FAQ
Straight answers.
The questions every shop asks before a walkthrough — answered the way we'd answer them in the shop, not the way a legal page would.
The product
What is NectARM?
Plumbing software for service shops — the day board, dispatch, jobs, invoicing, a customer portal, and whole-home isometric CAD in one record. It runs on a machine your shop owns, not our cloud. Softphone and Buzz after-hours answering are add-ons. The full picture →
Is NectARM only for plumbing?
The first customer is a plumbing company and the isometric CAD is plumbing-native. The board, jobs, invoicing, and portal fit any service shop — HVAC, electrical, and other trade pages get published when the product earns them, not before.
Is there a mobile app?
The same product on the mobile web — jobs, field reports, van stock, timeclock, and the live map. Nothing for techs to install, update, or lose a login to.
Does it work with QuickBooks?
Yes — customers, invoices, and time sync to QuickBooks on Pro. Your books stay your books; nothing gets retyped into a second set of numbers. QuickBooks sync is not included on Semi-Pro.
What happens to calls after hours?
Buzz is an optional add-on that answers the shop line after hours: it confirms what's happening, logs the house, pages the on-call tech, briefs them, and connects the caller. It never quotes a price or invents an arrival window. How Buzz answers →
Are you the Pipedream automation platform?
No. NectARM (nectarm.com) is shop software for service companies, owned by Pype-Dream LLC. Pipedream (pipedream.com) is a separate developer automation company — unrelated.
Pricing & terms
How much does it cost?
Semi-Pro is $99/mo or $999/yr. Pro is $259/mo month-to-month — $189 early access for the first five Pro shops by the end of 2026, and four spots are still open. Annual Pro prepaid is $2,590, or $1,890 early access. Shop Complete is configured and quoted with you. The full pricing →
Are there per-technician fees?
Pricing is flat for the shop, not per-head. Pro includes 8 tech seats and up to 20 logins; Semi-Pro includes 3 tech seats and 5 logins. Extra tech seats are $10/mo ($5 in your first 90 days); extra non-tech logins are $2/mo ($1 in the first 90 days). All published — no seat-math surprises.
Can we cancel? Is there a contract?
Monthly is real month-to-month — cancel when you want. Annual agreements exist for shops that want the guided onboarding and the better rate. Either way, your data lives on a machine your shop owns, so it was never hostage to a subscription.
What happens to our data if we leave?
Your data lives on a machine your shop owns — customers, jobs, invoices, drawings. It was never sitting in our cloud waiting to be held hostage. Cancel and it stays exactly where it always was.
Are there card processing fees?
Semi-Pro shops that take cards pay Stripe Connect 2.0% of card volume — Semi-Pro only. Pro and early-Pro shops don't pay it. Your shop stays merchant of record; we don't skim card volume.
Getting started
How do we get set up?
On an annual agreement, we do the migration with you — getting your customers and open work into the system is part of onboarding, not homework. It's worth our time when you're committed, and we'll work hard to get your company running cleanly. Month-to-month shops get the same software with lighter setup.
Is there a free trial?
There's no self-serve trial — NectARM is a walkthrough product. You see the real system on a call: the board, a whole-home drawing, an invoice. The free calculators and demos on the site are public and run in your browser anytime.
How long until we're actually running?
It depends on shop size and how clean your customer list is. On annual agreements we drive the setup with you — the goal is a real Monday on the board, not a half-imported account. We'll give you a straight answer in the walkthrough.
Who answers when something breaks?
The person who wrote the software. The (541) 717-0427 line is an assistant that answers questions and hands off to a human — it's not a promise someone's on the phone all night, but when you do get a person, it's the person who built the thing.
Still reading?
The walkthrough answers faster than the page can.
Twenty minutes on the real product — the board, a whole-home drawing, an invoice. Bring the question we didn't cover and we'll answer it live.