Work with the BloomBoard Assistant

When to use this

Use the assistant when typing a request is quicker than finding the page. It answers questions about your studio and makes changes for you, and it shows every step it takes so you can check its work.

What the assistant can do

• Answer questions about your events, clients, proposals, invoices, crew and suppliers, for example “what is booked this weekend?” or “what needs my attention today?” It can also read the estimate a client sent from your price guide.
• Explain how to do something in BloomBoard, with links to the Help Center articles it used, and tell you what is new in BloomBoard.
• Tell you your plan, when your trial ends, your role, which features are on for your studio and how much of this month’s allowances you have used.
• Capture a new enquiry: the client, the event and the venue in one message.
• Open a page or a record for you, for example “open the Hart wedding”.
• Make changes for you on events, proposals, invoices, your library, your suppliers and your team. Each change your client never sees has Undo. Anything your client receives, and anything about money, waits for you on a card.
• Explain, build and change your automations, and add the tags, stages, lost reasons, saved emails and forms they need.

It works from your studio’s own records. It does not change a proposal that is already with your client. Ask it to make a new version (a revision) first, then it changes that draft.

See What the assistant can do for the full list, by area, and what it cannot do yet.

Ask about your business

Ask a question about your own records in your own words. For example:

• “How many weddings do I have booked for October?”
• “What is the average budget of my booked weddings?”
• “Who are my top clients by how much I have invoiced them?”
• “How many stems of each flower do my events in the next 7 days need?”
• “Which of my clients have never booked with me?”

You can also ask about your Pipeline, Tax and Enquiries tabs: your win rate and open quotes, the tax charged at each rate, and where enquiries come from and how fast you reply. Questions can cover stages, lead sources, lost reasons, guest counts, planners, tags, Week-of days and run sheets, tasks, hire items, services, invoice lines, card fees, refunds and suppliers. Ask about your crew (who worked the most events this month, or whether anyone is booked on two events in one day), which planners send you the most work, which deposits are still unpaid, and how many automation emails went out (Studio plan). Crew answers never include pay rates or contact details.

Ask what your events are worth before they are invoiced, for example “What are my bookings next month worth?”. The assistant adds up each event’s quote as it stands now and calls it an estimate. Like other money totals, this needs the Studio plan.

The assistant checks your records and answers with the figures, as a sentence, a short list or a table. Its step reads Checking your records while it works, then says what it did, for example Counted booked weddings in October.

• It reads your studio’s records only.
• Dates follow your studio’s time zone (Business details, Timezone), so “today”, “this month” and “next week” are your own.
• Canceled events are left out of your bookings, and draft and void invoices out of what you have billed or are owed, as on your screens.
• Your library stores what you pay for each item, its cost. A question about an item’s “price” gets its cost.
• Margins and costs come from your reports, never from a sum the assistant works out itself. On the Studio plan, ask “what was my margin on each event this quarter?” and the step reads Checking your finances: the answer uses the same figures as Analytics, Performance. With an Analytics tab open, it uses the same period and figures as the page. For one event, it uses the event’s own money summary, which also gives each arrangement’s cost, price and margin, so it can tell you which arrangements are losing money. Totals of money over a period, such as how much you collected this year, need the Studio plan; on other plans the assistant says so.
• A finance report covers at most 5 years at a time. If you ask about a longer period, the assistant asks you for a shorter one.

If a question covers a lot of records, the assistant may answer “That question took too long to answer. Try a narrower one, for example one month at a time.” Ask again for a shorter period.

The assistant answers one of these questions at a time for your studio. If it is still busy with another question, it may answer “I’m busy with another question. Try again in a moment.” Wait a moment, then ask again.

What needs you today

Ask “what needs me today?” for everything that needs you: enquiries waiting for a reply or with no reply yet, forms back, change requests, declined or unopened proposals and proposal emails that did not arrive, tasks due, payments to invoice, overdue invoices, and card payments and bank transfers to look at. Archived events are left out, except for money: an overdue invoice, a bank transfer to confirm, or a card payment that failed or is on hold still shows on an archived event, as it does on Today. Until automations are switched on for your studio, the Today page lists only tasks and card payments, so the assistant’s list can be longer, and it says so. On an event, the suggested questions include up to two about that event, for example chasing its unsigned proposal or invoicing a payment that is due.

