Custom Order Forms

Laying Out Custom Order Forms That Staff Will Use

Start by watching how orders are taken now. Note what staff ask, in what order, and what gets forgotten. The form should follow that sequence: customer details at the top, then items and quantities, then delivery or collection, then payment and any notes. A form that matches the natural flow of a conversation gets filled in properly; one that jumps around gets ignored.

Give people room to write. Handwriting is larger than typed text, and cramped boxes lead to guesswork. If you sell a fixed menu or product list, pre-print the items with a quantity column and tick boxes, which is faster and clearer than writing each item out. Leave a generous notes space for allergies, special requests or site directions.

Number the forms if you need to track them. Sequential numbering on carbonless books helps match orders to payments and spot missing tickets at the end of a shift. A copy for the customer and one for the kitchen comes from carbonless forms that copy.

Sizes and Paper

A5 is the most common order form size. It fits a clipboard, sits neatly beside a till and gives enough space for a dozen or so lines. A4 works for trade forms with long product lists or multiple delivery addresses. Small A6 pads suit kitchen tickets and quick market orders where only a few items are noted down.

For single-copy pads, a smooth uncoated paper takes biro, pencil and felt tip without smudging. Carbonless sets use specially coated papers in white, then yellow, pink or blue for the copies, so each part is easy to identify.

Think about where the form will be filled in. A clipboard at a market stall in drizzle calls for a slightly heavier paper that will not cockle, while a pad that lives beside a fryer benefits from a stiff card back so it can be propped up and used without a desk. The gsm figures are explained in our paper weights explained guide.

Branding and Print

Most order forms are printed in one or two colours. Your logo and contact details go at the top, with lines and boxes in a lighter tint so handwriting is easy to read. Full colour is available if you want to include product photos on a mail-in form, but on a working pad simple is usually better.

Add the details customers need on their copy: your phone number, opening hours, website and, for trade forms, your terms or a short line about payment. On the kitchen or warehouse copy, extra space for a time stamp or packer's initials can help with busy shifts.

If the form will be handed out at events for people to fill in later, a clear return address or instructions on how to send it back makes a big difference to the number that come back. Many businesses match the header to their letterheads in matching colours.

Ideas From Different Trades

Takeaways often use small pads with the menu pre-printed in sections, so the person on the phone simply writes a number beside each dish. Bakeries taking celebration cake orders prefer an A5 form with space for the message, flavour, size, collection date and a sketch box. Trade counters favour triplicate books so the customer, the yard and the office each have a copy.

Event caterers and market traders like pre-order forms with a tear-off slip that the customer keeps as a reminder of what they ordered and when to collect. Wholesalers selling to shops sometimes print a full product list on an A4 sheet so retailers can tick quantities and send it back by post or as a photo. Jobs that need three copies use our three part carbonless sets.

Fill In Your Draft Form With a Real Order

The quickest way to a good order form is to take a real order on a rough draft. Sketch the fields you think you need, write out yesterday's biggest order on it by hand, and see which boxes ran out of room and which stayed empty; that draft, photographed and sent to us, is a better brief than a blank layout. Then choose the format: a pad for a counter, a carbonless book for a van or a market, loose sheets for an office printer. Tell us the size, usually A5 for a takeaway and A4 for trade, the number of parts, and whether the forms need numbering. Artwork is your logo as a vector file and the field list as plain text, and we set the layout and send a free proof. A custom quote comes by email within one working day, minimums are low and quoted per job, and forms are printed in four to seven working days after approval with free tracked delivery to UK mainland addresses. Counter staff who need a single copy use our carbonless pads for the counter.