Help
This isn't the full guide — that's a walkthrough, and it's over at the user guide. This is short, specific answers to the questions people actually search for after running into something specific. If something is not working, start at Troubleshooting.
Getting started
Branding
Both live in the same place: open Settings → Business details and scroll to Branding. Logo and Signature each take an image from Photos or Files, with a thumbnail once set and a way to remove it. A signature adds a line above the terms on every PDF — "For [your business] — Authorised Signatory" — the logo tops the letterhead.
More on getting started →Tax
Ochre asks one plain question the first time you set up a business: do you charge tax on your invoices? Say yes and it suggests a starting set of tax classes and rates for your country from a global catalog; say no and the tax layer disappears from your documents entirely. Either way, you can revisit it any time from Settings → Tax rates: add, edit, or delete tax classes freely. Every suggested rate carries the same quiet disclaimer the editor itself shows: "Starting values — confirm they're right for your business. Ochre doesn't provide tax advice."
For India specifically, Ochre knows the shape of GST — CGST/SGST/IGST splits, HSN/SAC codes on line items, and the wording that goes with them — because that classification only appears when the seller's business country is India; it never reaches the paper anywhere else. Outside India, the same tax-class editor works for whatever your own tax system calls its rates. Ochre suggests the starting numbers; confirming them for your business with your own advisor is still yours to do.
In a handful of markets the printed title of the invoice is itself part of what the law asks for, not just the tax breakdown underneath it — and it can depend on whether the seller is actually tax-registered. In Saudi Arabia, for instance, a VAT-registered seller's document heads itself فاتورة ضريبية ("Tax Invoice"); a seller who isn't registered for VAT prints a plain Invoice — never a tax-invoice heading, because there's no VAT on the document to claim. Ochre looks this kind of rule up per market rather than guessing at it.
More on tax rates & India GST → See invoicing rules for your specific country →Language & currency
Every document has its own language, independent of your business's default — pick it from a per-document field any time and it overrides the default for that one document. Ochre prints in twelve languages: English, German, French, Dutch, Italian, Spanish, Japanese, Arabic, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Malay, and Tamil. Simplified and Traditional Chinese are kept as genuinely different languages, not one setting with a font swap. Arabic is the only one of the twelve that reads right-to-left, and Ochre mirrors the whole document layout for it automatically.
Currency is separate, and also set per document — bill in whatever currency the job calls for, and for a foreign currency Ochre pre-fills the exchange rate with the last one you used for that currency.
Dates and number formatting on the printed document follow the client's own billing country, combined with the document's declared language — not your device's region. In short: the printed labels change with the language you pick; date and number formatting follow the client's own country. That's what's confirmed — treat anything more specific about a particular language/region combination as something to check on the actual PDF before relying on it.
Getting started
Ochre has no tour. On a brand-new book the Documents screen shows a Send your first invoice card with three steps — Add a customer, Add a line and Send it — each marked Done or To do as you go. It disappears after your first sent invoice, or when you tap Hide.
Small one-time tips then appear exactly where they help, each once and each with a close button: Add a line on an empty draft, Quantity and price after the first line, Ready to issue when the invoice is complete, Got paid? on a sent invoice, Scan a receipt on Money, Billing the same again? on a paid invoice, and Your book, your copy in Settings, about backups and a second business. Tips sit inside the page, so they never cover a button, and they follow your text size, dark mode and Increase Contrast.
The first time each tip appears it pulses gently. With Reduce Motion on, nothing moves.
To bring the tips back, open Settings → Help → Show tips again. The button then reads "Tips are back". The Send your first invoice card comes back only on a book where no invoice has been issued yet.
More in the guide →Getting started
Settings → Help → Rate Ochre on the App Store is always there. It opens the App Store's review page for Ochre. Ochre asks for nothing first and offers nothing in return.
Ochre may also ask once on its own, using Apple's own rating sheet, after you issue your third invoice or after a payment settles your third paid invoice. It never asks on your first day, never twice within 120 days or twice in one version, and never over the invoice preview, a sheet or an alert. It stays on your device, uses nothing from your data, and nothing in Ochre depends on your answer.
Invoices
Numbering
Ochre allocates a document's number only when you press Issue — never when you start a draft. A draft's number stays empty until then, so the drafts you started and abandoned this month never used up a number; only the ones you actually issued did. That's usually why a number looks "further along" than the count of invoices you can see: it isn't missing anything, it's just counting issued documents, not drafts.
The sequence itself is closed: before handing out the next number, Ochre checks the existing ones for that document kind, and if it ever finds a gap in what's already been issued, it refuses to allocate rather than quietly padding over it. Numbers are never duplicated either. This isn't cosmetic — a clean, gap-free sequence is a legal requirement under some tax regimes (India's GST among them), so Ochre treats it as a compliance property, not a nicety.
One more shape you might meet: if you run Ochre on more than one device, invoices issued on the second device carry a short tag — INV‑KQM‑2026‑0001 instead of INV‑2026‑0001. Two devices that are both offline cannot agree on what the next number is, so each device after your first numbers within its own tag; your first device keeps plain numbers. The tag is stable — the same device and business always produce the same one — and it is how two offline devices can never issue the same serial twice.
More on creating and issuing a document →Duplicating
Open the invoice, tap ••• at the top right (Document actions) and choose Duplicate. This works on an invoice, estimate, bill or purchase order in any state. On iPhone, a sent invoice's bottom bar also has a ••• (More actions) menu with Duplicate and Duplicate as… in it, so you don't have to reach for the top corner. You can also do it from the Documents list: long-press the invoice (iPhone/iPad) or right-click it (Mac) and choose Duplicate. On a Mac, File › Duplicate (⌘D) copies the document you have open.
