NCR Pads

About personalised NCR pads

An NCR pad is a block of carbonless (NCR) sets glued along one edge, with a white card cover on top and a stiff strawboard back, printed in black ink with your own logo, details and form layout. Unlike a bound invoice book, a pad is made for tearing off: you write the set, remove the sheets you need and hand or send them on, rather than keeping the copy bound in the book. Ours come in A6, DL, A5 and A4, as duplicate pads of 100 sets (200 sheets) or triplicate pads of 50 sets (150 sheets), numbered or plain, on 82gsm GiroForm carbonless paper, with free design and free UK delivery.

Pads suit invoices, receipts, purchase orders, delivery notes, service reports, order forms and agreements: any document where every copy leaves the pad. If you want the copies to stay bound as a record, see our personalised invoice books.

How NCR copies work

NCR is short for No Carbon Required. The paper makes its own copy: the top sheet has a coating of dye capsules on its back, the next sheet a reactive coating on its front, and the pressure of a ballpoint pen brings the two together so a copy of your writing forms on the lower sheet. A triplicate set repeats the pairing for a third sheet. Every set in this pad is printed with your layout, so the copy is not a blank sheet with handwriting on it but a complete form that matches the customer's.

How the copies are made

Tear off the sets already used, or slip a piece of card behind the set you are writing, so pen pressure does not reach the sets below. Write the form on the top sheet in ballpoint, with firm, even pressure. The writing transfers through the set as you go, so when you tear the original off along the perforation the copy beneath already carries everything you wrote. Each copy tears off in turn, so the whole set can be split between the customer, the office and the file. Gel and felt tip pens transfer poorly; a ballpoint gives the cleanest copy.

Every sheet is perforated along the glued edge, so a set comes away cleanly without tearing the sheet below, and the strawboard back keeps the pad rigid enough to write on standing up.

Two part or three part

Duplicate gives you more forms per pad; triplicate gives you more copies per form. They cost the same per pad, so decide how many places each form has to be filed.

Specification

The options you choose

Everything you can select is in the order panel above; the price updates as you change it.

• Size: A6 (105mm x 148mm), DL (99mm x 210mm), A5 (148mm x 210mm), A4 (210mm x 297mm). The size guide below explains the difference.
• Pad type: duplicate (100 sets, 200 sheets) or triplicate (50 sets, 150 sheets), the same price per pad.
• Quantity: 5, 10, 15, 20, 30, 50 or 100 pads. The price per pad falls at each step.
• Sequential numbering: numbered from a start number you give us, or unnumbered. Included in the price.
• Perforation: top or left, which also sets the binding edge.
• Design: our free design service, from scratch or copying your existing form, or your own print ready file.

This pad is printed in black ink. For full colour printing, see our personalised receipt books.

Who uses personalised NCR pads

Choose a pad when every sheet of the set leaves the pad and goes somewhere else. Choose a book when one copy should stay behind as a bound record.

• Offices raising purchase orders and requisitions: each set is torn off, one copy to the supplier and one to accounts, with nothing left to store on the pad.
• Warehouses and delivery drivers: delivery notes signed at the door, with the copies distributed to the customer, the driver and the office.
• Engineers and service technicians: service reports completed on site where the customer keeps one copy and the other goes back with the job.
• Restaurants and bars: order pads for the kitchen and the table.
• Reception desks and clinics: appointment slips, message pads and receipt slips where a bound book would be awkward.
• Event organisers: entry forms, raffle records and deposit receipts.

What we print on your pad

Your layout is printed on every sheet of every set. Most customers include:

• Logo and trading name
• Address, telephone, mobile, email and website
• Company registration number and VAT registration number where you have them
• The document title (Invoice, Delivery Note or Job Sheet, Quotation or whatever the pad is for) and the sequential number
• Whatever fields your form needs: dates, reference numbers, item lines, tick boxes, declarations and signature blocks, exactly as your artwork has them
• Payment details: bank name, account name, sort code, account number and payment terms
• Terms and conditions, a guarantee statement or a thank you line at the foot

Tell us what to include and our designers lay it out for you at no charge, or upload your own artwork and we print it as supplied after a proof. Printing is black ink, so light tints and pale colours are checked at the proof stage.

Numbered or unnumbered

Choose numbering and each set is machine numbered in sequence, every sheet in the set carrying the same number, starting wherever you like: 0001, 0002, 0003 or 25001, 25002, 25003. The number normally sits beside the document title. It costs nothing extra and it gives you an unbroken audit trail: a gap in the sequence shows a lost or spoiled form, and any copy can be matched to its original. For receipts and forms it lets you reconcile the stubs against the takings or the job list. Tell us the number to continue from when you reorder. If you would rather write the numbers yourself, choose the unnumbered option.

Which size, and pads compared with books

Pads come in the same four sizes as our books and use the same duplicate and triplicate formats.

A6, 105mm x 148mm

A6, 105mm x 148mm, is postcard sized and made for receipts rather than itemised invoices. After the 20mm binding margin about 85mm x 148mm (left bound) or 105mm x 128mm (top bound) remains: a logo and contact line, date and number, four to six short lines, a total and a signature. It is the book that fits a shirt pocket or sits beside a cash tin, and it is the wrong choice if you need a VAT breakdown or bank details on the sheet.

