What is Rivet?
Rivet is the AI operating system built for one-to-five-person trades shops — HVAC, plumbing, electrical, and painting contractors. When you can't pick up, Rivet answers the phone, talks to the caller, and drafts the booking. Back in the truck, you speak — and the quote, invoice, or confirmation text gets typed up as a proposal. Nothing sends until you approve it: every proposal is priced from your own catalog, every send waits for your yes, and one-tap undo sits behind it all, with QuickBooks for the books once you connect your Intuit account and Stripe for card and bank payments. Rivet is priced as a flat monthly subscription per shop on two plans, $79 and $199 — no per-user seats, overage capped at your plan price, no annual contract — and is currently in early access. Rivet lives at therivetapp.com and is not affiliated with other companies trading as “Rivet.” There are several — rivet.work, rivetapp.ai, rivetcsr.com, getrivet.io and others — here is how to tell which one you have found.
New to the category? The plain description of what Rivet does when the phone rings is on AI answering service for contractors; otherwise Start with how Rivet compares to an answering service or the honest failure-mode conversation.
Stop running the office at night.
One voice OS.
Three ways to run your day.
It proposes.
You decide.
Always.
Everything your office
manager would do.
Your customer never knows you don't have an office.
Five things happen on their phone — and every one of them started with your yes.
Book online
Your customer opens a page with your real open slots on it and picks one. The slot is held for 24 hours while the details come through. The booking still reaches you as a proposal — you are the one who says yes to it.
Approve the quote
The quote goes to their phone as a link they can read standing in the driveway — good, better and best laid out side by side. They tap the one they want. That becomes the one accepted estimate on the job.
Pay by link
Every invoice you approve carries a pay link. They pay by card or by bank transfer through Stripe, from the same text that brought them the invoice. When a job needs money up front, the deposit is asked for before anyone drives out.
Their portal
One link holds their side of the work: estimates, invoices, jobs, agreements, and a saved payment method if they have used one. Nothing to download and no password for you to hand out — just the link.
Say thanks, ask for a review
After the job, a thank-you text goes out. Happy customers get your Google review link. Unhappy ones get a way to reach you instead. When a Google review does land, the reply is drafted and waits for your approval.
Early access. Every message your customer receives is one you approved.
An answering service takes a message.
Rivet books the job.
The difference isn't features — it's who does the work. A virtual receptionist or answering service hands you a message; field service software gives you a better place to type. Rivet is an AI receptionist that answers the call and does the paperwork, then asks you to approve it.
Jobber's AI still hands every decision back to you. Rivet's AI does the work and just asks for a yes. You stay a tradesperson, not a data-entry clerk.
Avoca answers the phone and stops there. Rivet answers the phone, books the job, quotes it, invoices it, and follows up — one system, start to finish.
Built for 10+ truck fleets with a dedicated office manager. Priced accordingly. Rivet is built for the 1–5 person shop and priced for one.
Built for the owner-operator.
Not the fleet.
Rivet is built for the 1–5 person shop with no office staff. If you're the dispatcher, bookkeeper, and technician all at once — this is for you.
Answer every call from the truck.
Customers call when equipment fails — often in summer heat. Rivet picks up, triages urgency, and books the job before you've surfaced from the crawlspace.
Stop doing invoices under the sink.
Speak the job. Speak the amount. Invoice is drafted, approved, and sent while you're still packing your tools. Cash hits faster.
Coming to electrical shops.
Electrical support is live and actively being expanded. If you're an electrician, you're a great fit today — some trade-specific language is still being refined.
Painting contractors, you're next.
Painting-specific features — estimate templates, seasonal scheduling patterns, crew dispatch — are actively being built out from painter feedback.
No price book. No systems. No admin.
Rivet is the first software you need.
The most common Rivet customer just left a big company. No systems, no price book, no admin help. Rivet gets you operational in hours, not months.
It's 10 PM. The kids are asleep. You're still typing invoices at the kitchen table.
Rivet is in early access — so no borrowed logos and no invented reviews. Just the problem, and the loop that ends it: speak it, approve it, done.
What does 2 hours of admin
actually cost you?
Every day you spend 2+ hours on admin — answering calls, chasing invoices, scheduling — you're leaving jobs on the table. See what that's worth.
Based on 2 hours of admin per day — the average for a solo trades owner (calls, invoicing, scheduling, follow-ups).
chasing paperwork
billing itself
What does Rivet cost?
A full back office, for less than a part-time receptionist. Two flat monthly plans, and the whole loop is in both — the tiers differ by call volume and team size, never by feature. Each plan includes AI answering minutes, with $1.25/min overage capped at your plan price. No per-truck fees, no per-seat charges.
Straight answers.
If you're wondering whether the AI will do something wrong with your money or your customers — that's the right question. Here's what actually happens.