The copy is a new draft with the same customer, lines, prices, notes and terms. It has no number yet — it gets the next one when you issue it. It is dated today and keeps the same payment terms (due in 30 days stays due in 30 days), so you only change what's different this time and send it. A blank draft you haven't touched has nothing to copy, so Duplicate is greyed out there.
To reuse the content as a different kind of document, choose Duplicate as… instead and pick Invoice, Estimate, Proforma Invoice, Purchase Order, Credit Note, Bill or Debit Note. For a purchase order, bill or debit note the customer isn't carried over — you pick the vendor on the new draft.
The new draft opens straight away, in the same business, and Back returns you to the document you copied. The original document is never changed, and its activity log notes that it was duplicated. On a paid invoice, a small tip — "Billing the same again?" — points here; it goes away for good the first time you use Duplicate. Want the same invoice on a schedule instead? Use Repeat — see recurring invoices.
Recurring invoices
A recurring invoice in Ochre is a subscription tied to one customer, amount, and currency, on a schedule — weekly, monthly, quarterly, or yearly. There's one way to create one: on an already-issued invoice, right-click it (Mac) or long-press it (iPhone/iPad) and choose Repeat, then pick the schedule. The first run is set one schedule step from today.
Ochre doesn't send anything for you automatically. Each time you open the app, any subscription that's come due materializes as a new draft invoice — same customer, same amount — sitting in your Documents list for you to review, adjust, and send yourself. If your device was closed for a while and more than one period came due, Ochre creates a single catch-up draft rather than flooding you with a backlog, and quietly advances the schedule past the periods it skipped.
To change one later, open Settings → Records → Recurring invoices, tap the row (or choose Edit…), and change the amount, the schedule, or the customer — a Next draft date updates live so you can see the effect before saving. Changing the schedule keeps the day it's anchored to.
The same Edit screen has a second setting, Repeats by: count the schedule in Gregorian months or Hijri months (Umm al-Qura). Gregorian is the default, and it stays the default even if your phone's own calendar setting is Islamic — Ochre only follows what you pick here, never the device. Either way, the invoice's own issue date, due date, and tax stay Gregorian; only the gap between one draft and the next is counted differently.
A monthly schedule set on the 31st lands on the last day of a shorter month and returns to the 31st once a month has one again — it doesn't stay pinned to the 28th.
One more thing worth knowing: if you open Ochre on two devices on the same day a run comes due, before either has had a chance to sync, each can draft it — a genuine offline race, not a mistake either device made on its own. Ochre doesn't guess which to keep. Once both devices have synced, reopen the app and Settings → iCloud Sync names the pair, by customer and date:
"A recurring invoice was drafted twice for the same run (…), on two devices before they synced. Keep one and move the other to the Trash."More on recurring invoices →
Correcting a mistake
It depends on whether your client has actually seen it. Not sent yet — the Edit pencil is still there; change it and nothing new is created. Already sent — Revise gives you a pre-filled draft that takes the next invoice number and marks the original Replaced. To bring the amount down, raise a credit note instead. To undo it entirely, Void it — the number is retired, never reused.
More on correcting a document →Voided & deleted documents
Void an invoice and every PDF Ochre makes of it from then on is stamped VOID, with a line reading "This invoice has been voided. It is not a bill and should not be paid." So if a client asks for it again, what you send can't be mistaken for a bill. A document in the Trash can't be previewed or sent at all until you restore it — and once restored it's a live document again and prints normally (were a PDF of it made while still trashed, it would read WITHDRAWN).
A PDF you already sent before voiding is a file on your client's side — Ochre can't change it. If they might still pay it, tell them it's cancelled.
More on correcting a document → More on Trash & restore →Discounts
On a draft, a DISC % field on the totals panel applies a whole-document discount, taxed after it's taken off. If you know the final price you want rather than the percentage, the small calculator button beside the field works the percentage out for you.
More on snippets & calculators →Deleted documents
Deleting moves a document to Trash, not straight out of existence. Open Settings → Records → Trash and choose Restore on the row — it comes back exactly as it was. An issued document stays recoverable there indefinitely; only a never-issued draft can be deleted forever, and that one really can't be undone.
More on Trash & restore →Getting paid
Payments
Open the issued invoice and tap Record payment — the amount, the account it landed in, and a method or reference note. For the ordinary case where the whole balance was paid today, Mark paid does the same thing in one tap. Either way, a receipt PDF is available once it's recorded.
More on getting paid →Stripe payments
Card payments run through your own Stripe account — there's no Ochre account or server in the middle. In your Stripe Dashboard, go to Developers → API keys → Restricted keys and create one with write access to Payment Links. That's the only permission it needs to create links; add Refunds: Write only if you want to refund a customer from Ochre.
Ochre only accepts that kind of key. Paste a secret key (sk_…) and it's refused, on purpose:
"That's a SECRET key (sk_…). Paste a RESTRICTED key (rk_…) scoped to Payment Links."
A secret key can move money, refund it, or read customer data; a restricted key scoped to Payment Links can't do much beyond create them (and, only if you add the optional Refunds permission, refund), so a leak of it is a much smaller problem. A publishable key (pk_…) or anything else that isn't shaped like a Stripe key gets a plainer refusal:
"That doesn't look like a Stripe restricted key (rk_…)."
