If you have ever ordered an invoice book and been asked whether you want “three-part with perf and numbering”, this page is for you. None of it is complicated, but the vocabulary is unhelpful.
Plies: how many copies you get
A ply is one sheet in a set. The count is usually written as the original plus its copies:
- 2-part — original plus one copy. Customer takes the original, you keep the copy. The minimum useful configuration.
- 3-part — original plus two. The most common choice in Dubai: customer, accounts, and one that stays bound in the book.
- 4-part — original plus three. Used where a third party also needs a copy, such as a site, a driver or a warehouse.
More plies means more cost and, past four, noticeably fainter bottom copies — the pressure from a pen only carries so far.
Paper colours, and why they are always the same
The standard sequence is white, then yellow, then pink, then blue. This is a convention rather than a rule, but it is a useful one: everybody in a UAE office already knows the yellow copy is the accounts copy. Changing the order to suit a brand palette tends to create confusion for no real benefit.
Sizes
- A6 (105 × 148 mm) — receipt and payment vouchers, petty cash. Small, cheap, fits a drawer.
- A5 (148 × 210 mm) — the workhorse. Most invoice and delivery books are A5. Enough room for a handful of line items, still fits a clipboard.
- A4 (210 × 297 mm) — where you need many line items or a detailed breakdown. Workshop repair invoices and detailed delivery notes.
If you are unsure, A5 is right far more often than not.
Perforation
A perforated sheet tears out cleanly along a line of small cuts. Without it, people tear the sheet out anyway and it comes away ragged, sometimes taking the copy underneath with it.
You want perforation on any sheet that leaves the book — the customer copy on an invoice, the driver copy on a delivery note. You do not need it on the sheet that stays bound.
Sequential numbering
A number printed on every set, incrementing through the book. It matters more than most people expect:
- It is how you find a specific transaction months later
- It is how you prove a document is not a duplicate
- It is how your accountant reconciles a book against your ledger
- It is how you notice a missing set
Continue your existing series. If your last book ended at 1450, the next should start at 1451. Restarting from 1 creates duplicate numbers in your records, which is a genuine problem at audit and an avoidable one.
Binding and backing
- Top glued and stapled — the usual choice; the book opens like a pad
- Side glued — opens like a notebook, better for A4
- Hard backing board — a stiff board at the back of the book. Worth having on anything filled in while standing up, because you need something to press against.
- Writing shield — a loose card placed under the current set so the pen does not mark the sets below. Cheap, and frequently forgotten.
Printing
Most books are printed in one or two colours, because the form itself is lines and labels. Full colour is only worth paying for where the logo demands it.
The exception is bilingual books, where the layout work matters far more than the colour count — Arabic and English have to sit alongside each other without the form becoming cramped.
A quick specification checklist
When you ask for a price, having these five answers ready will get you a real number rather than a range:
- Size — A6, A5 or A4
- Plies — 2, 3 or 4-part
- Quantity — how many books
- Numbering — yes or no, and the starting number
- Perforation — yes or no
Published 2 September 2026