NCR Pads vs NCR Books: Which Should You Choose?
Every NCR order starts with the same fork in the road: pads or books. It sounds like a detail, and customers often pick whichever word sounds more familiar. But the two are built differently and suit genuinely different processes, and choosing the wrong one means a year of mildly irritating paperwork.
There is a single question that settles it, and we'll come to it. First, what the two things actually are.
How a pad is made
An NCR pad is glued along the head. The collated sets are knocked up square, clamped, and a flexible padding compound is applied to the top edge. A greyboard back is included, which gives you something firm to write against and stops the pad flopping about in a drawer or bag.
When you tear a set out, every sheet in that set comes away together — white and yellow on a 2 part, white, yellow and pink on a 3 part. You then separate them by hand and send them where they need to go.
Pads are supplied in 50 sets. They are the more economical of the two formats, because gluing is quicker than perforating, stapling and taping.
How a book is made
An NCR book is perforated, stapled and taped. Each set is perforated a few millimetres in from the binding edge, the whole block is stapled along that edge, and a cloth tape is wrapped over the staples to give a clean, durable spine.
When you tear along the perforation, the top sheets come out and the bottom copy stays bound in the book. The book becomes a chronological, permanent record that cannot be reordered or have a page quietly removed without it being obvious.
Books are also supplied in 50 sets, and cost a little more than pads because of the extra finishing.
The question that decides it
Does your copy stay with you, or go somewhere else?
If the copy is filed elsewhere — in an accounts folder, in a job file, handed to a colleague — you want pads. There is no benefit to the copy being bound in, and pads are cheaper and quicker to work from.
If the copy is your record and should stay in date order in one place, you want books. The bound copy gives you a running log with no filing step, and nothing to lose.
Jobs that suit pads
• Delivery and despatch notes — copies travel with the goods and back to the office
• Order pads — one to the customer, one to whoever fulfils it
• Job sheets and job cards — the copy joins the job file
• Purchase orders — the copy goes to accounts
• Repair dockets — where the workshop copy travels with the item
A jeweller taking in repairs is the clearest example: the customer holds a receipt, the docket travels with the piece, and the office copy is filed. Nothing wants to stay bound in a book.
Jobs that suit books
• Receipt books — the bound copy is your record of what was taken
• Accident and incident books — a tamper-evident chronological log
• Waste transfer notes — you are required to retain your copy
• Consent and aftercare forms — as used by tattoo studios, where the signed copy must be retained
• Goods movement logs — where the sequence itself is the audit trail
The common thread is retention. Where you have a legal, regulatory or insurance reason to keep the copy and be able to show it in order, a book does that job with no filing discipline required from anyone.
Things worth knowing either way
Both come in 50 sets. A quantity of “10 pads” and “10 books” both mean 500 sets.
Numbering works with both, and is especially worth having on books — a numbered book with a missing stub tells its own story.
Drilling suits pads better. If you are drilling 2 or 4 holes so copies file into a binder, that usually implies the copy is leaving — which points at pads anyway.
Books can have printed covers. A wrap-around cover in your branding, plain or printed, is a nice touch on anything a customer sees repeatedly. Ask us — it isn't on the dropdowns.
Still not sure?
Tell us what happens to the paperwork after it is filled in and we will tell you which format fits. Call 0141 237 1924 or email sales@printstudioscotland.com.
Both formats are available across our full range — A5 2 Part, A5 3 Part, A4 2 Part and A4 3 Part — at the same quantities and the same lead time. For the wider picture, start with our complete NCR buying guide.