If the key you did paste is missing the one permission it needs, Stripe's own response names exactly which one, and Ochre shows that message back to you unchanged — so the fix is one step, not a guess. A test-mode key (rk_test_…) works too, and mints test links, if you want to try this before using it for real.
To add the key: in your business profile, turn on Accept card payments (Stripe), then paste it into the field beside the toggle. It's stored in the Keychain — never written into a .ochre backup file. If you use iCloud Keychain, Apple carries it, end-to-end encrypted, to your other devices; otherwise a new device means pasting the key again, not restoring it. That's deliberate: a secret that can be used to mint payment links shouldn't travel inside ordinary bookkeeping data.
The toggle is your own switch, and it's the only thing that turns this rail off. Ochre never disables it based on your country. If you're in a country where Stripe has no open sign-up for new accounts but you already hold one, paste the key anyway — it works exactly as it does anywhere else.
Once the key is saved, Ochre asks Stripe whether the account can actually take payments, and shows one line under the field. If everything's in order: "Ready to accept payments." If Stripe still wants something from you, it names what: "Finish setup in Stripe: …" For an account that hasn't started onboarding at all: "Your Stripe account isn't set up yet. Finish signing up in Stripe and this will clear." And if the account is genuinely just waiting on Stripe's own review, with nothing left for you to do: "Stripe hasn't enabled this account yet. There's nothing for you to do — they're still reviewing it." If the check simply couldn't run, the line shows nothing at all — not knowing is not the same as not working, so Ochre stays quiet rather than guess. There's a Check again button next to the line; Ochre doesn't check on its own in the background.
None of this ever blocks anything. Even the sternest of these lines never stops an invoice being issued or a payment link being minted — getting paid is never worth failing to invoice.
When you issue an invoice to a client in a different country from your business, with Stripe turned on, Ochre mints one payment link for the amount owed and prints it — with a QR code — on the invoice. That link doesn't expire, unlike Stripe's checkout sessions, which is why an invoice paid weeks or months later still works off the same link. A domestic invoice doesn't touch Stripe at all; that's a different rail. If the mint fails for any reason, Ochre doesn't wait on it — it falls back to whatever other payment method you've set up and issues the invoice regardless.
One thing Ochre doesn't do yet: it can't tell on its own when a Stripe link gets paid. If a client pays through Stripe, record that payment in Ochre by hand, the same way you would a bank transfer or a cheque.
More on getting paid →PayPal payments
Paste your PayPal.Me handle — just the handle, not the full link. If you paste a whole paypal.me/yourname URL, or one with a stray amount or slash on the end, Ochre strips it down to the handle automatically.
If you don't have one yet, get it free at paypal.me — sign in with your existing PayPal account (or create one), choose a handle, and it's live. No application, no approval wait, and no separate business account is required; a personal PayPal account works the same way. Once chosen, a handle can't be changed, so pick the one you want your clients to see.
Once it's saved, Ochre builds a fresh link for every invoice — paypal.me/yourname/ plus the exact amount still owed and the invoice's own currency — and prints it as a QR code when PayPal.Me is the lead payment rail on that document. The amount and currency travel with the link, so a client can't accidentally pay the wrong sum or in the wrong currency; that matters most on a cross-border invoice. The same link goes into the email too, if you've turned that on separately under In the email — printed and emailed are two different switches.
PayPal publishes a fixed list of currencies a PayPal.Me link can bill in, and it isn't every currency Ochre supports — INR, AED, SAR and ZAR are the notable gaps. An invoice in one of those currencies never gets a PayPal QR; Ochre falls back to whichever other payment rail you've set up (a Stripe link, bank details, a static payment link) rather than print a link PayPal would refuse. Getting a handle at paypal.me is still possible in all four of those countries — the gap is specifically in what currency the link can carry, not whether you can have one.
PayPal.Me itself isn't open for sign-up in every country; PayPal keeps its own list of supported countries and regions and adds to it over time. If yours isn't on it yet, the Payment link field just above accepts any hosted payment URL as a fallback.
The handle is ordinary business data — it travels in a .ochre backup and syncs through iCloud with the rest of your business profile, unlike the Stripe key, which stays device-only on purpose. Set it up once and it follows you to a new device.
Ochre never touches the money here either — the QR and the link both go straight to paypal.com, with no Ochre account or server involved and nothing for Ochre to reconcile automatically. Record a PayPal payment the same way you would a bank transfer: open the invoice and use Record payment once it lands.
More on getting paid →Overdue
From the calendar day after its due date — the due date itself is never shown as overdue, whatever time of day it is.
More on getting paid →Refunds
Open the credit note for that invoice and use Refund — you get a choice of two ways to record it, as a segmented control at the top of the sheet.
I've already refunded them is for money you moved yourself, outside Ochre — your own bank, Stripe dashboard, or PayPal. It records the money out, dated the day it actually left, and a cash-basis tax report takes the tax back in that month.
Refund to their card (Stripe) only appears when there's a card payment worth finding — a Stripe restricted key with Refunds: Write permission on file, and the note came from an invoice paid by card. Tap Find the card payment, and Ochre shows the most that can still go back to it; pick an amount up to that, confirm once, and Ochre sends the money back through Stripe itself — no bank or Stripe dashboard needed. That confirm is the only step: the money leaves your Stripe balance immediately, and Ochre has no way to pull it back — cancelling a refund once sent is a Stripe matter, not an Ochre one.
