Let the assistant set up your workspace

1Describe your business

At sign up, pick Something else as the business type. Type how many staff you have, then type your trade in the box under it, for example plumber. If we have a workspace for that trade, a green note reads We'll start you on our plumber and gasfitter workspace. While you are still typing, a trade we have a workspace for shows as a button under the box: click it to choose it.

There is a workspace ready for about forty trades, from builders, carpenters and painters to cleaners, gardeners, locksmiths, mechanics and pest controllers. Each one starts with jobs, the lines on each job and what is owed, set up for that trade's own kinds of work.

If you type a kind of business we already have a whole setup for, such as a lawyer, a restaurant or a real estate agency, the note offers Use the law firm setup (or the cafe or restaurant, or property, setup). Click it to switch to that setup.

If it matched the wrong trade, click Not my trade. What you typed is kept, and your workspace is planned from what you write instead.

Then answer What does your business do?. For a matched trade this is optional. Otherwise write as much as you can: what you sell or make, who your customers are, how a job reaches you and what you need to keep track of. A single line gives the suggestions very little to go on. Finish signing up as normal.

2Wait for the plan

After you sign in, Our suggestions is the first card on your home screen. While the plan is being worked out it reads We're working out how to set this up for you. This takes a minute or two, or a few seconds when your trade matched, and you can leave the page.

Click Watch it work to open Set up your workspace, which shows a progress bar and what is being looked into.

3Open setup

When the plan is ready, Our suggestions names the next part to decide. Click Open setup. Build your process in the sidebar opens the same screen.

On a wide screen, setup is three columns. Your plan on the left lists the parts in order and counts how many are decided. The middle is the conversation about the part you selected, and the right is a draft preview of that part. Click a part, or move to it with the arrow keys and press Enter, and the other two columns follow it.

On a narrower screen, Your plan shrinks to its numbers: click the arrow above them to see the names. Narrower still, click the panel icon beside Set up your workspace. On a phone, switch between Plan, Chat and Preview at the top.

4Part 1: what you'll keep track of

Setup opens on the first part still to decide. The conversation starts with What we suggested. The line in italics is what we understood your business to do. If that is wrong, say so before reading further: every other part is built on it.

For a matched trade, What we suggested ends with what that workspace does not do yet, such as accepting a quote online. Read it before you confirm anything, so nothing you rely on turns out to be missing after you move your work across.

Each numbered list shows its fields, with what each one holds, and how it connects to the others. The preview is a draft of each table: its columns and three rows marked Placeholder rows. Your tables start empty. A table your workspace already has is marked Already in your workspace.

Click Confirm this part under the preview if it is right. The part gets a tick in Your plan, and setup moves to the next part still to decide.

5Part 2: the screens you'll work from

The screens you'll work from lists each screen, what it lets you see, then its parts. These become dashboards in the sidebar.

The preview is a draft layout of each screen, with one panel for each part of it. The panels fill in with your records once it is built. Where this lives says where to find it afterwards.

6Part 3: what you'll land on

What you'll land on is the cards the build puts at the top of your home screen, in a row with Our suggestions. The preview draws the real cards. Every number reads 0, because nothing has been recorded yet.

Check they are the numbers you would want first thing each morning. The link along the bottom of each card is what it opens.

7Part 4: on your phone

On your phone lists the tabs along the bottom of the phone app, then the cards it shows and what each is for. The phone shows the same cards for reading, one per row.

You can confirm and change this plan from the phone app. Building the workspace, and changing it afterwards, happens on a computer.

8The last two parts, when you get them

Tools built for the way you work appears when your trade has a job a table cannot do on its own: a quoting calculator, an intake form that works out a price. Its preview names each tool and the tables it is allowed to read, and says whether each table is in this plan or already in your workspace. That is the part to check before confirming.

What your customers see appears when there is something worth showing somebody outside: your services and prices, or live progress on the job they are paying for. Its preview is a draft of each page, marked Anybody with the link, no sign in, because that is exactly what it means: a public page, no PIN and no account.

Neither part is offered when your business does not need it, and a missing part is not a missing feature.

9Ask for a change, or undo one

Type what to change in the box under the conversation, such as a field that is missing or a list you do not need. Click Send, or press Cmd+Enter (Ctrl+Enter on Windows).

A change reworks the whole plan, not only the part you asked about. While it runs the preview dims under Reworking the plan, then updates in place. The reply appears in the conversation.

To take a change back, click Undo under the preview, beside Your last request changed and the number of parts. Every part goes back to how it was before that request, ticks included.

The conversation shows only what was said about the selected part. Click Show the whole setup conversation to read all of it.

10Build your workspace

Build my workspace at the top stays greyed out until every part is decided, with how many are left beside it. Click Go to the next one to jump to the next part still to decide.

When every part has a tick, click Build my workspace. A progress bar names what is being made, such as Making the Appointments table. You can leave the page while it runs.

Before it finishes, it tests what it built, and the progress bar reads Testing your workspace. Each new table gets a test record that is added, changed, moved through its statuses, archived and restored, and then all of it is undone, so nothing is left in your lists and no reference number is used up. Every dashboard and card is checked to read fields that exist.

When a test fails it fixes that and tests again. Its note about the build ends with Tested before handing over, listing what passed and anything still not working.

When it finishes, the lists are in the sidebar, ready to type into.

11Find what was built

Our suggestions stays on your home screen, marked Built, in a row with the cards from part 3. It lists what the build made under Tables, Dashboards, Cards, Apps and Pages. Click a name to open it.

Click See everything it made to open the setup conversation in Ask AI, with each thing previewed beside it. Only whoever started setup sees that link, because conversations are personal.

12Ask for more later

Click Build your process in the sidebar, or the sparkle icon at the bottom left, to open the assistant.

On a wide screen Ask AI is three columns: your conversations, the chat, and What this conversation made. Narrower, click the panel icon beside Ask AI for your conversations and switch between Chat and Preview. On a phone, switch between Chats, Chat and Preview at the top.

Type what you want, such as a new table or a field on an existing one. It replies with a plan: each table, its fields and the dashboard it will add. Read it before you agree to it.

13Correct the plan

There is no button to accept a plan. Type what to change in the same chat, such as a field to add or rename, and press Enter. It replies with the plan again, changed.

When the plan is right, reply yes. It starts building, and a line for each step appears above its reply, such as Creating table "Van services".

14Check what it made

Everything the conversation makes is listed under What this conversation made, with the newest selected. On a phone, it switches to Preview when something new is made.

Click a name to see it. A table shows its columns and first rows. A dashboard, a Quick Glance card, an app or a public page shows the thing itself. Click Open to go to it.