Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
No Specific Anomaly Occurred All Types
General None Reported / Taken
Company Policy; Human Factors
Paper weight and balance forms too prone to error. Paper weight and balance forms are used during Charter Operations and as a backup to normal procedures. Especially during Charter Operations; the Crew can be subjected to distractions. Those distractions can contribute to Flight Crews not trapping errors made by the Agent on the paper forms. Such errors can become huge Safety of flight issues.A weight and balance app in the EFB would be far safer. Arithmetic errors would be eliminated. Now that the EFB has data connectivity; the app could be designed so that it emails Dispatch a copy; which would satisfy the requirement to leave a copy of the weight and balance behind when departing.Eliminate paper weight and balance forms.  Develop an iPad EFB app for weight and balance for charter operations and backup to normal online procedures. Have app email a copy to Dispatch to satisfy need to leave behind a copy of weight and balance info.
Air carrier Captain reported the paper weight and balance forms used on charter operations; believing that an iPad application would be much less error prone.