More on correcting a document →Deposits
It stays exactly where it was recorded — Ochre doesn't move it or apply it for you. The moment your acceptance goes through, a notice names which option and how much; after that, the option itself keeps a quiet reminder that it's still holding a deposit owed back, with a Record refund… button right on it, until you clear it.
More on deposits →Receipts & files
Receipts & files
Tap the file's row. A receipt on an expense, an attachment under Attachments on an invoice or any other document, and a file on a payment (such as a bank confirmation) all open the same way: the photo or PDF full screen (a Quick Look window on the Mac). Close it to land back exactly where you were. You can open a file before you save — on a new expense, a draft, or in the Record payment sheet — to check it is the right one.
A password-protected PDF opens to the viewer's own "This document is password protected" box. Ochre never asks for or keeps that password.
Each file also has Share and Remove. Remove asks first. Removing a file from an invoice, or from one of its payments, adds a line to that invoice's Activity — "File removed: contract.pdf". Choosing Cancel records nothing. On an expense you are editing, removing the receipt waits for Save: Cancel keeps it.
Files go out with useful names. A receipt is "Receipt - Acme Paper - 2026-10-16.jpg" (the vendor, or your note if there is no vendor, then the date), a payment's file is "Payment - Beacon Co - 2026-10-16.jpg", and a file on an invoice is "INV-0042 - Beacon Co - attachment.pdf" ("Draft" before it has a number). The name on the row is the name the file has when you share it. A file you named yourself keeps its name, and nothing already saved is renamed.
More in the guide →Receipts & files
They are the three buttons on a payment in an invoice's Payments list. Payment receipt makes the receipt PDF for that payment, ready to share with your customer. Delete payment… removes the payment itself — it asks first, and says that the payment's attached file goes out of view with it. Remove file removes only the attached file and leaves the payment as it was; it asks first too. A credit applied to the invoice says Remove credit… instead of Delete payment….
Receipts & files
Yes. On Money, Scan receipt offers Scan with camera (where the device has one), Choose from Photos and Choose file. Choose file takes a PDF — handy for receipts that arrive by email. Ochre reads the first three pages, fills in the expense for you to check, and attaches the PDF itself as the receipt (up to 10 MB). Nothing is saved until you tap Save.
If the PDF is password-protected, Ochre asks once — "This PDF is password-protected", with Unlock or Skip — and offers one more try if it is wrong. The password is used only to read the PDF at that moment and is never saved or logged, and the PDF stays locked in your records, exactly as you received it. If you skip, or it still fails, the PDF is attached anyway and the form says "This PDF is locked — fill in the details below."
Reading a receipt needs on-device AI. If it can't run, see why it says it's unavailable.
Receipts & files
Scan receipt, "New from text" and "Paste address" read text with your device's own on-device AI, so nothing is sent anywhere. When it can't run, Ochre says which of three things is the reason:
Settings → On-device AI is always shown, with the current reason.
Receipts & files
Ochre saves it and, the next time it is open and unlocked, shows the Shared with Ochre sheet. The sheet shows a thumbnail of the file; tap it to open the file in Quick Look, so you can tell which receipt or PDF it is. Then choose the business and which invoice, quote or expense it supports, or discard it. Nothing is attached until you choose. PDFs up to 10 MB and photos up to 30 MB are accepted.
Your businesses
Businesses
Both live at Settings → Records → Businesses. Archive is the reversible one — it disappears from the switcher, but every document, client, and ledger row stays exactly where it is; unarchive it any time. Only an archived business shows a Delete… button, which names exactly what it will erase and reaches every device the book syncs to — there's no undo. Deleting offers to save a backup of everything first, checked by default, and stays disabled until that backup has actually saved; you can turn the checkbox off, but only by confirming you mean it. The business you're currently in can't be archived or deleted; switch away first.
More on multiple businesses →Devices, sync & backup
iCloud sync
iCloud sync is off until you turn it on, in Settings → iCloud Sync. The first time you switch it on, Ochre shows one confirmation, in its own words:
"Your books sync through your own iCloud — Ochre never sees them. One thing to know: if this device signs out of iCloud, iOS removes synced app data from the device. Ochre keeps an automatic local safety copy, and your books remain in your iCloud and on your other devices."
Everything moves through the private database inside your own iCloud account, readable only by your Apple ID — there's no Ochre server anywhere in that path. Because the sync engine attaches when Ochre launches, flipping the toggle takes effect the next time you open the app, not instantly.
The sign-out behavior quoted above is ordinary iOS behavior when an app's iCloud data is withdrawn, not an Ochre bug — and it's exactly why the automatic safety copy exists. If it ever happens, the next time your books look empty you'll see a "Your books are safe" screen with a one-tap restore, instead of being walked into onboarding.
iCloud sync
Sync runs through Apple's iCloud, on Apple's schedule. Changes usually reach your other devices within a few minutes, but it can take longer, especially the first time, on a slow connection, or when a device is offline or in Low Power Mode. Nothing is lost while it catches up.
If it's been longer than that, check: both devices are signed into the same Apple ID; iCloud sync is turned on in Settings → iCloud Sync on both devices — it's off by default on a new one; the same business is selected in the switcher on both; and both devices are online. Then give it a few minutes.
Devices & reinstalls
It depends on what was turned on before you switched.
If iCloud sync was on: sign into the same Apple ID on the new device and open Ochre — your books mirror through your own iCloud account and arrive once sync catches up. A very large first sync can occasionally take a while with no visible progress; that's a known characteristic of Apple's sync framework, not Ochre losing anything, and the app never blocks you on it finishing.
