What you can ask

Ask CLEO answers from your own records, so the questions that work best are the ones only your business could answer. It says so itself when you open it: I read what is in your business right now — your customers and leads, your work and requests, what is booked, and what has been recorded.

The box says Ask about your business…, and that's the whole rule. Ask in your own words and press Ask.

Start with your day

Ask me what needs you, what is waiting, what is coming up, or what is happening with someone in particular.

• What needs me today?
• What's waiting on other people?
• What's coming up this week?
• Anything I've missed?

These are the same readings Home shows you, asked out loud — useful when you're on your phone, or when you want the answer without opening anything.

Customers and leads

• What's happening with Marta?
• Who's waiting to hear from me?
• Which leads have gone quiet?
• Who should I reconnect with?
• When did I last hear from the Ellis job?

Work and requests

• What work has no next step?
• What's overdue?
• Which requests haven't turned into work?
• Where is the kitchen job up to?

The diary

• What's on tomorrow?
• When could I fit a 90-minute visit next week?
• Is Thursday at 2 free?
• What kinds of appointment do we offer?

Money

• How much have I been paid this month?
• What has Marta paid me?
• Who are my top customers this year?

Money answers come only from payments someone recorded — CLEO never estimates. How CLEO treats money explains why.

Decisions you've recorded

• What have I decided about the customers past their return interval?
• What's happened since I decided to leave Ada until spring?

CLEO reports what was recorded afterwards, and never claims your decision caused it. What changed since a decision covers that.

Your website

If CLEO looks after your website, you can ask how it's doing — visits, where people came from, how many got in touch.

Find this in CLEO

Underneath many answers there's a small Find this in CLEO line: the path to the screen the answer came from, and a link straight to it.

It appears when CLEO actually read a screen to answer you, and it's built from what CLEO read — not from the words of its reply. Ask "where do I see that?" and it will point at the screen from the answer before, too.

When part of CLEO is switched off

CLEO can only read what your business has switched on. With Bookings off, it won't answer about appointments or free times; with Requests off, it won't answer about requests. It doesn't pretend otherwise, and nothing is lost — turn the area back on and those answers come back. Turning parts of CLEO on and off explains the switches.

And if CLEO can't answer at all — not turned on yet, or briefly unavailable — your screens are unaffected: Everything on your screens is still up to date.

Two habits worth having

• Name the person or the job. "What's happening with Marta?" beats "what's happening?" — CLEO can then read one record properly rather than summarising everything.
• Ask for the reading, not the advice. CLEO is at its best saying what is true right now. It doesn't have opinions about your pricing, your customers or your decisions, and it won't invent them.

Asking is safe: nothing changes when you ask. What Ask CLEO can and cannot change covers the other half.