DL, 99mm x 210mm

DL, 99mm x 210mm, is one third of an A4 sheet and the size a DL envelope takes without folding. Allowing 20mm for the binding edge you have about 79mm x 210mm (left bound) or 99mm x 190mm (top bound): a header, a number and date, a single column of six to ten lines with a price column, a total and a signature. Top bound it works as a tall receipt pad; either way the slip posts flat with the goods or the card.

A5, 148mm x 210mm

A5, 148mm x 210mm, is A4 folded in half and the most common size for a handwritten invoice. With 20mm reserved at the binding edge you keep about 128mm x 210mm (left bound) or 148mm x 190mm (top bound): header, customer and date block, six to ten item lines, totals and payment details. The book goes in a jacket pocket or a tool bag, the original folds once into a DL envelope, and most jobs fit on one sheet, which is why it is the default for mobile trades.

A4, 210mm x 297mm

At 210mm x 297mm, A4 matches the paper in every office printer and filing cabinet, which is why it suits an invoice that will be filed rather than pocketed. Keep 20mm clear at the bound edge and the printable area is still about 190mm x 297mm top bound or 210mm x 277mm left bound, enough for fifteen to twenty item lines, a VAT and totals block, bank details and terms on one sheet. It is the size to choose when the invoice carries the detail of the job, and the size to avoid if the book has to travel in a pocket.

Whichever size you choose, keep 20mm clear along the binding edge for the glue and the tape, and keep the sheet portrait.

Both are printed in black on the same carbonless paper with the same numbering and free design. If you are unsure, ask yourself where the last copy should end up: in a file (pad) or in the book (book).

What the price covers

• Every pad holding 100 duplicate sets or 50 triplicate sets
• Your layout in black on the original and every copy
• Binding: a white card cover and a strawboard back
• Perforated sheets throughout
• Numbering in sequence if selected
• Design service (from scratch or from your current pad), proof and revisions at no cost
• Delivery to your UK address at no cost

There is nothing extra to buy. Size, format and quantity are the only things that move the price.

Free design, or your own artwork

Design is included with every order and you can use it two ways. From scratch: send your logo and the details the form must carry, and our designers lay out a clean form for the size you have ordered. Copy your existing design: send a photograph, scan or PDF of the pad you use today and we reproduce it, changing only what you ask us to. Both routes end in an emailed proof and as many revisions as you need, free, before anything is printed.

To supply your own artwork, send a print ready PDF at 300dpi with 3mm bleed, sized to the finished pad, with 20mm kept clear along the binding edge. AI, EPS, PSD, JPG, PNG and DOCX files are accepted too. Upload up to 50 MB on this page or email larger files to sales@personalisedinvoicebook.co.uk with your order number. Printing is black ink, so colour in the artwork becomes greyscale and pale tints can print faint; we flag this on the proof. A file that is not print ready is never printed as it is: we explain the problem, fix it without charge where we can, or ask for a replacement, and you approve a proof first.

From order to delivery

1. You order. Pick the options, pay by card and receive a confirmation email.
2. You send. Upload artwork with the order, or email your logo and wording with the order number.
3. We design or check. Our designers build the layout, copy your existing one, or check your file for print readiness.
4. We proof. You receive the proof by email. Read every number and every name; the proof is the contract for what we print.
5. You approve. Approve it, or send changes and get a fresh proof. The turnaround clock starts here.
6. We print and finish. Black printing on carbonless paper, then numbering, collating, perforating and binding with a white card cover and a strawboard back.
7. We check and dispatch. Every order is compared with the approved proof, then dispatched within 5 to 6 working days of approval.
8. You receive. Free UK delivery, tracked on the order tracking page.

When will it arrive?

Printing and dispatch take 5 to 6 working days from proof approval. Because turnaround starts when you approve, the fastest orders are the ones where the details or artwork are sent with the order and the proof is approved the same day. Delivery is free anywhere in the UK, Highlands, Northern Ireland and Jersey included, and the order tracking page shows each stage. For a fixed deadline, check with us by email before ordering.

Price

What you pay depends on quantity, size and format. Bigger sizes cost more. Duplicate and triplicate cost the same at each quantity, so the choice between them is about copies, not price. The price per pad drops at each quantity break from 5 pads to 100. Numbering, perforation, design, the proof and delivery are all included, and prices are shown before VAT. The order panel and the price table on this page carry the current price for every combination, so we do not repeat them here. For more than 100 pads or anything outside the standard options, use the bespoke quotation form.

NCR Pads in use

• A parts wholesaler raises purchase orders on an A4 triplicate pad: top copy to the supplier, second to goods inwards to check the delivery against, third to accounts.
• A carpet fitter completes an A5 duplicate service report at each job, leaves the customer a copy and hands the other to the office with the invoice.
• A restaurant uses DL duplicate order pads: one copy to the kitchen, one stays with the table until the bill.
• A community hall takes booking deposits on an A6 duplicate receipt pad, one to the hirer and one to the treasurer.

Who we are

We are a UK printer of personalised NCR invoice books, receipt books and pads, and every order includes free design, a proof to approve and free UK delivery. We answer email within one working day at sales@personalisedinvoicebook.co.uk and take calls on 01933 81 21 51, Monday to Friday, 09:00 to 17:30. Because the pads are personalised they cannot be returned once printed; you can cancel free of charge at any point before you approve your proof, and if anything arrives faulty, damaged or short, or is not what you approved, tell us within 14 days of delivery and we reprint or refund. Reviews from customers who bought this product are in the Reviews tab.