If sync was off: your books lived only on the old device, and moving them is a file you carry yourself — export a backup from Settings → Backup, keep the archive somewhere, and import it on the new device.
Either way, your trial doesn't reset. Deleting and reinstalling Ochre doesn't hand you a fresh 7 days — trial eligibility is tracked by Apple, once per subscription group per Apple ID, not by anything Ochre stores. A second device or a freshly wiped one signed into the same Apple ID has already used its one trial.
One case Ochre genuinely can't paper over: signing out of iCloud, moving to a different Apple ID, or a full device erase with iCloud never turned on. That's where local-first data honestly doesn't follow you — there is no Ochre server copy anywhere else to fall back to. Ochre keeps an automatic safety copy for the account-change case specifically (look for "Your books are safe" on the next launch before assuming the worst), but the reliable answer is still your own backup file, kept somewhere you control.
More on backup & restore →Backup
Ochre writes a passphrase-encrypted .ochre file automatically, on a cadence you choose (daily or weekly) when you open the app, and again on close if anything actually changed since the last one. It keeps a rolling set of recent archives and prunes the rest — no daemons, no background service; opening or closing the app is what runs it. You can also export a .ochre file by hand any time from Settings → Backup → Backup & restore; type a passphrase to lock it, or leave the passphrase blank to save an unencrypted file — the automatic archives are always encrypted.
By default those archives land in Ochre's own folder, but turning on Automatic backup asks where to put them. On a Mac, you can choose any folder you can reach — iCloud Drive, a folder from another cloud-storage service you have set up, a NAS, a plain local folder. On iPhone and iPad, choose iCloud Drive or a folder on the device itself; a folder from some other storage services may not be selectable there, and if the picker won't let you choose one, use iCloud Drive. Ochre doesn't integrate with any of these services directly; it just writes an encrypted file wherever the picker points it. Until a folder is chosen — or if that folder ever moves or stops resolving — Settings shows a plain, persistent reminder: "Backups are only on this device — they're deleted if you delete Ochre. Choose a folder." Ochre falls back to its own folder for that run rather than failing silently.
Setting a passphrase asks you to type it twice, so a typo doesn't lock you out later, and shows a one-time "Write this down" reminder right after it saves: "Without it, no one — including us — can open your backups." While Automatic backup is on, you can read its saved passphrase back in Settings → Backup with Show passphrase, which asks for Face ID, Touch ID, or your device passcode first, and only ever on the device that set it. If you've genuinely lost it, there is no recovery — a fresh passphrase only protects backups made from that point on; anything encrypted with the old one stays locked.
To restore, open Settings → Backup & restore and choose Choose .ochre file — Ochre reads the file's header and asks for a passphrase only if that particular archive is encrypted — then pick Merge (the default), Replace all or Just one business. Replace all asks you to confirm first and saves a copy of your current book before it replaces anything — see Replace all. Opening a .ochre file from Files, Mail or Finder takes you straight into the restore flow with that file already chosen.
More on backup & restore →Widget & Watch
Yes to both. The Outstanding Home Screen widget shows your outstanding total and overdue count, refreshed roughly hourly. The Watch app is a glance — outstanding or a running timer, and how many invoices are overdue — with buttons to start/stop a timer or dictate a new invoice; both queue back to your phone rather than writing your books directly.
More on the widget & Apple Watch →Backups and your passphrase
Backup
No. When you export a .ochre file by hand (Settings → Backup & restore), the passphrase is optional. Leave it blank and you save an unencrypted file, which anyone who gets hold of it can open — fine for a quick copy you're keeping somewhere private yourself. Type anything and Ochre asks you to confirm it, at least 12 characters, so a typo doesn't lock you out later. Every passphrase field types as dots, with a Show passphrase eye button to check what you typed.
Backup
Yes. Automatic backups always use the passphrase you set for them in Settings — there's no switch to turn that off. That passphrase is stored on the device itself, not shared through iCloud, so it doesn't automatically show up on your other devices; set it again there, or read it back with Show passphrase on the device that set it.
Backup
There's no way to get it back — not by Ochre, not by anyone. Ochre has no account and no server holding a copy of it, so a lost passphrase means the backups it protects can't be opened again by anyone, including us. Write it down somewhere safe when you set it.
Backup
They stay locked with the old one. Each archive is encrypted the moment Ochre writes it, so a new passphrase only protects backups made from then on. Keep the old passphrase somewhere too, until you're sure you'll never need those older archives.
Backup
Ochre stops and tells you the passphrase is incorrect. Nothing in your books changes — a restore only touches your data once the file and the passphrase both check out.
Backup
Yes, every time. Ochre reads the whole file and verifies it before touching anything in your books. If the file is damaged, tampered with, or incomplete, the restore stops there and your existing data is untouched.
Backup
The Mode menu starts on Merge, which adds the backup's businesses and records alongside what's already here, without overwriting anything. It recognises a business you've renamed since the backup instead of adding it a second time. Replace all wipes what's on this device and loads the backup in its place, so it asks first and keeps a safety copy — see What does Replace all ask, and where is the safety copy? Just one business restores a single business out of a backup that holds several, and leaves every other business on the device exactly as it was. It won't take a year archive; use Merge back for that. The same split exists going the other way: a full backup holds every business you run; Settings → Businesses → Back up this business… writes an archive with just one.
Backup
No. Stripe keys live only in your device's secure storage, never inside a .ochre file. A backup holds your invoices, clients, products, and settings — not payment credentials.