Ask how to do something

Ask how a part of BloomBoard works, from any page. For example:

• “How do I send this proposal to my client?”
• “How do I use my own web address for the links I send clients?”
• “How do I send a client a brief to fill in?”

The assistant reads the Help Center article that covers it and answers in its own words. Its step reads Reading a help article while it works. “Walk me through this page” starts the page’s own walkthrough, where the page has one. The assistant can also point at controls on an event’s views, on the invoice page, on Smart import, on the Analytics Pipeline and Tax tabs, and on many Business pages.

Under the answer, a row reads From the Help Center:, with one link for each article the answer used. Select a link to open that article on the Help Center in a new tab.

• Each link opens a real Help Center article: the assistant names the articles, and BloomBoard adds their titles and links.
• An answer about your own records, for example “what is booked this weekend?”, has no Help Center links.

Change library costs

Your library stores what you pay for each item: its cost, the market or supplier price. When you ask to change an item’s “price” without saying whose, the assistant changes that cost straight away. For example:

• “The market price of peonies is now 140” changes one cost. The receipt says what changed, with Undo.
• “Raise all rose prices by 10%” puts every rose on one card, each with its cost now and after, for example “Rose Red: R35.00 to R38.50”. A name matches whole words, so “roses” finds Garden rose and Spray rose, but not Tuberose, and not a thing made from roses, such as rose petal confetti. Select Update costs to change them all. The receipt says how many costs changed and by how much, for example “Raised the cost of 19 library items by 10%”. One Undo on the receipt puts them all back. A whole category works the same way, for example “raise every flower cost by 10%”.
• “My supplier sent a new price list”, with the list attached, starts a Smart import. Its card tells you it uses one of your monthly import credits. For a long list of items your library does not have yet, the assistant suggests Smart import instead of adding them one by one: its review creates the new items with their supplier.

Your clients’ prices follow your costs through your category markups. When you ask about a client’s price, for example “raise the client price of the peony arch on the Hart quote”, no cost changes: the assistant explains this and offers to change the markup for that event or to set a price for that one line.

Open a page or a record

Ask the assistant to open a page, for example “open the Hart wedding”. It opens the page behind the assistant, and the step says what it opened, for example Opened the event.

• It opens your events and archived events, an event on a chosen view (Proposal, Production, Orders, Week-of, Finances or Email), one arrangement in its builder, a proposal’s design studio, Terms Studio and one set of terms, Design presets, Today, the Inbox and one email conversation, Notifications, your clients and coordinators, a client, an invoice, your library, Smart import and your price imports, your media library, your documents, Suppliers, Venues, Team, Arrangement templates, your notes, each Analytics tab, and the Business and Settings pages. It also opens an automation, a saved email or a form in its editor.
• It opens a page only in the tab where you asked.
• With unsaved changes on your page, it asks “Leave without saving?” first. Keep editing keeps them; Leave opens the page.
• In the BloomBoard phone app it opens the phone’s own screen: your events, an event (on the Week-of, Production or Finances view when you ask), your clients, one client’s details, your library, Finances, your notes, your media, Money (for documents and invoices), Notifications, Suppliers, Venues, Team, Arrangement templates, price imports, Business details, Branding, Members, Profile, Security, Plan & billing, WhatsApp assistant, and Settings, Pricing & tax. A page the phone app does not have, for example the design studio, Terms Studio, the Inbox, client payments, Automations, a saved email or a form, stays closed, and the assistant tells you it is on the web app.

In your phone’s browser, the assistant closes so you can see the page. Select the assistant button to go back to the conversation. The same happens when you select a record card in a reply.

