# Set up your business defaults Source: https://help.mucka.ai/settings/set-up-trade-defaults Category: Settings Last updated: 2026-09-07 > VAT rate, payment terms, your trade, footer text. The defaults Mucka uses every time a quote or invoice goes out. A few things are worth setting once so Mucka doesn't ask you the same questions on every quote and invoice. They live in one place. ## Where they live Head to [**Settings → Business → Details**](/settings/business/details). (Business is the building icon, owner and admin only.) Each setting is a row showing what it's currently set to. Tap one to open it, change it, and hit **Save** — the Save belongs to that row, so nothing else on the screen moves. - **Trade:** pick what your business does (boiler installs, plumbing, bathrooms, air con, heat pumps, etc.). Sets the job types, quote templates and invoice templates you start with. This one commits as soon as you pick, so it asks first — and picking a different trade **adds** that trade's lists to the ones you've already got rather than replacing them, which is how you work more than one trade. See [If you work more than one trade](/help/settings/working-more-than-one-trade). - **VAT:** tick **VAT registered** if you are, and put your number in when you have it — the number prints on your invoices. Either one on its own is enough to tell Mucka to add VAT at 20% by default, so you're covered if you registered before the number came through. Leave both alone if you're not registered and Mucka won't add VAT to new quotes or invoices. One thing to know if you've ticked the box but haven't got the number in yet: you can still write quotes and invoices as normal, but Mucka won't let you **send** one that charges VAT until the number's saved. A bill showing VAT without your VAT number isn't a proper VAT invoice — your customer can't reclaim the VAT off it, and you'd have to send it again. Mucka flags it on the quote or invoice while you're building it, so you find out then rather than when you hit Send. - **Business name, address, phone and email:** what prints at the top of everything you send, and how a customer gets back to you. - **Gas Safe:** your business registration number, if you do gas work. It prints on your certificates and invoices. - **Opening hours:** when you're open. Your AI receptionist only offers callers times inside these. Mucka uses these going forward. Existing quotes and invoices keep whatever was on them when they were sent — a change only affects new ones. ### What's on Paperwork instead Anything that prints on a quote or an invoice lives on [**Settings → Business → Paperwork**](/settings/business/paperwork), not here: **Payment terms**, **Bank details**, the **Quote** and **Invoice footers**, your **terms and conditions**, and **Numbering** (Mucka starts at INV-001 and Q-001 — see below to carry on from your old system). ### VAT rate and quote footers Two things people go looking for and don't find: - **The VAT rate** follows your VAT registration — either tick **VAT registered** or save a VAT number (above), and new quotes and invoices show VAT at 20%. Do neither and Mucka doesn't mention VAT at all, because you shouldn't charge it until you're registered. Templates follow the same setting. Every template is set to **Follow my VAT settings**, so the day you register, all of them start adding VAT — you don't go and edit twenty templates. If a particular job is reduced-rated (5% on insulation) or zero-rated (new build), switch that one template to **Set a fixed rate** on the **Templates** sub-tab. You can still change the rate on any individual quote or invoice. - **Quote footers** are the same — set the footer text on each quote template under **Templates**. ## Use your own invoice or quote numbers Moving across from other software and want to keep your existing numbering? By default Mucka numbers invoices **INV-001** and quotes **Q-001**, but you can switch to your own format under **Reference numbering** on the Business sub-tab. Turn on **"use my own format"** for invoices or quotes (they're set separately) and you get three things to set: - **Prefix:** the bit before the number, e.g. `JW-` or `INV-2026-`. Type whatever matches your existing style. - **Digits:** how many digits to pad to, so 42 shows as `0042` with four digits. - **Continue from:** the number your next one should use. Set it to carry straight on from wherever you'd got to, so nothing restarts at one. A live **preview** shows exactly what your next reference will look like as you type. Your existing invoices and quotes keep the numbers they already have, only new ones use the new format. A couple of things worth knowing: - You can move the "continue from" number **forward**, not back onto a number you've already used. Mucka blocks that so you can't end up with two invoices sharing a reference. - If you sync to **QuickBooks**, it caps invoice numbers at 21 characters and will shorten anything longer. Mucka warns you if your format goes over. Xero and Mucka itself always show it in full. ## Or just ask Mucka You don't have to come here at all. Tell Mucka what you want: > *"Make all my invoices due on receipt."* > > *"Give clients 14 days to pay from now on."* > > *"Our VAT number is GB123 4567 89."* > > *"We're VAT registered now."* > > *"Our Gas Safe number is 123456."* > > *"Make my logo bigger."* Mucka changes it and tells you what it did. With a VAT number or a registration number it reads the digits back to you first — those print on invoices and certificates, and a wrong one makes the document no good. Only the business owner can do this, so an engineer can't change your VAT number or your payment terms, and it won't work over the phone line either. Two things Mucka will not change, no matter who asks: your **bank details** and your **UTR / CIS status**. Those you type in yourself, on this screen, looking at them. Bank details decide where every invoice payment lands, so they're not something to be changing by voice. ## Getting paid on the day you invoice The **Payment terms** row has separate choices for **Residential clients** and **Commercial clients**. That means homes can be due on receipt while businesses get 30 days, without changing the date on every invoice. Mucka reads the client type when it creates the invoice and applies both the matching due date and the wording printed on the document. If you want an invoice due the moment it lands, set that client type to **Due on receipt**. The due date then matches the day you send the invoice, so sent date and due date are the same. Worth knowing: the clock starts when you **send** the invoice, not when you draft it. Write an invoice on Monday, sit on it until Thursday, and Thursday is the day the terms are counted from. Your client always gets the full terms you promised them, and a due-on-receipt invoice never arrives already late. You can still override the due date on any individual invoice. Change the date in the invoice itself and Mucka treats it as yours and leaves it alone. ## What's not yet here A few things you might expect that aren't built yet: - **Per-engineer labour rates.** Day rates and hourly rates per engineer. Coming. For now, type the rate per line on each quote. - **Multi-currency.** Mucka is GBP only today. Single currency per account. - **Per-client default terms.** Residential and commercial clients can have different defaults, but one particular client cannot yet have its own standing exception. Edit the terms on that invoice when needed. If any of these would change how you work, [open a feature request](/help) and Mucka will log it. ## Common gotchas - **VAT-registered or not?** If you're not registered yet, leave **VAT registered** unticked and the number blank. Mucka won't add VAT to new quotes or invoices, and the ready-made templates can't sneak it back in — while you're unregistered, picking one gives you a 0% job whatever the template says. When you register, tick the box here (the number can follow) and new documents default to 20%. No need to zero each template by hand. - **Check the footer on a real PDF.** After saving, preview one new invoice and make sure the wording reads right at the bottom. Easier to spot there than in the box. - **Trade change mid-business.** If you expand from gas into bathrooms, pick the other trade and your job-type list grows — nothing you've already set up is removed. Old jobs keep their original type. There's a separate **Start again** button if you genuinely want to wipe the lists and start from that trade's defaults. - **"Due on receipt" but the due date is a week out?** That'll be a template. If you pick an invoice template when raising the invoice, its payment days win over your account default. Fix the template under **Templates**, or clear the template on that invoice.