Backup
No. Sync keeps your devices showing the same books, so a mistake or an erase reaches all of them. A backup is a separate file, frozen at the moment Ochre wrote it, that doesn't change when your live books do. Turning both on gives you real protection, not just one of them.
Backup
Automatic backups land in Ochre's own folder unless you choose a different one in Settings. A manual export goes wherever you choose to save it at the time. Settings always shows a line — "Last backup went to …" — so you can check where the most recent one actually landed. Copies Ochre keeps in its own folder are listed under Saved in Ochre.
Backup
It should. Opening a .ochre file from Files, Mail or Spotlight takes you straight into the restore flow with that file already chosen. If it doesn't, open Settings → Backup & restore and use Choose .ochre file; that always works.
Backup
If the folder is moved or renamed, Ochre follows it. If it disappears, or it is still there but can't be written to (it went read-only, the cloud provider is offline, or it is out of space), that backup goes to Ochre's own folder on this device instead of being skipped, and Settings tells you which folder failed so you can choose a new one. If even that fails, Settings says the last automatic backup failed. The "Last backup went to …" line always shows where the most recent one landed.
More on backup & restore →Backup
Restoring starts on Merge, which adds to what you have and doesn't ask. Choosing Replace all asks first. The question says how many businesses it will replace, that documents not in the backup will be removed, and — if iCloud sync is on — that your other devices change too.
Before it replaces anything, Ochre saves a copy of your current book and tells you the file name afterwards, so the step can be undone. That copy is listed under Saved in Ochre as "Before Replace all". If the copy can't be saved (for example the device is full), Ochre says "Couldn't save a copy first" and asks whether to replace anyway; the result line then says no copy was kept. Cancel is the safe choice.
On a large or passphrase-locked backup the screen says what it is doing: "Reading the backup…" while Ochre counts the businesses for the question, then "Decrypting…" while the restore runs.
Backup
The safety copy from Replace all, the files automatic backup writes, and the copy a year archive keeps all live in Ochre's own folder, which the Files app can't show on iPhone and iPad. In Settings → Backup → Backup & restore, Saved in Ochre lists each one, newest first, as a plain-words kind ("Before Replace all", "Automatic backup", "Year archive"), the date and the size. Tap one for Restore… (it picks the file in Import with Merge selected; Replace all still asks first), Share, or Delete, which asks first and can't be undone. A year archive offers Merge back instead of Restore….
Backup
Open Settings → Backup → Backup & restore, tap Archive a year… and choose a finished, fully settled financial year. Ochre shows what moves out (documents, payments and expenses, files and PDFs) and what stays the same (your balances and stock), then asks you to confirm. It saves a copy where you choose and another in Ochre's own Backups, and only then removes the year. A year that has not ended, or still has unsettled items, can't be archived yet, and Ochre says why in words.
To bring it back, open Saved in Ochre, tap the "Year archive" row and choose Merge back. Everything returns with your balances unchanged. Don't use Just one business for it — that mode refuses a year archive and sends you to Merge back.
If you issue a document dated into an archived year, Ochre warns first, then lets you go ahead. Its number continues after the archived ones, so no number is ever reused.
What Ochre holds, just below, counts your documents, payments and expenses, clients and vendors, products, files and PDFs, with a size for files and PDFs, and says what archiving each year would free (and, if you use sync, free from iCloud too).
Subscription
Trial & pricing
Ochre's free trial is 7 days, and Apple runs it — it's a StoreKit introductory offer on the Pro subscription, not something Ochre manages itself. You start it through Apple's purchase sheet, confirming with Face ID or Touch ID against the card already on your Apple ID. Nothing is charged for 7 days; after that it auto-converts to the plan you chose (monthly or yearly) unless you cancel first. That purchase sheet is what you see before issuing your first document — the trial has to start before you can issue.
While the trial is running, and for as long as you're subscribed, every feature works. If it lapses with no active plan, the only thing Ochre withholds is issuing new documents — everything you've already built stays fully yours: open it, print it, email it, export it, back it up.
You manage or cancel the trial and the subscription in your Apple account, not inside Ochre: on iPhone or iPad, the Settings app → your name → Subscriptions; on a Mac, the App Store → your name → Account Settings → Subscriptions.
Three ways to pay: $11.99/month, $99.99/year (the default, better-value option), or $299.99 once for lifetime, no subscription at all. Lifetime is a one-time purchase, so it has no trial — Apple's free trials only exist on auto-renewing subscriptions. One Ochre Pro plan covers every business you run and every iPhone, iPad and Mac on your Apple Account.
Subscription
Open Settings → Subscription inside Ochre and tap Manage subscription — that opens Apple's own subscription screen, where cancelling takes effect at the end of the period you already paid for. You can reach the same screen directly through your device's Settings → [your name] → Subscriptions, with Ochre closed. For a purchase refund, that's Apple's process too, at reportaproblem.apple.com — Ochre has no part in it either way.
More on plans & subscription →Subscription
Tap Redeem code — on the plans screen, just below Restore Purchases, or in Settings → Subscription. It opens Apple's own redeem sheet. When the code is accepted, Ochre Pro switches on straight away, with no relaunch. A free-year Yearly code shows as "free with your offer code until" a date, then renews yearly unless you cancel; a Lifetime code reads "You own Ochre Pro for life".
If you already own Ochre Pro for life, the button isn't shown — a code can't do anything more for you. On a Mac older than macOS 15 the button opens the App Store's redeem page instead and says so; if Pro hasn't switched on when you come back, tap Restore Purchases. If the App Store can't redeem the code, Ochre shows its message.