Show it what you mean

• Paste a screenshot into the message box (⌘V, or Ctrl+V on Windows), or drop files on it.
• Select words in a text box or editor, then ask the assistant to change them, for example “make this warmer”. It sees what you selected and gives you new words to paste back.
• The assistant knows the event, the invoice, the arrangement, the email conversation or the Analytics tab you have open, so “this one” works. Open a conversation in the Inbox and ask “what is this about?” or “help me reply”.
• Paste a link to a public web page, such as a venue’s page or your old website, and ask about it. It only opens links you send.

Files you can attach

You can attach photos (JPEG, PNG, GIF, WebP and iPhone photos, saved as JPEG), PDFs, Word files (.docx), Excel files (.xlsx), CSV files, and text files (.txt and .md). The assistant reads the first 200 rows of each sheet of a spreadsheet, and the text of a Word or text file (up to about 40,000 characters). Old Excel files (.xls) cannot be read: save them as .xlsx or CSV first. Supplier price lists go to Smart import; for many new records from a spreadsheet, the assistant puts them all on one card.

If a file does not upload, it stays in the box with a red border. Press Send to try again, or remove it. The message never goes without it.

Talk instead of typing

Select the microphone (Start voice input) beside the paperclip and speak. Your words appear in the box as you talk. Select it again to stop, check the words, then send.

Automations, forms and saved emails

Ask in your own words, for example “what happens next for the Hart wedding?”. The assistant uses the automation editor’s words. It reads a planned email’s subject, never its message.

• Your automations: each one, on or off, what starts it, its steps, how many wait for your OK, and where it runs.
• One automation: what starts it, then each step under its moment, for example Right away, and which steps email clients.
• One event: what runs on it, what is next and when, and what was sent, skipped or canceled, and why, including a wait the app does not show yet, such as the client’s out-of-office reply. It can pause, resume, stop or start an automation on the event.
• What needs me today? includes the steps on Today that wait for you.

With the editor, a saved email or a form open, “explain this one” means the one on the screen.

Owners and admins can ask for a new automation, for example “thank corporate enquiries right away and send the Corporate brief”. It uses your own saved emails, forms, stages, tags and team, and makes a missing one. When one is close, it asks whether to change it or make a new one. A step waits for your OK or goes automatically, as you say; if you say nothing, the editor’s default applies. “Give me a task” makes the task for whoever asked. An automation is for one occasion or every occasion, and never branches: for two occasions it offers two automations, or one for every occasion. A new one is built switched off, with a one-sentence description. The assistant can also change steps, the name, the start or the occasion, and switch an automation on or off. On a built-in automation, it changes only what the editor lets you change. To delete an automation, use the editor.

A new saved email is in your brand voice and ends with Your signature. A new form passes the form editor’s checks. See Saved emails and Forms. A new tag, stage or lost reason never repeats a name you have. A new stage goes last in its board column, never in Week-of. Rename or remove them in Business → Stages and Business → Lead sources.

Every member can ask about automations (on Core, the three built-ins) and forms. Building or changing automations, also on one event, and making or changing forms need an owner or admin, on Studio. Saved emails need Studio, and every member can make them. Tags, stages and lost reasons need an owner or admin, with Stages on. When a request is not available, the assistant says why, for example “Automations are part of Studio.”

Open the assistant

1. Select the assistant button in the bottom-right corner, or press ⌘K (Ctrl+K on Windows) anywhere in the app.
2. Type in the box that reads Ask, or tell me what to do.
3. Press Enter to send. Shift+Enter starts a new line.

Press Esc to close the assistant. When the conversation list, a message you edit, a text box on a card or the Not helpful form is open, Esc closes that first, and the assistant stays open.

In your phone’s browser, the assistant opens at the bottom of the screen. Tap the bar at its top edge, or swipe it up, to make it taller. Swipe it down to make it shorter or to close it. When the keyboard is open, the assistant sits above it. The assistant button hides while you send a proposal, an invoice or a reminder, and while a sheet or window is open. To ask about a client, open the client and tap Ask the assistant under the client’s name.

To attach photos or files, use the paperclip under the box. You can attach up to 5 files to a message.

In the BloomBoard phone app, tap the paperclip beside the box. Choose Take a photo, Choose photos or Choose a file. Each file shows above the box while it uploads. Write what you want done with it, then tap Send. A file that did not upload stays on the box: tap it to try again, or tap the cross to take it off.

