walthamprint.co.uk is the fastest way to send it.

Who uses them. Builders, electricians, plumbers and garages for job sheets and estimates. Delivery firms for proof of delivery. Salons and clinics for consultation and consent forms. Anyone who needs a signature and a copy on the spot, which is a lot of trades and something no app has really replaced.

Branded notepads are the other half of this page: A4 or A5, glued at the head, with your logo at the top. They are a slower, quieter kind of marketing than a flyer, because a pad on a client's desk keeps your name in front of them for months. They pair naturally with letterheads and business cards as a stationery set.

For anything bound rather than glued, or a form that needs to be a booklet, ask, because we quote those per job too.