It depends on your books and how messy things are now. What we can show you is where the money and time usually slip away.
A normal week for a plumber
Monday, diesel on the way to the first job. Tuesday, fittings from the merchant. Wednesday, pipe and a box of screws. Thursday, parking in town. Friday, another tank of diesel and new blades for the saw.
None of it is unusual, and every one of those is a business cost. By Friday, half the receipts are in the van door, one went through the wash, and the parking one was never printed.
Where it goes wrong
At the end of the month comes a Sunday at the kitchen table with bank statements, memory and whatever photos are on the phone. Some of it gets pieced back together. Some doesn't.
The receipts that don't make it are costs you paid but can't show.
What a missing receipt costs you
If you're VAT registered, you can usually claim back the VAT on business purchases, but you need a proper VAT invoice for it. A till receipt doesn't always count.
If you're not VAT registered, your business expenses still reduce the income you're taxed on. Same rule: you need the records.
Revenue also expects you to keep those records for six years. A shoebox won't last that long.
The accountant side
Most accountants charge for their time. A bag of crumpled receipts and a bank statement full of question marks takes longer to sort. A sheet that's already dated, with the supplier, gross and VAT for every receipt, takes less.
Tidy books can mean a smaller accountant bill, and fewer phone calls asking what that payment in March was for.
The time side
The Sunday at the kitchen table is the part nobody gets paid for. It's time off the tools or time away from home, every month.
Shoebox or sheet
| Shoebox | Graft | |
|---|---|---|
| Receipts | In the van door, the wash or the bin | Photo sent on WhatsApp, saved in your Drive |
| Month end | Sunday at the kitchen table | Already in your sheet |
| Missing receipts | Costs you paid but can't show | Logged the day you send them |
| Accountant | A bag of receipts and questions | One sheet to share |
What Graft changes
You pay for something, take a photo of the receipt and send it to Graft on WhatsApp. Graft picks out the date, supplier, total and VAT, and logs it to a Google Sheet in your own Google Drive. The photo is saved there too, so it's not stuck in the van door.
When it's time to see your accountant, you share the sheet. When you finish a job, send Graft a message or voice note and it makes the invoice for you to forward.
So what can you save?
We'd rather not guess. What changes is this: the receipts get kept, the Sunday sessions stop, and your accountant gets a sheet instead of a shoebox.
Graft is free for 14 days, then €19 a month. Card required.