The Agent: Ask, Plan, Audit and Auto

The Agent is BillingMart's built-in assistant. You chat with it, and it looks things up and drafts work for you, using your own role and permissions. On its own it only looks things up and drafts. Anything that sends, charges or refunds waits for a person, unless the owner has switched on Auto rules for that kind. The mode you pick decides what it does at once and what waits for you. The modes are Plan, Ask, Audit and Auto. Ask is where you start.

Open the Agent

On the web, choose Agent in the header. In a narrow window, use the search palette and choose Open Agent Mode. On the iPhone and Android apps, open the Agent tab. The first time, you choose Allow the Agent. A box for letting it read your customers' contact details stays off unless you tick it. A stop button in the message box halts the Agent at any time.

The four modes

Mode	Runs without asking	Waits for you
Plan	Lookups only. The Agent is given no tool that changes anything.	It writes a plan. You choose Run in Ask, Run in Auto, Adjust or No.
Ask	Lookups.	Each change, such as a draft, a client or a time entry, asks Yes, Adjust or No. Anything that sends, charges, refunds, voids, publishes or changes settings becomes a request that a person approves.
Audit	No lookup and no change.	Every lookup and every change asks first. Requests still need approval.
Auto	Lookups and changes. Requests run at once only when the owner's rules allow them.	Any request outside those rules waits for approval, as in Ask.

Answer a question

A question card says what the Agent wants to do and whether each step looks something up, changes something or cannot be undone. Yes runs it once. Adjust lets you type what should change. No declines it. A question nobody answers runs out after an hour. The card never approves a send or a charge. See Approve or reject what the Agent proposes.

Switch modes

1. Open the mode menu in the message box. It reads Mode: Ask, or whichever mode is on.
2. Choose Plan, Ask, Audit or Auto.

You can switch between Plan, Ask and Audit at any time, unless the Agent is held in Plan (see below). On the phones, tap the mode chip to open Agent mode.

What Auto needs

If any of these is missing, Auto is greyed out with the reason beside it.

• The Agent is on, and the plan you are on includes Auto, or a trial is running.
• The owner switched on Rules are on in the Auto-approve rules on the Connections page.
• Your role is one the owner allows under Who may switch their Agent to Auto. The owner is always allowed.
• The Agent is not held in Plan.

Then you confirm it is you with a recent sign-in and your second factor. If you have none, add one in Your account first. Auto lasts eight hours, then the Agent goes back to Ask. The chip shows Auto until and the time. In Auto it runs only the kinds the owner turned on, within the owner's limits, and the owner is told after each run. See What always needs a person.

Note: The iPhone app asks you to confirm it is you, with your second factor. The Android app cannot ask for that yet. It sends your request to BillingMart, which may accept it if you have just signed in on the phone with your second factor. If the app refuses, it tells you to turn Auto on at billingmart.com, and it then applies on the phone too.

If the Agent is not available

• Your plan does not include the Agent. When a trial ends, conversations stay readable and waiting requests can still be decided.
• The Agent is switched off here. An owner or admin switched it off. They see Turn the Agent on. Anyone else asks them.
• The Agent is paused. A kill switch is on, so no new turn starts. Conversations stay readable. Resume on the Connections page lifts the owner's Stop everything.
• Held in Plan. If people other than you reject three of the Agent's requests in a day, the chip says Held in Plan. An owner or admin has to release it. Rejecting your own Agent's request does not count.
• Out of AI credits. See AI credits.
• A monthly limit on assistant actions. Some plans set one. At the limit new requests are refused. Requests already waiting can still be approved.