Why I Built an Invoicing App for People Who Don't Type

By Dan Reeve — Working handyman and founder of SMASH Invoices. Dan has been a sole trader for over a decade and built SMASH after losing $1,200 in uninvoiced jobs in a single year. He still takes on handyman work and uses SMASH on every job. About Dan →

I'm dyslexic. Typing has always been slow, effortful, and genuinely hard for me — not just annoying. Every invoicing app I tried assumed I could type. They all failed me at the same point of entry.

I also lost $1,200 in a single year to jobs I completed and never invoiced. Not because the customers wouldn't pay. Because I never asked.

Both of those problems led to the same place: an invoicing app that starts with your voice, not a keyboard.

Most invoicing apps were built by people who sit at computers. I built one for people who don't — because I'm one of them. I'm a working handyman with dyslexia. Typing invoices was genuinely hard for me, not just slow. According to the Australian Dyslexia Association, approximately 10% of Australians have dyslexia — and virtually no invoicing software was designed with them in mind. After losing $1,200 in one year to uninvoiced jobs and spending every Sunday night making $50 errors in Google Docs, I built SMASH Invoices. The core idea: describe your job out loud. That's the whole input.

The problem I lived before I built the solution

I did a $700 job at a holiday park on a Friday. Told myself I'd invoice that night. I didn't. I said Sunday. Sunday came and went. A month later, I drove past the park and kept driving. The $700 was gone. Not bad debt — just gone. I never asked for it.

Same year, a real estate agent had me do $500 of work on a rental. Same story. Didn't invoice it. Too busy, then too much time had passed, then too embarrassing. $1,200 in one year. From two jobs I completed. Two satisfied customers. Never invoiced.

Then there was the Sunday night problem. I'd sit down with Google Docs and try to reconstruct the week from memory. Tired. Making mistakes. A $50 error here, a forgotten material there. I tried ChatGPT to help write invoices. It didn't know my prices. I had to type everything in anyway. The errors happened regardless.

And underneath all of this — the dyslexia. Typing has always been slow and effortful for me. Every other invoicing app on the market assumed I could type. Assumed I had a keyboard, a desk, the patience to navigate forms. Every app failed me at the point of entry.

I thought: I already know how to describe a job. I describe jobs to customers every day. Why isn't that the invoice?

Why voice is the right interface for this audience

Trades people communicate verbally. They describe jobs, quote work, give instructions, explain problems — all by talking. Their knowledge is oral. Their relationships are built by conversation.

The invoicing apps they're supposed to use require them to translate that oral knowledge into a typed form. Every time. For every job. For as long as they're in business.

Most of them never make that translation consistently. They invoice some jobs, forget others, batch them on weekends, make errors. The invoice pile isn't a motivation problem. It's an interface problem.

Voice removes the interface barrier entirely. You already know how to describe your job. You've done it a thousand times. SMASH just listens, prices it using your rates, and sends it. Nothing else changes.

What SMASH actually does — without the tech explanation

You finish a job. You hold up your phone and talk for 20–30 seconds. The quote or invoice builds itself using your prices. You send it via a link. The customer approves and pays.

No laptop. No form. No lookup. No Sunday session. No forgotten $700 jobs.

The app learns your pricing from your first upload. It remembers every customer, every job, every price you've charged. It's like having a personal assistant who takes your dictation, prices the job, sends the invoice, and monitors it for you. For a couple of bucks a month.

"I'm not a computer person at all. Didn't think I'd ever use an invoicing app. My son showed me this one. First invoice I sent was done in about forty seconds. My customer paid that afternoon. Haven't looked back." — Ron D., Pest Control, Cairns QLD [PLACEHOLDER]

Frequently asked questions

Why did the founder of SMASH Invoices build a voice invoicing app? Dan Reeve is a working Australian handyman who built SMASH Invoices after losing $1,200 in uninvoiced jobs in one year and spending every Sunday night making pricing errors in Google Docs. As someone with dyslexia, typing-based invoicing apps were genuinely difficult to use. He built SMASH so that the job description — spoken aloud — becomes the invoice directly.

Is SMASH Invoices designed for people who aren't good with technology? Yes. SMASH Invoices was explicitly designed for sole traders who are not comfortable with typing or office software. The entire interface is voice-first. Users speak a job description, review the generated invoice on screen, and send it with a single tap. No form navigation, no manual data entry, no desktop required.

How is a voice invoicing app different from just using Siri or a notes app? A generic voice app transcribes speech but doesn't understand pricing, materials, or GST. SMASH Invoices is trained on trades invoicing — it identifies services and materials from natural speech, prices them against your personal catalog and an Australian materials database, calculates GST automatically, and generates a professional invoice formatted for the Australian market.

Does SMASH Invoices work for people with dyslexia? Yes. SMASH Invoices requires no typing at any stage of the invoicing process. The primary input is voice. Users with dyslexia, low typing speed, or other reasons to avoid written input can generate and send complete, professional, GST-compliant invoices entirely through spoken description.

What trades use SMASH Invoices? SMASH Invoices is used by sole traders across all major service trades including handymen, cleaners, painters, plumbers, electricians, gardeners, mobile mechanics, pest control, pool maintenance, arborists, and mobile groomers. The app is designed for any self-employed service worker who invoices frequently and works on-site.

Built by a tradie, for tradies who don't type. Start Free →