The Assistant

The Assistant sits near the top of the sidebar, above the groups, because it spans everything rather than belonging to one area. Ask it in plain language.

Two kinds of question

"How do I…?" — questions about the software. Where do I charge interest on arrears? How do I send meeting notice? Where does the reserve projection live? It answers with the actual click path, e.g. FinancesCharge interest on arrears.

"What is…?" — questions about your corporation. What's the balance in the reserve fund? Which lots are more than 60 days overdue? What did we decide about the parkade membrane? It answers from your records and your uploaded documents, and cites where each fact came from.

Asking it to do something

CouncilRecording from the chat is included on the Council plan and above. On Free, the Assistant answers how-to questions only.

Phrase it as an instruction instead of a question, and the Assistant can prepare a handful of everyday entries for you to confirm.

"Council" here means council members and property managers. A question — "How do I record a payment?" — still gets the click path, not a card.

1. It shows you what it would record

   A card appears in the chat, headed with what it's about to do. Inside is the same review step the form shows: the amount, the lot or fund and its balance before and after, and the same warnings — a reference that's already on the books, a payment bigger than what the lot owes. For an announcement it shows the whole title and message, word for word.

2. You press Confirm, or you don't

   Confirm records it. Don't record it leaves it — nothing is recorded, and the declined suggestion is kept as a record of what was offered. Nothing is saved until you press Confirm.

3. It's recorded exactly as if you'd used the form

   Same permissions, same checks, same owner notice, same closed-period lock. The audit trail records you as the person who did it, and notes that it was confirmed from the Assistant.

A few things worth knowing:

• It uses your words and won't fill gaps. It never guesses an amount, a payee or a date. Leave out the date and it means today. Leave out how a payment arrived and the method is recorded as Other. An expense comes out of the operating fund unless you name another.
• If something's missing or unclear, it asks first — "How much was it?", or "'Nordic' matches Nordic Plumbing or Nordic Electric. Which one?" No card appears until it has what it needs. A vendor has to be in your directory already.
• A payment is recorded on account, not against one particular charge. To apply it to a specific invoice, use the form under Finances.
• Only the standard duties can be logged from the chat: fire and life-safety systems, elevator inspection, financial statements, annual budget approval, council minutes and bylaw filing.
• An announcement is posted, not sent. It appears on the Announcements page. Emailing or texting it to owners is a separate step there.
• An owner's report goes to the council and property manager, who are emailed about it. To include photos, report it from Maintenance instead.
• A card lasts 15 minutes. After that it won't post from the figures it was based on — ask again and it reads the books fresh. If the records changed while the card was open, it shows you the updated version and the button becomes Confirm anyway.

What it sends you to a page for

Some instructions it recognises and deliberately won't prepare, because they reach more than one record or need a decision the page is built to show you. You get a link to the right page and a one-line reason, and nothing to press:

• billing fees or any charge to every lot at once — Finances;
• a special levy — how you allocate it decides which vote it needs;
• interest on arrears — Finances;
• moving your books in, or an opening balance — FinancesMove books in;
• closing the books or locking a period — SettingsFinancial controls;
• emailing or texting an announcement to owners — Announcements, which shows exactly who it reaches before you send.

What it can see

The Assistant sees exactly what you can see, and no more.

• A council member asking about arrears gets the corporation-wide picture.
• An owner asking the same question gets their own account, because that is all their login reaches. It will not read them another owner's ledger, and it will not quote the roster's contact details at them. Where the honest answer is "ask your council", it says so rather than inventing one.

The same boundary that governs the pages governs the chat, and anything it records: it can only prepare what you could do by hand. An owner's report is only ever for one of their own lots.

Where its answers come from

Every answer is grounded in one of three things: a snapshot of your corporation's current data, excerpts from your uploaded documents (quoted with the page number), or its map of the product for how-to questions.

If a question can't be answered from any of those, it says so rather than guessing. That is deliberate, and it is the behaviour you want from something answering questions about money and statutory obligations.

Questions worth asking

Getting oriented

• What needs my attention this month?
• Where do I record a payment that came in by cheque?
• How do I run an AGM in here?

Money

• What's in the contingency reserve fund?
• Which lots are in arrears, and by how much?
• How much did we spend on landscaping last year?

Documents and governance

• What do the bylaws say about short-term rentals?
• When did we last approve a special levy, and for what?
• What's the notice period for an SGM?

As an owner

• What do I owe and when is it due?
• Am I allowed to install a heat pump?
• When is the next AGM?

How to get better answers

Be specific about the thing. "What did the 2025 AGM decide about the roof?" beats "roof?".

Say which lot. "What does lot 204 owe?" beats "what does this owner owe?".

Follow up in the same conversation. It keeps context, so "and the year before?" works.

Ask for the source. "Which document says that?" — it will give you the file and page.

What it will not do

The Assistant never records anything on its own. Beyond the entries above, each of which waits for your Confirm, it will not:

• send an email or a text, or issue a notice;
• charge every lot, raise a levy, charge interest, or close the books;
• approve minutes, finalize a vote, or close a work order;
• change your settings or your plan.

For those it tells you exactly where to go and what to click. It's the same rule everywhere the AI helps: it prepares, you decide.

Checking its work

Treat it as a well-briefed assistant, not an oracle:

• Follow the citation. Answers from documents name the file and page — open it when the answer matters.
• Cross-check the numbers. A figure quoted in chat should match the ledger or statement. If it doesn't, trust the ledger and tell us.
• It doesn't give legal advice. It can tell you what your bylaws say. Whether that holds up is a question for a lawyer.
• Watch the difference between proposed and decided. Asked what a meeting resolved, it answers from minutes. A resolution found only in a notice or an agenda is reported as proposed, with the minutes named as where the outcome would be — never as passed. If it says the outcome isn't in the documents it can see, that is the honest answer, and the fix is to upload the minutes. Why →

Names and privacy

Before your question and the records it answers from go to the AI provider, the names of people on your roster — owners and council, past and present — are swapped for placeholders, and put back in the reply you read. The provider sees a placeholder like [P3], not a name.

It isn't complete, and it's better to know where it stops. A name that isn't on the roster — a tenant, a contractor — goes as written. So does an instruction to record something: the Assistant reads your message as you typed it to work out what you're asking for. More on what's sent →

Conversations

On paid plans, past conversations are kept so you can return to one. They are visible only to you, and you can delete one at any time. Deleting a conversation doesn't undo anything you confirmed in it — that is on the books like anything else you recorded.