What runs on its own, what the assistant does when asked, and the line it never crosses.
Most of the finance loop runs without you. This page lists what happens on its own, what the assistant can do when you ask, and the line it will not cross.
Notices are on for every business. Anything that starts the assistant, writes to Xero on a schedule or sends a standing email is off until an admin turns it on under Automations, or on Settings → Finance → Automation. The last column says which rows need that.
| Trigger | What happens | Who hears | Needs turning on |
|---|---|---|---|
| A job is won | Budget and schedule of values are built from the approved estimate; the procurement plan drafts the orders | Project manager | The budget build |
| A claim is sent | Frozen, dated, told to the automations; pushed to Xero within a day | — | — |
| The client's approval is recorded | The claim is pushed to Xero at once if it is not there yet | — | — |
| A claim passes its due date | A chase is drafted for the project manager to send | Project manager | Yes |
| The client queries a claim on the portal | A review task comparing the claim to the schedule and variations | Project manager | Yes |
| Xero records a payment, part payment or void | The claim is updated | Project manager | — |
| A supplier invoice arrives by email, a receipt is added, a bill is pulled from Xero | Recorded awaiting review, GST backed out; the reviewer is told | Reviewer | Email intake: yes |
| A bill matches its order and delivery under the limit | It approves itself, basis three-way match | Inbox | Yes, with a limit |
| A bill would take its order past its value | It is held, never approved on its own | Inbox | — |
| A subcontractor claim is received | The clock starts; with assessment on, a proposed certified amount with reasons | Project manager | The assessment |
| A subcontractor claim passes its response window | The row and the tab turn red | — | — |
| A payment run is approved | Bank file ready | Accounts | — |
| A payment run is paid | Bills closed, remittances sent, Xero payments recorded | Accounts | — |
| A credit note is issued | Pushed to Xero, allocated to the invoice | — | — |
| A purchase order is varied | Xero's copy is re-synced; a billed one is flagged instead | — | — |
| Your weekday | The payment run is drafted and filed as a decision | Decide | Yes |
| Every hour | The finance tick recomputes the position, issues drafts within policy, proposes what the rules say | Decide | Issuing: yes |
| Monday morning | The Money page as an email to the owner and finance contacts | Owner, finance contacts | Recipients on Settings → Finance |
| Month end | A financial review across every job | Owner | Yes |
| Weekly | The accounts review suggests chart-of-accounts changes | Admin | — |
Every notice lands in your inbox in Base. None of these automations emails a client or a subcontractor on its own.
Every hour the finance tick recomputes the position and compares it with the last one. It raises, and keeps raising while they stay true: the cash low point, GST short of what is free, a job's margin dropping by your threshold, finished work unbilled, and decisions waiting. How far an open alert climbs — inbox always, email by days open, SMS for the cash low point and a subcontractor claim on the statutory clock — is set on Settings → Finance → Digest and escalation, and each switch says what happens when it is off.
The assistant never certifies, approves, credits, releases, pays or sends money on its own. It proposes — a decision with the amount, the evidence and its reasoning — and a person with the permission approves or rejects it on Money → Decide. Approving runs exactly the action the person would have taken, as them. A rejection silences the same proposal for a fortnight. Nothing executes from a background run.
In a live chat it is different: if you ask for it, it does it. Say "certify Lumen's claim in full", "approve the run", "put that bill on PO-1001", and it works out what the money does, tells you, and does it in the same reply — with your permissions, and within your approval limits. It is recorded on Decide with your name on it, so Decide doubles as the log of what was done and by whom. Asking for the exact same thing twice inside a day returns what already happened instead of doing it again.
Three things it will still not do:
In chat, on a job or across the business, the assistant can read the money position, the cash forecast and the procurement board; plan procurement on a won job and write the draft orders (it sends nothing); record a supplier invoice from a document or an email with GST backed out; propose what to certify on a subcontractor's claim; assemble a draft payment run; run any of the reports and explain a figure line by line; push a claim or a bill to Xero now instead of waiting; say whether Xero is working; sort the Xero documents with no job and propose the moves; review the chart of accounts; and explain the difference between two numbers, which is usually the most useful thing.
Open the What is this page? panel on any finance screen and Base can do this for you lists what it can do from there and which of those it can make run on its own.