Just went independent? No price book. No systems. No admin.
You left the big company with a trade and a truck. What you did not take with you is the office — the person who answers the phone, books the jobs, and sends the invoices. This is the guide to your first year without one.
I just went independent — what software do I need first?
Very little. In your first year you need exactly three things covered: a way to answer the phone when you are on a job, a way to book work without double-booking yourself, and a way to invoice and get paid. Everything else — CRM, dispatch boards, marketing suites — can wait.
That is the uncomfortable truth most contractor software will not tell you, because most contractor software is built for shops with five trucks and a CSR at a desk. You do not have a CSR. You are the CSR — from a crawlspace, between jobs, at the kitchen table at 9:47pm.
So the first software you add should not be another screen to manage. It should be the thing that catches the phone, the bookings, and the invoices while your hands are full. What software a one-truck shop actually needs walks through the whole stack decision, tool by tool.
Rivet's answer is voice-first: you speak, it turns what you said into a typed proposal — a booking, an invoice, a follow-up — and nothing sends until you approve it. No forms, no dashboard, no data entry. It is the first software you need because it replaces the office you do not have, not the trade skills you already do.
What actually hits your phone in year one?
Calls you cannot answer because you are on the tools, reschedules that arrive mid-job, and invoices you meant to send three days ago. For a solo operator that adds up to roughly two hours of admin a day — do your own arithmetic: it is jobs you did not take.
A realistic Tuesday: a missed call from a new customer while you are under a house. Three texts from an existing job. A customer who needs to move Thursday. An invoice from last week, still unsent. A customer twelve days out who has not paid. None of it is hard — all of it lands on the same phone, and the only person holding it is you.
The math is simple enough to check on a napkin. Call it two hours a day of calls, invoicing, scheduling, and chasing. If your average job runs two and a half hours, that is most of an extra job every working day — at your ticket price, not ours. And the missed calls are worse than the paperwork, because the caller who hits your voicemail can simply dial the next shop in the search results. Run your own numbers in the missed-call cost calculator — average ticket, calls per week, close rate, all yours to adjust.
Do you need a price book on day one?
No. A price book is a tool for making a team of technicians quote consistently — a problem you do not have when the whole team is you. On day one you need a rough rate you can say out loud with confidence, and the discipline to invoice the same day you do the work.
The price-book pressure comes from software built for bigger shops, where flat-rate books exist so five different techs give the same number. You can build one later, once you have real jobs telling you what your market actually pays. The full argument — including when a price book does start earning its keep — is in do you need a price book on day one?
What does going out on your own actually require?
Less than the licensing-and-LLC anxiety suggests, but the sequence matters: proper legal and insurance groundwork first, a business phone number and bank account next, then the systems that keep work flowing. Most of it fits in thirty days if you do it in order.
The one-time setup — entity, insurance, license, bank account — is a checklist, not a mystery, and the right professionals make it boring in the best way. The recurring part is what this page is really about: once the paperwork exists, someone still has to answer the phone every day. The step-by-step version, with what can safely wait until month two, is in the 30-day setup checklist.
If you are wondering whether any of this changes by trade — it mostly does not. The admin load is the same whether the truck says HVAC, plumbing, or electrical on the side. The season and the emergencies differ; the unanswered phone is universal.
What does your first week with a back office look like?
A new customer calls while you are on a job. Rivet answers, takes the details, and drafts a booking proposal. When you finish, you speak the invoice for the job you just did. Two typed cards wait on your phone; you approve both from the driveway. That is the whole system.
The card above is a product demonstration, not a customer story — Rivet is in early access. But it is exactly the loop: you speak, Rivet proposes, you approve, it happens. A second supervisor AI checks every proposal before you see it, everything lands in an audit trail, and one tap undoes a mistake. Nothing ever sends without your yes — the security page explains exactly how that works.
The first-year reading list
Four short reads that cover the decisions of the first year — in the order they actually come up.
The honest stack for year one — and why most of the software aimed at contractors assumes an office you do not have.
No — and the pressure to build one before your first job is mostly a big-shop assumption. Here is what to do instead.
Entity, insurance, license, bank account, phone number — the sequence, in order, with what can wait until month two.
Put your own numbers in — average ticket, calls per week, close rate — and see what going to voicemail is worth.
First-year questions
Do I need an LLC before I take my first job?
That is a legal and tax question, and this is not a legal advice page — talk to an accountant or attorney in your state before you take money for work. What we can say honestly: entity setup is usually the fast part. The daily grind of calls, bookings, and invoices is what actually decides your first year.
When should I add software — day one or after I'm busy?
Add it when the phone starts costing you work, which for most independents is week one, not year two. The mistake is not adding software late — it is adding heavy software early. A one-truck shop needs the phone answered, jobs booked, and invoices sent, not a dispatch board built for five trucks.
Can I run my first year on a spreadsheet and a notes app?
You can, and plenty do — right up until a missed call costs a job or an invoice goes out three weeks late. The spreadsheet is not the problem; the data entry is. Every row still has to be typed by you, at night, after the actual work is done.
Does Rivet work with QuickBooks?
Yes — QuickBooks is Rivet's one integration today. Invoices you approve sync over, so your books stay clean without retyping anything. We would rather do one integration properly than list twenty badly.
What does Rivet cost for a shop that just started?
A flat monthly rate — no per-truck or per-seat pricing, so it does not punish you for growing. Rivet is in early access, and we share the exact number on a short call so we can make sure the fit is right first. See the pricing page for how the flat-rate model works.
Your first hire should not be a receptionist
Early access. Set up in minutes, cancel any time — and nothing ever sends without your yes.