Invoicing software for Irish sole traders

An honest look at what WaPay does, what it deliberately does not do, and when you are better off with full accounting software. Irish VAT rates, reverse charge and RCT included.

What most people searching for this actually need

There are two different jobs hiding behind "invoice app". One is bookkeeping: a ledger, bank reconciliation, VAT returns filed to Revenue, a year-end pack your accountant can work from. The other is getting paid: write the invoice, send it, chase it, see the money arrive.

Xero, Sage and QuickBooks do the first job well and the second adequately. WaPay does the second job only. It is worth being plain about that before you spend an evening comparing feature grids.

If you need full books, use accounting software. If you are a sole trader or a trade whose real problem is invoices going out late and payments coming in later, that is the problem WaPay is built for — and the two work together, since WaPay exports CSV for whoever does your books.

What WaPay does

You send a WhatsApp voice note. "Invoice Linda four eighty for the kitchen tap." No app to install, no login, no form on a phone in a van.
It writes a VAT-compliant invoice with everything Revenue requires on it, and sends it with a payment link.
Your customer pays by bank or card. Pay by Bank is initiated by Yapily, a regulated payment initiation service provider, and settles over SEPA Instant. Cards and wallets go through Stripe.
It chases for you — three reminders over 21 days, then it stops.
Irish VAT rates built in: 23%, 13.5% and 9%, plus zero-rated, reverse charge and construction under RCT.
One-click VAT report and CSV export for your accountant or your own return.

What WaPay does not do

It does not file your VAT return to ROS. It gives you the figures; you or your accountant file them.
It is not a general ledger and does not do bank reconciliation or a year-end pack.
It does not do payroll.

If any of those three matter to you, you want accounting software, with or without WaPay alongside it.

Irish VAT, handled properly

The rates, effective 1 January 2026, are 23% standard, 13.5% reduced — the one most construction, repair and property maintenance work falls under — and 9% second reduced. Zero-rated and exempt supplies show as 0%.

Reverse charge and construction under RCT are handled separately, because Revenue treats them separately: the standard reverse-charge notation does not apply to construction services covered by Relevant Contracts Tax. Rates come from Revenue's current VAT rates, and the invoice contents from what Revenue requires on a VAT invoice.

What changes in 2028, and what does not

Ireland's VAT Modernisation programme starts on 1 November 2028. A lot of marketing about it is wrong, so here is the accurate version for a sole trader.

You are almost certainly not in scope for issuing. Phase One applies to VAT-registered large corporates whose tax affairs are managed by Revenue's Large Corporates Division. If that is not you, you are not required to issue structured eInvoices in 2028.
But every business in Ireland must be able to receive them from the same date — structured electronic invoices in a format meeting European Standard EN16931, not PDFs or scans.
Cross-border EU rules follow from July 2030 under ViDA.

So the honest answer to "will my PDF invoices stop working in 2028" is: not for issuing, if you are a sole trader. What changes is that you need to be able to take a structured invoice in. Source: Revenue on ViDA and VAT modernisation and the VAT modernisation timeline.

WaPay is on the hook for this, not you — receiving structured invoices is a software problem, and it is on the roadmap.

What it costs

No subscription and no setup fee. Pay by Bank is 1% per payment plus €0.50, with the total capped at €10 per payment, sliding to 0.6% as monthly volume grows, and the percentage component capped at €250 a month. Cards are 1% capped at €10 plus Stripe's processing fee at cost. If an invoice is never paid, there is no fee. Full detail and a calculator on pricing.

Try it without signing up

If you only need an invoice right now, the free Irish VAT invoice generator needs no account and nothing leaves your browser. The product is for when doing that twenty times a month gets old.