On the phone, open a client, a library item or an invoice and tap Ask the assistant. The assistant then knows which one you mean, so you can ask “What does this client owe?” or “Change the cost of this item”.

Watch the answer as it comes

The answer appears word by word as the assistant writes it, also when it had to look something up first. You do not wait for the whole reply.

While it works, a short line under the conversation says what it is doing right now, for example Working on it or Looking up events.

Thinking

Before some answers, the assistant thinks. The reply then shows Thinking. When it has finished thinking, that line changes to how long it took, for example Thought for 4 s. Simple questions often need no thinking at all.

Steps

Each lookup or change is a step, one line each, in plain words:

• A spinner while the step runs, for example Looking up events.
• A tick and how long the step took once it is done, for example Found 3 events 0.4 s.
• A cross if the step failed, with a line that says what went wrong.
• A gray arrow and Tried again if the step did not work but the assistant tried again in a later step. The later step shows how that try went.

Record cards

When a step finds or changes a client, an event, an invoice, a proposal, a client brief or a terms document, a card for that record appears under the step. Select the card to open the record. A step that finds many records shows cards for the first five.

An automation gets a card too, with what starts it, its steps, On or Off, and where it runs. On the web, select it to open the editor. In the phone app it opens nothing.

Edit your last message, or ask again

Under your last message, select Edit, change the words and press Enter or select Send. Under the last reply, select Ask again (the circular arrow) to get a new reply to the same message. Either way, the old message and its reply leave the conversation and a new reply comes.

In your phone’s browser, while you edit your last message, the box at the bottom steps aside until you send or cancel the edit.

• Only your last message can be edited, and only while the assistant is not working. Conversations from earlier days are read-only.
• If the reply you replace made changes, a card reads These changes stay and lists them, each with its Undo. Undo any change you do not want, then select Continue, or Cancel to keep everything as it is. The changes you keep stay made, but their receipts leave the conversation with the old reply.
• An edit or Ask again uses one message, as a new message does.

Copy an answer, and tell us how it went

Under each finished reply:

• Copy puts the answer’s text on your clipboard, with its lists and tables, but not its steps or receipts.
• Helpful and Not helpful tell us how the reply went. They show under the last reply to each message: when a card paused the reply, they show under the reply that follows your decision. After Not helpful, pick what went wrong (Wrong answer, Wrong change, Too slow or Something else), add a comment if you want, and select Send. We use what you tell us to find and fix the assistant’s mistakes.

Suggestions for your next message

After many replies, up to two short suggestions show under the last reply, for example “Show the Hart order”. Each is a request the assistant can carry out for you from the chat, never a question, and names only the records, dates and amounts in your message and the reply. Select one to send it as your next message. They go away as soon as you send something, and they do not come back when you reload the page.

Stop an answer

While the assistant works, a Stop button appears next to the send button.

1. Select Stop. The button reads Stopping for a moment.
2. The reply ends with Stopped. Everything you already saw stays.

A change that had already started still finishes, so check the receipts in the reply. If the assistant had already asked you to confirm a change, that card still waits for you.

Sending a new message while the assistant works stops the current reply first.

Changes and Undo

Changes your client never sees happen at once, without asking: adding, changing or removing arrangements, cost lines and rentals, updating library items, archiving a client or a library item, editing a terms draft or a draft proposal, changing a draft invoice, planning the Week-of and tasks, adding notes, marking your notifications read, and opening a new draft of a proposal your client already has. Each change leaves a receipt in the reply that says what changed, for example “Set the guest count on Amara & Nico Wedding to 120 guests”.

• Select Undo on the receipt to reverse that change. The receipt then shows Undone.
• Each receipt has its own Undo, so you can undo one change and keep the others.
• Some changes cannot be undone once other work depends on them, for example an arrangement on a proposal your client already has. The receipt then says why, and nothing changes.
• Undo on a new proposal draft removes the draft only while nothing on it has changed. Once you or the assistant edit it, the draft stays and the receipt says why.

