From a blank page to paid.

Getting started

The first time you open Ochre it asks for your business — name, address, tax ID, and base currency. Three quiet steps and you're in. Ochre reads your device's region to pre-fill sensible defaults (country, currency, and — for India — GST wording), all of which you can change.

You can run more than one business from the same app. The name at the top of the sidebar is a switcher: tap it to add another business or move between them. Every screen, number, and document is scoped to the business you're in.

The workspace

The sidebar is your map: Documents, Customers, Vendors, Products & services, Money, Insights, Settings. Documents expands into Invoices, Quotations, Credit notes, and Purchase orders — tap the chevron to fold or unfold that group; it stays how you leave it.

Documents opens with a money band up top — your total outstanding and, in warm ink, the overdue slice:

Below it, documents are grouped by what needs you — Needs attention then in-flight, then settled — so the work that matters is first. Search by number or client at any time. You can jump to any section from anywhere, even while deep inside a customer or a document.

Creating a document

Hit New invoice — its chevron also opens Quotation and Purchase order. A new draft opens straight into the customer picker.

• Pick the customer — the list is ordered by who you billed most recently, and it's searchable. Not there yet? Create them inline.
• Add lines — start typing a description and Ochre suggests matches from your catalog; press Tab to complete the top one (it fills the rate and tax), then type the quantity and hit return. Line done.
• Set the details — dates, currency, and (for foreign currencies) the exchange rate, pre-filled with the last rate you used for that currency.

The document you're editing is the invoice — what you see is what prints. When it's ready, press Issue: Ochre allocates the next number in your series and locks it Locked — an issued invoice is a legal record, so it can't be quietly changed. The PDF preview opens by itself so you can send it right away.

Customizing the paper

Ochre ships three composed templates — Editorial, Classic, and Statement — under Settings → Business → design. There you also choose:

• Accent color — used only on labels; money is never colored.
• Money typeface, density, and paper size (A4 or US Letter, by country).
• Fields on the paper — show or hide tax ID, ship-to, e-Way Bill, HSN/SAC, payment details, the scan-to-pay QR, signatory, and the reference line. Money facts can never be hidden.

Every change flows through to already-issued documents too — the paper is presentation; the facts stay frozen.

Sending, saving & printing

Every document has a Preview PDF button. The preview is where delivery happens, with the finished page in front of you:

• Share — the system share sheet: Save to Files, AirDrop, WhatsApp, Gmail, anywhere.
• Save PDF… (Mac) — a copy to any folder.
• Email — a mail draft addressed to the client, PDF attached; nothing sends until you press Send.
• Print — straight to any printer (AirPrint on iPad).

The same flow makes receipts for payments and delivery challans (India) from an issued invoice.

Getting paid

On an issued invoice, Record payment captures the amount, the account it landed in, and a method/reference note like “UPI UTR 4029” or “Cheque 001234”. Save it and the balance rolls up, the invoice recolors to on-track, and a quiet Paid stamp settles onto the paper.

Part-payments are fine — the invoice tracks what's still outstanding, and each payment can produce a receipt PDF stamped with the reference you entered.

Customers & the statement of account

Open a customer to see who they are, what they owe, everything you've billed them, and the fastest path to billing them again. Every customer has a Statement button: pick a period — this month, last month, this quarter, this year, all time, or a custom start–end range — and Ochre produces a printable statement of account: opening balance, every invoice and payment with its reference, a running balance, and the final balance due. Share, email, or print it like any other document.

Products & services

Your catalog lives under Products & services: name, SKU, price, tax class, unit, and optional HSN/SAC. Set a customer's price tier and their new lines start at that discount. Catalog items power the Tab-complete autosuggest when you build invoices. Archive anything you no longer sell — it's kept for history, out of the way.

Money & expenses

Money shows your accounts, balances, and a feed of recent payments. Add an expense with a category, vendor, and receipt photo. Purchase orders track what you spend with suppliers. Everything is cash-basis in your base currency, with foreign amounts converted at the document's rate.

Insights

Insights gives you the numbers at a glance — outstanding, overdue, paid this month, spent this month; receivables by age; and money-in versus money-out over a range you choose. India users also get a GST tax report by component and period. Use Print report to save or send the page as a PDF.

India & GST

When your business country is India, Ochre turns on the GST features: correct CGST / SGST / IGST splits, tax treatment per party (regular, export or SEZ zero-rated, exempt) with the right words on the invoice, e-Way Bill capture, proforma marking on quotes, a scan-to-pay UPI QR on rupee invoices, and delivery challans from issued invoices. These stay out of the way for businesses elsewhere — Ochre is world-ready first.

Backup, restore & sync

Sync is automatic across your own devices through iCloud — issue an invoice on the Mac and it appears on the iPad, no switch to flip beyond being signed into the same iCloud account.

Backups are yours to keep: encrypted .ochre files, protected by a passphrase only you hold. Turn on Automatic backup (daily or weekly, plus a backup whenever you close the app after changes) and Ochre keeps a rolling set. You can export or import by hand any time.

Starting over

Settings → Data → Erase all data wipes every document, contact, product, account, and setting and returns the app to onboarding. Because your books sync, this erase reaches all your devices. Your encrypted backup files on disk are not touched — import one to restore. Take a fresh backup first if there's any doubt.

Privacy

• Local-first — reads and writes never leave your device in the moment; iCloud mirrors in the background.
• No third-party servers, trackers, or ad SDKs.
• App Lock — optionally require Face ID, Touch ID, or your passcode to open the books.
• Backups are encrypted with your passphrase.

Keyboard shortcuts

On a Mac, or an iPad with a hardware keyboard.