Siri, Shortcuts & links
Siri & Shortcuts
Ochre adds actions to the Shortcuts app, and Siri understands a few phrases with no setup. None of them can issue, send or number a document: the most an action does is leave a draft for you to review and issue in Ochre.
Open a new draft. New Invoice, New Quotation and New Purchase Order open Ochre on a new draft. You can say "Create an invoice in Ochre" or "New Ochre invoice", "Create a quotation in Ochre" or "New Ochre quote", and "Create a purchase order in Ochre".
Create Invoice Draft. This action, in the Shortcuts app, takes a customer, a description, a quantity and an amount, and puts the draft in the business you have open. A customer name that matches none of yours leaves the draft with no customer. You review and issue the draft in Ochre.
Outstanding Total. Reads what customers still owe in the business you have open, the same figure the Outstanding widget shows. It changes nothing. You can ask for it by voice: "What is outstanding in Ochre" or "How much am I owed in Ochre".
Export All as CSV. Writes the same CSV files as Settings → Export data, for the business you have open and no other, and hands them to the next step in your shortcut. Siri phrase: "Export my Ochre data as CSV".
Back Up Now. Writes the same Ochre backup file as Settings → Backup, locked with your saved backup passphrase. It covers all of your businesses, not only the open one. It uses the backup passphrase you already saved and never asks for one; if none is saved it stops and says so, and writes nothing, rather than making an unlocked copy. Siri phrase: "Back up Ochre now".
Both files stay on your device until your shortcut sends them somewhere. With App Lock on and Ochre locked, every action stops and says to unlock Ochre first. If Siri or Shortcuts says something else, see what the messages mean.
Links
Yes. A link that starts with ochre:// opens a screen or makes a
draft in the business you have open, and nothing else. It cannot issue,
send, number, delete or mark anything paid, it cannot read anything out, and it cannot
reach into another business.
The links Ochre understands:
ochre://new-invoice opens a new invoice draft.ochre://new-quote opens a new quotation draft.ochre://new-purchase-order opens a new purchase order draft.ochre://open?document=<id> opens that invoice, quote or order, if it is in the business you have open.ochre://open?customer=<id> opens that customer or vendor, if it is in the business you have open.A draft link can carry customer (a name, matched to a customer or vendor of
the open business, otherwise the draft has no customer), description,
quantity, rate (or amount, the same thing) and
currency. Amounts and quantities are plain digits with an optional point, such
as 150 or 150.50. rate and quantity
need a description. currency must be the open business's own
currency. For example:
ochre://new-invoice?customer=Acme&description=Logo&rate=150
The whole link is refused if anything in it is wrong; it is never half applied. A link that
is malformed, names something unknown or asks for a different currency creates nothing, and
Ochre says so. A link may be at most 4096 characters, customer at most 120 and
description at most 200. No more than 5 links per minute are acted on. While
App Lock is on and Ochre is locked, a link waits and is acted on after you unlock.
An app can ask to be called back. Ochre accepts x-success, x-error
and x-cancel. After the draft exists, Ochre opens x-success with one
parameter added, id, the draft's id. On failure it opens x-error
with errorCode and errorMessage. Nothing else is ever sent: no
names, amounts, totals or contents. Web addresses (https and http)
and a few other schemes are refused as callbacks, so a web page never receives an id by
redirect.
Error codes: 101 link too long, 102 malformed, 103 unknown action, 104 unknown parameter, 105 repeated parameter, 106 missing parameter, 107 conflicting parameters, 108 bad id, 109 bad number, 110 too many digits, 111 negative number, 112 unsupported currency, 113 text too long, 114 empty text, 115 amount without a description, 116 bad callback; 201 locked, 202 no open business, 203 currency differs, 204 not found in the open business, 205 could not create, 206 rate limited.
Spotlight
Yes, if you turn it on. Settings → Privacy → Search invoices and customers in Spotlight is off until you switch it on. With it on, an invoice's number, customer name, status and total, and a customer's name and city, can be found from the search field on iPhone, iPad or Mac, and tapping a result opens it in the right business.
Spotlight sits outside Ochre's lock, so the switch is unavailable while Require unlock to open is on. Turning the lock on, turning the switch off, deleting a business, Start fresh and restoring a backup each remove what Ochre put in Spotlight at that moment.
The index is kept by your device's operating system, outside Ochre, and nothing in it is sent to us. The privacy policy lists exactly what goes in and what never does.
Accessibility
Accessibility
VoiceOver. In 1.0.1:
New in 1.0.2:
Larger text. Ochre's type follows your system text size. At the largest sizes the Documents screen's "..." menu lists every kind of document you can start, and the search field keeps its "Search by number or client" hint.
Reduce Motion. With Reduce Motion on, the Backup screen and the restore sheet jump straight to the "working", "done" or "failed" line instead of scrolling to it with an animation.
Increase Contrast. With Increase Contrast on, every grey text, status colour, hint and divider steps up to a stronger value, and the faint hint text reaches a readable contrast. The printed invoice, receipt and statement stay white paper with dark ink whatever your device is set to.
The user guide's Accessibility section covers the same ground in a walkthrough. If something reads wrongly, or a screen misbehaves at a large text size, that is a defect: tell us.
Privacy & your data
App Lock
Turn it on at Settings → Privacy → Require unlock to open. With it on, Ochre opens behind Face ID, Touch ID, or your device passcode — the same check your phone already trusts, so there's nothing new to set up or remember.
