You do the work. Blue runs the business.Blue is an AI back office that lives at your shop and works over plain text messages. It watches your QuickBooks, your quotes, your permits, your schedule, and your inbox — and it does the chasing, drafting, and bookkeeping legwork that eats your evenings. No app to install. No login to remember. You text it like you'd text your best office manager.
What it isAI office manager, on a box at your shopHow you use itText messages — works on any phoneYour booksConnects to QuickBooks OnlineWho's behind itForge AI · forgefurther.ai
01 · THE PROBLEM IT KILLS
The service calls never stop — and neither does the paperwork
Every electrical shop past the one-van stage hits the same wall: the calls are there, but the panel and EV quotes go cold, the permit doesn't get pulled until it's holding up the job, the inspection window slips, supply-house receipts pile up on the dash, and nobody's watching cash until it's tight. Hiring an office manager costs $45–60k. Blue does the same chasing for a fraction of that — and it never forgets a follow-up, never misses a permit lead time, and answers at 9pm when you're pricing tomorrow's 200A upgrade at the kitchen table.
Blue is not a chatbot bolted onto your website. It's a worker with access to your actual systems — QuickBooks, your quote list, your calendar, your price book — that texts you when something needs a decision, and handles the rest quietly. Everything customer-facing gets your approval before it goes out. That's not a limitation; it's the design.
02 · A WEEK WITH BLUE
What this looks like in an electrical shop
Every scenario below is a workflow that exists today — running in the field at our pilot customers — reframed for electrical work. Nothing here is a mockup of what we hope to build.
Monday 6:00 AM
The morning briefing built
Before the first coffee: today's calls off the calendar, who's scheduled where, the weather, what's unpaid, and anything that needs your eyes.
Blue: "4 jobs today — Whitaker panel swap 8am, Cedar Ln EV charger 11, two service calls after lunch. Rough-in inspection on Maple Ct is Wednesday. 2 invoices past 30 days, $3,640 total. Want the collection nudges drafted?"
Monday 9:40 AM
Photo of the panel → draft estimate built
Snap the panel, the meter base, and the run to the garage. Blue reads them against your price book and drafts the estimate for a look before you leave the driveway.
You: [3 photos — 100A panel, meter, 40' run to garage] Blue: "Drafted: 200A service upgrade + 60A EV circuit, ~40' conduit run. $4,850 at your book rates. Permit line included. Send it?"
Tuesday 8:00 AM
Quotes that chase themselves built
The EV charger quote from last Tuesday? The homeowner never answered. Blue tracks every open quote and drafts the follow-up at day 3 and day 7 — you approve with one text, it sends.
Blue: "Estimate #2117 (EV charger install, $1,890, the Mendozas) is 6 days quiet. Draft ready: friendly nudge + the utility rebate deadline. Send it?"
Tuesday 1:15 PM
Receipt in the van → bill in the books built
Photo the supply-house receipt from the front seat. Blue reads it, matches the vendor, and drafts the bill into QuickBooks under the right job — flagging anything that looks like a duplicate before it double-pays.
Blue: "Graybar, $742.18, 11 line items — drafted to QBO under Job: Whitaker panel swap. Heads up: invoice # matches one from 8/14. Same order or a duplicate?"
Wednesday 9:00 AM
Permits pulled before they hold up the job built
Blue reads your accepted estimates for permit-carrying work and reminds the office four weeks before the start date — so the permit is pulled and the inspection window is on the calendar, not discovered on the morning of.
Blue: "The Harlan 200A upgrade starts 9/24 — 4 weeks out and no permit on file. County application details are ready. Want me to put the rough-in inspection on the calendar once it's pulled?"
Wednesday 4:50 PM
Job done → invoice out, same day built
Text "Cedar Ln is done" from the driveway. Blue drafts the invoice in QuickBooks from the accepted estimate, you approve, it goes out before you're home. No more Sunday-night pile.
Blue: "Invoice drafted from estimate #2109: EV charger install, $1,890. Send to the customer now?"
Thursday 10:30 AM
Ask your paperwork anything built
Load your docs — manufacturer install manuals, spec sheets, your price book — and any tech on the roster can text a question and get the answer with the actual page attached. Blue cites the manufacturer's manual; the licensed electrician makes the call.
Tech: "max breaker on the wall connector at 48A continuous?" Blue: "60A breaker for the 48A setting per the install manual §3.2 — page attached."
Friday 11:20 AM
Trenching a feed? 811 handled built
A detached-garage feed or a new service lateral means digging, and digging means an 811 locate ticket — filed early enough to be legal, tracked so it doesn't expire under you. This machinery runs daily at our utility-contractor customer; a garage feed is the easy case.
Blue: "The Pruitt garage feed trenches Wednesday. Indiana 811 needs 2 full working days — ticket has to go in TODAY to be legal. Draft's ready."
Any phone works.Blue runs over standard text messaging — iPhone, Android, flip phone. If it can text, it can talk to Blue. Your techs don't install anything either.