The assistant does not ask “shall I?” before a change like this. If you did not want it, select Undo.

Automations, saved emails and forms

These happen at once with Undo: building an automation (it is off), switching one off, renaming one, pausing or resuming one on an event, changing one that is off and runs on no events, adding a tag, stage, lost reason, saved email or form, and changing a saved email or form nothing uses. Each Undo checks first: once an automation started on an event, steps came due, or something uses the record, nothing changes and the receipt says why.

Many changes in one message

One message makes at most five changes at once, and at most three removals. When you ask for more, for example “add these eight arrangements”, the assistant puts the changes on one card, for example Make these 8 changes? with one line for each change. It may also make the first five at once and put the rest on the card.

1. Check the list on the card.
2. Select the main button, for example Make changes. The changes are made in order, and the reply shows one receipt, for example Made 8 changes.
3. To take them all back, select Undo on that receipt. If one of them can no longer be undone, the receipt says why, and the changes after it in the list stay undone. Select Undo again once you have fixed the reason.

In an automation build, each new record is one change. A change that needs its own card, such as switching an automation on, never joins it.

Confirm a change first

Some changes wait for you. The assistant then shows a card at the bottom of the conversation with what it is about to do. These changes always wait:

• Anything your client receives: sending or chasing a proposal or an invoice, emailing your client or replying to them, sending a brief or form, moving a signing deadline, withdrawing or voiding a proposal, and sending your crew their Week-of links.
• Anything that changes where your client’s emails go: a contact’s email address, making another contact the primary contact, or removing a contact.
• Money: recording or removing a payment, confirming a bank transfer, and releasing or canceling a card charge.
• Changes that cannot be undone, for example voiding an invoice, canceling an event, starting a price list import, or recording that your client accepted a proposal outside BloomBoard.
• Team changes: inviting, removing, or changing someone’s role.
• Changes to your tax rates and markups, and work that uses a monthly allowance, such as pictures for library items or reading a supplier bill.
• A large batch, for example a pasted price list, or more changes than one message makes at once.
• Automation changes that can reach a client: switching one on, starting or stopping one on an event, changing the steps, start or occasion of one that is on or running, and changing a saved email or form that an automation or an enquiry form uses.

Above the card, the assistant says in a sentence or two what the change will do and anything to check, add or change on the card before you confirm, for example “This records the deposit, so the balance drops to R9,000. Check the date first.” These words stay in the reply after you decide.

The card’s main button says what it does, for example Send reminder, Record payment or Make changes. Amounts on a card read in your currency. A payment card also names how the client paid and the day it records, for example “Record R3,000.00 paid by bank transfer on 29 September 2026 against INV-0107?”. If you confirm it on a later day, the payment still records the day the card showed.

• Select that button to make the change. The assistant goes on and tells you how it went.
• Select Not now to leave everything as it is. The assistant goes on without the change.

In your phone’s browser, the card sits above the box where you type and shows its whole question, so you can see who it goes to and the amount before you confirm. Scroll inside the card to see and change the message. If you start typing while a card waits, or edit your last message, the card folds into one line that says it is waiting for your OK. Tap that line to open the card again.

The card stays pinned until you decide. When several changes wait, the card says how many more come after this one. After you decide, the card becomes one line in the reply:

Cards for automations, saved emails and forms

Switch on says what starts the automation and whether it starts on events you already have. Switch on and Save change list each step that emails clients without your OK, the events the change reaches, and steps already due. Save email and Save form say where the record is used and show the new words or questions. A form a client already has keeps its old questions. There is no Undo after you confirm. If the item changed after the card appeared, nothing is saved and the card says “It changed since I asked. Ask me again.”

Answer a card by typing

When one card waits, you can type your answer instead of selecting a button:

• A plain yes, for example “yes”, “ok”, “go ahead” or “send it”, makes the change, as the main button does.
• A plain no, for example “no”, “cancel” or “no thanks”, leaves everything as it is, as Not now does.

Your answer is part of the conversation, and the receipt of the change shows in the reply to it. A typed yes or no that answers the card does not use a message.