On iPhone and iPad, leaving the app is what re-locks it: switch to another app or go to the Home Screen, and opening Ochre again asks you to unlock. On a Mac, Ochre asks you to unlock each time it opens; switching to another app does not lock it again. Control Center and similar overlays don't count as leaving — they cover the screen for a moment but don't ask you to unlock when you come back. Whatever you had open stays exactly as you left it: a half-filled sheet is covered, not closed, so nothing you were typing is lost while it's locked.
The same lock reaches the places that talk about your books from outside the app. The Home Screen widget and the Apple Watch face both show a plain "Locked" instead of your outstanding total, and a due-date or overdue reminder drops the client's name and the amount, keeping only the fact that something needs your attention.
More on privacy →Privacy
No — Ochre runs no server that receives your books. Reads and writes stay on your device; nothing leaves it unless you share, print, email, back it up, or turn on iCloud sync yourself, which still only moves through your own iCloud account. (The app does fetch signed tax-rate tables from a small server we run; that request carries nothing of yours.) No third-party trackers or ad SDKs.
More on privacy →Starting over
Settings → Data → Start fresh…. Read this before you tap it: if iCloud sync is on, the default scope, Everywhere, erases your books on this device, in iCloud, and on every other device signed into the same iCloud account — not just this phone. Two other scopes (iCloud only, this device only) are also offered when sync is on. The sheet won't let you confirm until a backup has actually finished saving, unless you explicitly opt out of that.
More on starting over →Leaving Ochre
Settings → Backup → Export data (CSV) writes one plain file per record type — clients, vendors, products, every document kind, line items, and transactions — readable in any spreadsheet, no Ochre required. If you might come back, a full .ochre backup file keeps everything in one restorable archive instead.
More on CSV files → More on backup & restore →CSV import
Importing clients, vendors, and products is free, whether or not you're subscribed. Importing documents — invoices, quotations, or credit notes — needs the same active plan that issuing a new one does (your trial counts), because each imported row becomes a real, numbered document the same way an issued one is. Without a plan, Settings → Import a whole book (CSV) tells you before it reads a single row, rather than stopping partway through.
More on CSV files →Troubleshooting
Troubleshooting
Find the symptom:
Not here? Contact us and say what you saw on screen, word for word if you can.
Siri & Shortcuts
Every Ochre action stops with a plain sentence when it can't do what you asked, and does nothing in that case.
"Unlock Ochre first." App Lock is on and Ochre is locked. Open Ochre, unlock it, and run the Shortcut again. Actions never run past the lock.
"Ochre could not tell which business is active. Open Ochre, choose your business, and try again." Shortcuts and links work in the business you have open on this device. If you have exactly one business, they use it. If you have several and none is chosen on this device, they ask you to open the business first.
"Nothing was backed up. Shortcuts and Siri only save a locked backup, because nobody is watching to confirm an open one is fine. In Ochre, open Settings, turn on Automatic backup under Backup, save a backup passphrase there, then try again. A backup you export yourself from Settings, Backup, can be saved without a passphrase." Back Up Now never makes an unlocked copy and never asks for a passphrase, so it needs the one you already saved for automatic backup.
"Nothing was exported. This business has no records yet." Export All as CSV writes the business you have open; this one has nothing to write.
For Create Invoice Draft: "Nothing was created. Give the line a description." means the description was empty, and "Nothing was created. Quantity must be above zero and the amount cannot be negative." means a number was not allowed.
What Siri and Shortcuts can do →iCloud sync
On a new device, Ochre checks iCloud for an existing book and says so. If it can't tell yet, the screen reads "Still looking for your iCloud book" and "This can take a few minutes, especially right after connecting a new device. Still trying — nothing has been lost." Ochre keeps retrying by itself; there is nothing to do but wait.
If it says "Not signed into iCloud", this device isn't signed in, so nothing can arrive. If it says "No book to bring yet", turn on iCloud sync on your other device and keep it online. See how iCloud sync works and why a change can take a few minutes.
Backup
Settings reports these in its own words. If it says "The last automatic backup was skipped (date). Automatic backups are always locked with a passphrase, and Ochre could not read one: either none is saved yet, or the phone was locked. Save a backup passphrase below, or open Ochre while your phone is unlocked. You can still back up yourself from Settings, Backup, with or without a passphrase.", a backup was due and Ochre could not read the passphrase, so it saved nothing rather than save an unlocked copy. Save the passphrase in Settings, or open Ochre with the phone unlocked. A passphrase saved from 1.0.1 on is stored so it can be read right after you lock the phone; one saved earlier needs saving once more.
If it says "The last automatic backup failed (date).", Ochre could not write the backup, even to its own folder on this device. That only happens after the folder you picked has failed too: when that folder can't be written to, Ochre first saves the backup to its own folder and Settings tells you which folder failed. See what if the folder I picked stops working.
Documents
This happens when two devices each changed an invoice and iCloud kept part of each. Ochre says: "This invoice's line items don't add up to its total on this device — two devices changed it and each kept part. It can't be printed or sent from here until that's settled. Open it on the device you issued it on, check the lines, and amend it if they're wrong." The second message, "Total doesn't add up", is the same problem for the total itself: it no longer adds up from its own subtotal, discount, tax and adjustment. Ochre will not print or send a page whose figures disagree with each other.
The message offers the fix it names: Amend, or "Open draft revision" if one is already in progress. See how to fix a mistake on an invoice you already sent.
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