03 · SEE IT ON A PHONE
Three real conversations, start to finish
This is the whole interface. No dashboard to learn, no app to update — the same thread you'd use to text a friend.
EV charger quote · Owner
9:41
Blue
📷 3 photos · panel, meter base, garage run
Got them. 100A panel, room for a 60A 2-pole; ~40' EMT run to the garage. Drafted estimate #2117 — EV charger circuit + Level 2 install, $1,890 at your book rates. Send it?
📄 Estimate #2117 · Mendoza · EV charger
send it
Sent. I'll flag you the moment they answer.
They're in — Mendoza just accepted. Deposit invoice drafted in QuickBooks ($567) and a Thursday 11am hold on the calendar. Approve both?
yes
Invoice sent, job on the books for Thursday. ✅
Permit + inspection · Office
9:02
Blue
Heads up — the Harlan 200A service upgrade starts 9/24, 4 weeks out, and there's no permit on file. County application details are ready:
📄 Permit application · Harlan · 200A upgrade
pull it today
Noted. Want me to put the rough-in inspection on the calendar once the permit number comes back?
yes
Permit E-26-4471 logged. Rough-in inspection request is due the day before the panel swap — I'll remind you on 9/22 to schedule it with the county.
👍
Spec + 811 check · Tech
1:40
Blue
max breaker for the tesla wall connector set to 48A?
60A 2-pole breaker for the 48A output setting, per the Wall Connector install manual §3.2. Page attached.
📄 Wall Connector Gen 3 · Install Manual · p.9
and is the 811 good on the pruitt garage feed
Ticket 2609020118 — valid through 9/22. Positive response: 4 of 4 marked, gas and water included. Clear to trench.
thanks
👍
DEMO CONTENT IS ILLUSTRATIVE · A REAL DEPLOYMENT ANSWERS FROM YOUR ACTUAL QUICKBOOKS, QUOTES & SCHEDULE
04 · YOUR BOOKS
QuickBooks, connected properly
Blue connects to QuickBooks Online through Intuit's official channel — the same way your accountant's tools do. It reads invoices, estimates, payments, and bills to answer questions and watch cash; it drafts new entries for your approval.
Blue does on its own
Blue drafts, you approve
Blue never does
Reads your books to answer questions and forecast cash · watches for unbilled finished jobs · flags likely duplicate vendor bills before they're paid · reminds you before a permit window closes
Every invoice, estimate, bill, customer email, and review request — one text from you releases it
Send money, sign anything, delete records, pull a permit in your name, or talk to your customers without an approved draft
The trust window: for the first 30 days everything is draft-first, no exceptions, while you watch it work. After that, you choose what it's earned the right to do on its own — job by job, permission by permission. Most owners loosen a few things and keep approval on anything customer-facing.
05 · WHERE IT LIVES
A box at your shop — not your data in someone's cloud
Blue runs on a Mac mini we install at your shop. Your customer list, your pricing, your books access — it stays on hardware you can point at. We maintain it remotely; encrypted off-site backup protects you from theft, fire, or a dead drive.
Why this matters in practice: your quote history and customer list are the business. They don't get pooled into anyone's training data, and they don't live in a subscription you can be locked out of. Cancel, and the box's data is yours.
06 · THE NUMBERS
Pricing
One-time implementation
$1,000
Hardware setup, QuickBooks connection, your manuals and price book loaded, your workflows tuned to how your shop actually runs, roster onboarded by text.
Monthly
$950/mo
Everything above, running daily. No per-seat charges, no usage meters, no surprise overages — your whole crew texts the same Blue.
The terms
90 day pilot
Ninety days to prove it earns its keep — cancel anytime on 30 days' notice. If Blue isn't obviously paying for itself, stop paying for it.
For scale: $950/mo is about a fifth of a part-time office hire — for something that works 24/7, reads your books, and never lets a quote die quiet. One saved duplicate bill or one revived $4,800 panel upgrade a month and it's paid for itself.
07 · STRAIGHT ANSWERS
The honest part
What we'd tell a friend before he signed
It's early. Forge is a young company with two customers live — a concrete contractor and a utility-line contractor. You'd be among the first, and the first electrician. That cuts both ways: you get founder-level attention on your setup, and you'll occasionally see rough edges before we sand them.
The first two weeks are calibration, not magic.Blue learns your voice, your vendors, your pricing, your customers. It asks more questions early. Owners who text it back get a sharply better office manager by week three.
It won't do your electrical work, and it won't make code decisions.Blue cites the manufacturer's manual or the spec you loaded; the licensed electrician decides. It also won't do payroll or timesheets — deliberately out of scope. It runs the paperwork around the work: quotes, follow-ups, invoices, receipts, permits, scheduling, cash, documents, 811.
08 · NEXT STEP
You've already watched it work
The three phones up there aren't a storyboard — that's the whole product, doing the job the way it does it every day. Starting is the same motion: a text. Say the word and inside two weeks Blue is on a box at your shop, connected to your QuickBooks, learning your vendors and your voice — with the full 90 days to prove it's the best hire you never had to make.