> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://help.pragmachartered.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Ask the assistant about your clients' records > Ask read-only questions about the clients you work on, check each answer against its sources, and review the firm's questions and usage as an Owner. The **Assistant** is a read-only question box. It answers from the invoices, approvals, bank lines, GST reconciliations and drafts, and filing due dates of the clients you can already see, and an answer's numbered sources link to the records it used. If an answer has no sources, the page warns you to verify it before relying on it. It never approves, files or sends anything. An **Owner** can ask about every client; a **Manager** or **Preparer** about the clients assigned to them. A **Connector admin** sees **Your role does not include the assistant**. A **Client portal** seat asks from its own portal page instead; see [Ask about your invoices](https://help.pragmachartered.com/portal/ask.md). Before anyone can ask, an **Owner** must turn the assistant on under **Settings → Firm profile → AI assistant**, accepting that questions and the records the assistant reads are sent to Anthropic, the model provider. See [Keep your firm profile up to date](https://help.pragmachartered.com/firm/profile.md). Questions and answers are kept **30 days** and are visible to you and the firm's Owner. **1. Open the Assistant** Select **Assistant** under **Work** in the sidebar. If the page says **The assistant is turned off** or **The assistant is not available yet**, see the table below. **2. Ask a question** Type in the question box, or select one of the suggested questions such as **Which invoices are waiting for review, by client?** to fill it in. Press **Enter** or select **Ask**; use **Shift+Enter** for a new line. A question can be up to 2,000 characters. While it works the button reads **Answering…** and the answer appears as it is written; its sources appear when it is complete. You can ask one question at a time. **3. Check the answer against its sources** Under **Sources**, each numbered source links to the record the answer used. Open them and verify before relying on the answer: answers are drafts to check against the records they cite. **4. Start again when the topic changes** Select **New conversation** to start a fresh conversation. The current conversation stays on this browser after a reload. Narrow questions work best: one client, one period. For example, *"What filings are overdue or due this week?"* or *"Summarise the latest GSTR-2B reconciliation for one of my clients."* ## When the assistant cannot answer | Message | What to do | | - | - | | **The assistant is turned off** | An Owner turns it on under **Settings → Firm profile**. An Owner sees **Open firm settings** here. | | **The assistant is not available yet** | The assistant has not been set up for your firm. An Owner should [submit a support case](https://help.pragmachartered.com/support/submit-a-case.md). | | **The assistant is not available for your firm yet, so the question was not sent.** | The setup changed after the question was accepted. An Owner should [submit a support case](https://help.pragmachartered.com/support/submit-a-case.md). | | **The assistant could not reach its AI service, so nothing was answered. Contact Pragma Chartered support if this keeps happening.** | Ask again; if it persists, [submit a support case](https://help.pragmachartered.com/support/submit-a-case.md). | | **The assistant is still answering your last question. Wait for that answer before asking another.** | Wait for the current answer to finish. | | **You have reached the assistant's limit of 20 questions an hour for one person. Try again in … minutes.** | Wait for the time shown, then ask again. | | **Your firm has reached the assistant's limit of 200 questions an hour. Try again in … minutes.** | The whole firm has hit the limit; wait for the time shown. | | **The answer took longer than 90 seconds and was stopped. Ask a narrower question, for one client or one period.** | Narrow the question. | | **The question needed more record reads than one answer is allowed, so it was stopped. Ask about one client or one period at a time.** | Split the question up. | | **The answer was longer than the assistant may write and was cut off, so it is not shown. Ask a narrower question.** | Narrow the question. | | **The AI service is busy right now. Ask again in a few minutes.** or **The AI service is unavailable right now. Ask again in a few minutes.** | Try again shortly. | | **The AI service returned an error, so there is no answer. Ask again; if it keeps failing, contact Pragma Chartered support.** | Ask again; if it persists, [submit a support case](https://help.pragmachartered.com/support/submit-a-case.md). | | **Your access changed while the answer was being prepared — the assistant was turned off, or your role or assignments changed — so it was stopped.** | Check with your Owner whether the assistant is on and which clients you are assigned. | | **The answer was interrupted before it finished. Ask again.** | Ask again. | | **The model declined to answer this question.** | Rephrase the question about your clients' records. | ## Review questions and usage (Owner) An **Owner** can open **Settings → Assistant use**, select **Review questions and usage** on the Assistant page, or select the **Assistant tokens** tile under **What the AI used** on the **Dashboard**. Nothing here can be changed; it is for oversight. ![Assistant use settings with Questions and Monthly usage tabs](https://help.pragmachartered.com/images/automation/assistant-use.png) * **Questions** lists questions from the last 30 days with **Asked**, **Asked by** (marked **Staff** or **Client portal**), **Question**, **Status** (**Answered**, **Failed** or **Answering**) and **Tokens**. Use **Search questions and answers** and the **Asked by** filter, and **Load older** for more. Select a row to read the full question and answer with its sources, or the failure reason. Questions asked before members were told the Owner can read them stay private to the asker. * **Monthly usage** shows **Questions**, **Input tokens** and **Output tokens** for the chosen **Month**, and a row per member and model with **Failed** counts. Each question counts here when it ends, answered or failed, and usage remains after the questions themselves are deleted. > [card] Still stuck? > > [Open a case](https://app.pragmachartered.com/support) from **Help & support** in Pragma, or [book a walkthrough](https://help.pragmachartered.com/support/book-a-walkthrough.md) and the team will show you around on a call. Can't sign in? [Contact support](https://app.pragmachartered.com/contact-support). This documentation is built and hosted on [Mintlify](https://mintlify.com), a developer documentation platform.