Documentation contents
Documentation
The chat companion
One box for text, screenshots and voice notes, connected to the same desk rather than to a separate assistant.
What the chat companion is for
The desk is a list. Real life does not always arrive as a list. Sometimes there is a document photographed on a phone, sometimes a client says something on a call, sometimes the answer is three sentences rather than a click.
The chat companion is one box for all of that. It sits beside the desk, in the same product, and it talks to the same desk. It is not a separate assistant with its own idea of the business.
What you can send it
Text
A sentence, a question, an instruction. "The Leeds inspection has moved to the 14th." "Does anything need me today?" "Chase Harbor & Co again, the balance is older than I thought."
A screenshot
Paste or upload a picture of whatever is on your screen: an email, a portal page, a letter, a form, a bank statement line. The desk reads what is in it and acts on it. This is usually the fastest way to get something out of another system and onto the desk.
A voice note
Say it instead of typing it. Useful in a van, between appointments, or any time a thought is easier to speak than to write.
What it does with it
What you send changes the desk. Depending on what it is, the chat companion will:
- Add an item that is missing, with its dates.
- Change a date on an item already there.
- Correct a detail the desk had wrong.
- Close something that is finished, or take something off the list that does not apply.
- Prepare a step and put it in front of you to approve.
- Answer a question about what is on the desk and what is coming.
It will also say when it cannot help, rather than inventing an answer. Asking about something outside the business gets a straight no.
How it relates to the desk
The desk is the record; the chat is a way in. Everything said in the chat lands on the desk as a change, an item or a note against an item, so the history stays in one place rather than being split between a conversation and a list.
In practice the two are used differently, and both matter:
| Use | Where it happens |
|---|---|
| Seeing what is in flight and what needs a decision | The desk |
| Reading what was done, and when | The desk |
| Approving a prepared message or step | The desk |
| Adding something the desk does not know about | The chat |
| Passing on something that arrived outside the product | The chat |
| Asking a question | The chat |
Nothing has to be sent through the chat to be handled. A business that never opens it still has a desk that runs.
The chat follows the same permissions as the desk. A step that the desk may not take on its own authority cannot be taken because it was asked for in a message either. It is prepared and put in front of you. See What OutcomeDev cannot do.