Edit the email before it goes

When the change sends your client an email, the card shows the email’s text so you can change it first:

• A proposal: the message in the email.
• A proposal reminder: the subject and the message.
• An invoice or a payment reminder: the subject and the message.
• A new email to your client: the subject and the message.
• A reply to your client: the message.
• A new signing deadline: the date.

Your signature is added under a new email or a reply, as when you write in the Inbox.

1. Change the text on the card. It saves as you type.
2. Select the main button, for example Send reminder, or type “yes”. Either sends the text as you left it.

The rest of the email stays as it is: the link for your client to review and sign or to pay, the line inviting them to reply, and your studio’s footer. A subject must fit on one line, and a subject or a message cannot be empty: the main button stays gray until it has text. If the card cannot keep your text, it says why under the fields.

Your past conversations

Select Conversation history at the top of the assistant to see your past conversations, grouped by day. Select one to open it. Conversations from earlier days open read-only. A new conversation shows in the list once you send its first message. A few seconds after its first answer, its title shows at the top of the assistant.

The assistant keeps a conversation for 90 days from its last message, then deletes it. To delete one sooner, point at it in the list, select the bin that appears beside it, then select Delete. A deleted conversation and all its messages are gone for good.

What counts as a message

Each message you send uses a little of your plan’s assistant allowance for the month. To see how much you have used, select More (the three dots) at the top of the assistant. It shows the share of this month’s allowance you have used and the day it resets. During a trial, it shows the share of your trial’s allowance. During a trial and on every plan but Studio, Upgrade for more below it shows what the Studio plan adds.

Nothing about usage shows outside that menu until you have used 80% of the allowance. Then a line above the box shows the share used and the reset day. When the allowance is all used, the line says so and gives the day it resets.

These do not use a message:

• A message the assistant declines. It answers “I can’t help with that one.” and the message does not count.
• A reply that fails, for example “The assistant is temporarily unavailable. Please try again shortly.”
• A reply you stop before any words or steps appear.
• Selecting a card’s buttons, or Undo.
• Typing a plain yes or no that answers the one card that waits.

An edit of your last message and Ask again each use one message.

If something looks wrong

• You reloaded the page mid-answer. The answer keeps going. When you open the assistant again, it picks the reply up where it is, also in another tab.
• “The connection dropped before this reply finished.” Reload the page to see the rest of the reply.
• “This conversation is read-only.” Conversations from earlier days open read-only. Select New conversation to start a new one.
• A change you did not expect. Select Undo on its receipt, or open the record from its card and correct it there.
• “I stopped here to keep this short. Ask me to carry on.” The assistant stopped a long piece of work part way. Send “carry on” and it goes on from where it stopped. Both messages count. If you see it right after you attach a long file, such as a PDF of more than about 50 pages, the file is too long to read with your message. Send a shorter part of it instead.
• “The assistant is paused for your studio until next month.” Your studio has reached the assistant’s monthly limit, or is so close to it that the next step could go past it. If you see it when you send, your message is not sent and does not count. If it is the only reply to your message, that message does not count either. If it ends a reply, the assistant stopped part way, and that message counts. The assistant starts again when your plan’s month renews. To use it sooner, contact support.
• “The assistant is busy with other messages from your studio. Try again in a moment.” Other messages from your studio are using the assistant at the same moment, most often long pieces of work in more than one conversation. Wait until they finish, then send your message again, or send “carry on” if the reply stopped part way. If it is the only reply to your message, that message does not count. If it ends a reply, that message counts.

Use your own assistant outside BloomBoard

This page is about the assistant inside BloomBoard. If connected assistants are on for your studio, you can also let an assistant you already use read your studio from its own chat. That assistant only reads, unless an owner or admin allows it to add drafts, and it never sends anything to your clients, takes payments or deletes anything. It does not share your conversations or your monthly limit with the assistant in BloomBoard. See Connect your own assistant.

Related pages

• What the assistant can do
• Find your way around Settings
• Connect your own assistant
• Clients and contacts
• Events and the event workspace
• Choose and manage your subscription