Grafta vs pen and paper
The docket book has run Irish trade businesses for generations, and it has real virtues: it never runs out of battery, never needs an update, and never asks you to log in. It also gets left on van dashboards, soaked in rain showers, and handed to the accountant as a shoebox of carbon copies every January. Here's an honest look at both — most of the trade still runs on paper, so no lectures.
Grafta and the docket book, side by side
| Grafta | the docket book | |
|---|---|---|
| Writing a quote | Speak the job — itemised, typed and totalled for you | Handwritten docket, arithmetic done in your head |
| The customer's copy | Branded PDF by email, plus an accept-online link | The carbon copy — if it's legible and doesn't go missing |
| Acceptance | They tap Accept — dated and recorded | A signature if you thought to ask; usually a handshake |
| If the book is lost | Nothing to lose — records are EU-hosted and backed up | The book is the business; there is no backup |
| VAT | 13.5%, 23% or 0% per line, totals calculated | Worked out by hand at the bottom of the docket |
| Chasing money | Overdue invoices in a list, with ready-written reminders | Flicking back through the book and trying to remember |
| Year-end | A full export from Settings for the accountant | A winter's evening retyping dockets — or paying someone to |
| Battery & signal | Needs a phone and a charge | Works in a power cut, up a mountain, forever |
What the docket book does well
- It never fails on you — no battery, no signal, no updates, no login. A docket book has never once shown anyone a spinning wheel.
- It's fast for the small stuff — a one-line job for a regular takes ten seconds to scribble.
- It costs a few euro in the stationery shop and everyone already knows exactly how to use it.
Where Grafta is different
- It can't be lost: every quote, invoice and payment is EU-hosted and backed up — a stolen van or a soaked page doesn't take your records with it.
- The customer's copy is legible: a typed, itemised, branded PDF instead of the third carbon copy of your handwriting.
- The sums are done for you: VAT per line at 13.5%, 23% or 0% and totals that always add up — no arithmetic at the bottom of a docket after a ten-hour day.
- Who owes you is a list, not a memory: overdue invoices flagged, with a polite reminder written and ready to send.
- January stops being a typing job: hand your accountant an export instead of a shoebox.
Stick with the book if you do a handful of jobs a year for people you know, the money has always arrived, and the accountant doesn't mind the shoebox. Genuinely — it still works.
Pick Grafta if you've ever lost a docket, been argued down over a price nobody wrote down, or given up an evening to retyping. If you can send a voice note, you can run Grafta. Try Grafta free.
Common questions
I'm not a technology person — how hard is Grafta to learn?
The whole point is that you talk to it. Say the job the way you'd tell an apprentice — "quote for Tomás in Portlaoise, three days at three-twenty, nine hundred in materials" — and the itemised quote is drafted for you to check and send. If you can send a voice note, you're most of the way there.
What happens to my records if my phone breaks?
Nothing — they don't live on the phone. Your data is EU-hosted and backed up, so you log in from any phone or laptop and it's all still there. You can also download a full export from Settings any time you like.
Do I have to stop taking cash jobs?
No — record the payment as cash (or card or transfer) against the invoice and the job is closed properly. Your bookkeeping gets cleaner, not different: every job invoiced, every payment recorded, and the accountant gets a tidy export instead of a bag of dockets.
This comparison reflects publicly available information as of July 2026 and our honest read of both approaches. Features and pricing change — always check current details, and if you spot something outdated here, tell us and we'll correct it.
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