AI that does the paperwork

Late afternoon in a busy office is when paperwork piles up. Orders delivered during the day need invoices. A report someone asked for is open in a tab and nobody has had time to read it. This tour follows the office at a sample cash-and-carry at half past four, using the assistant to raise invoices and AI to explain a report, with a person deciding at every step.

What paperwork can AI help with?

Two jobs are shown here, and both are things you can do in the app today.

Some things are deliberately not here. Reading a supplier bill from a photo has groundwork in the system, but no screen starts it, so it is not offered. A product from a photo is covered only by Share & Sell's "Add from a picture", which the AI drafts tour shows.

Step by step

1. Ask the assistant in plain words. The office types "invoice this order" and picks the order with @, or uses the /invoice command. Either way the assistant works on that exact order.

2. Read what it would do. Nothing is raised yet. The assistant shows a panel marked "Needs your OK" and "Raise an invoice". It reads like a sentence: invoice for the order, the customer, and the amount including VAT. It also says plainly that this will be a real invoice, not a draft, and that it can be cancelled.

3. Check the panel against the order. The panel is built by the server from the real order, not from what was typed in the chat. So the customer and amount are the ones on the order. Still, look: right order, right customer, right total.

4. Note the timer. Under Confirm and Cancel the panel shows when the request expires: ten minutes. If you get pulled away and come back an hour later, the old request can no longer be confirmed. Ask again and you get a fresh panel with current figures.

5. Press Confirm. The invoice is raised through the normal invoices, the same path a person uses, so numbering, VAT and the customer's balance all follow the usual rules. The same panel now says what was raised and gives the invoice number with a link: "Open INV-…". The earlier order in the sample shows exactly this, already confirmed.

6. Or press Cancel. If anything looks wrong, Cancel, or simply leave it. Nothing changes.

7. Open Discount insights. At five o'clock the office opens Reports and the Discount insights report. The top shows the discount given in the period and what you could have charged without it, a warning if there is no discount limit set, then discounts by product and the customers who got the most discount.

8. Press Write summary. Under "Explain this in plain English", the office presses Write summary. A few sentences appear, describing what the figures on the page show, for example where most of the discount went. The note is written only when someone asks, never on its own, and each one counts toward the month's allowance of AI notes.

9. Read the footnote and check. Under the summary it says: written by AI from the figures on this page; always check the figures yourself. Use the summary to know where to look, then look at the tables below it.

Why is the invoice a real one, not a draft?

Because a draft that nobody finishes is clutter, and the point of asking was to get the invoice out. The safety is in the step before: the panel, the check and the Confirm button. Once you have confirmed, you want a proper invoice with a number you can send. If it was a mistake, you cancel it the same way you would cancel any invoice, which leaves a clear record rather than a silent deletion.

A worked example of reading the discount summary

Say the report shows 2,400 of discount given this month against 48,000 of sales before discount, so discounts took 5% off the top. The summary might point out that most of it went on two products and to three customers. That is the starting point, not the conclusion. Open Customers who got the most discount: if one customer received a third of all discount on small orders, that is a pricing conversation worth having. The pricing guide explains how to set discount rules that protect margin, and the markup vs margin guide shows how a small discount eats a larger share of profit than it seems.

Tips for AI paperwork

• Invoice from the assistant when you are already in it. For a run of invoices, the normal invoice screens may be quicker.
• Always read the amount on the panel. It takes two seconds and is the whole point of the panel.
• Do not leave panels waiting. Confirm or cancel while you are looking at them; they expire anyway.
• Use the summary as a pointer. Read it, then go to the table it mentions.
• Ask for a summary when you will act on it. Each one uses part of the month's allowance.

Common mistakes

• Expecting a draft invoice. Confirm raises a real one. Check before you press it.
• Confirming from memory. If you come back after a break, ask again for a fresh panel.
• Quoting the AI summary to a customer. Quote the figures from the report instead.
• Assuming every role can invoice. Only roles allowed to raise invoices are offered the command.

What to do next

Once invoices are out, the next job is getting paid: read how to get invoices paid faster. The ask your business tour shows how to find who owes the most, with sources. For an honest overview of where AI helps and where it does not, read AI for small business.

The business, orders and figures in this tour are sample data.