KeyBoltYou are the dispatcher, the tech, and the bookkeeper.
You take the call, drive to it, do the work, and then do the invoicing at 10 PM if you have anything left. Every hour spent on paperwork is an hour you did not bill, and every call you could not answer went to whoever picked up first.
14 days free. No credit card to start.
What actually goes wrong.
The calls you physically cannot take.
You are under a door or driving. The phone rings and there is nobody else. That call goes to the next locksmith on the list.
Invoicing at the end of the week, or never.
The job is done and the money is somewhere between your memory and a notebook. Bills that get sent late get paid late, and some do not get sent at all.
No one to ask what happened yesterday.
A customer calls back about a job from three weeks ago. The details are in your head, a text thread, and an email, and you are standing in a parking lot.
What matters for this kind of shop.
- Something that answers when you cannotAn AI receptionist picks up in a voice you choose, gets the address and what they need, and hands you a job instead of a voicemail. This is the single biggest thing for a one-person shop, because you are the bottleneck.
- Billing that happens before you leaveThe bill builds itself from the job, and the customer taps their card against your iPhone. No evening admin, no chasing.
- One place the whole history livesCalls, texts, emails, and Google leads land in one thread per customer. You look in one place, from the van.
- The van counted before you driveCheck stock on the phone rather than your memory, so you stop driving back to the shop mid-job.
Being straight with you.
If you are one person, the phone line is what earns its keep, and that is KeyBolt Pro at $189 a month plus carrier fees of roughly $80 to $130. Basic at $99 gives you jobs, billing, customers, and inventory but no phone line and no AI receptionist. Plenty of one-van shops start on Basic and move up once they can measure what they are missing.
Questions.
- Is this overkill for one person?
- The dispatch and team parts are, and you can ignore them. What is not overkill is answering calls you would otherwise lose and billing before you drive away. If you never miss a call and always bill same-day, you do not need us.
- Do I have to change my phone number?
- No. You can port your existing number to KeyBolt, or keep it and forward. Porting takes a couple of weeks and we handle the paperwork.
- How long does setup take?
- You can be taking jobs the same day. The trial is 14 days with no card, which is deliberately long enough to see a real week.
- What if I grow and hire someone?
- Basic covers up to 5 team members and Pro up to 10. Adding a tech is an email invite, and you choose what they can see.