AI Assistant (Beta)

The AI Assistant answers questions about your firm's work and does routine jobs for you — in plain words, from the same data you see on every other screen. It never changes anything until you tap Confirm.

It is in beta. It is still learning how firms write — handwriting and short forms can be misread, so check every list and every change card before you confirm. Tell us what it gets wrong with Need help? Report a bug or issue in the left menu; that is how it gets better.

How it helps your firm

• Years of old work, entered in minutes. Photograph a diary page or upload the Excel register you kept before PracticeStacks, and every job on it comes back as a task list to check — no retyping.
• Answers without hunting. "What's overdue this week, and who has it?" gets an answer in seconds instead of five screens and three filters.
• Routine updates in one tap. Mark work done, move tasks to a colleague, record a payment or approve leave by asking — then confirm.
• It knows CA work. GSTR-3B, 26Q, MGT-7A, Udyam, DIR-3 KYC and your firm's own services are all familiar, so shorthand like "3B" or a scribbled "Udhyam regn" is read the way you meant it.
• Safe by design. It sees only what the person asking can see, and nothing changes until you confirm.

Open it

Tap Ask PracticeStacks anything at the bottom-right of any page, or press ⌘ J (Ctrl J on Windows). A small chat opens over the page you are on, so you never lose your place. It is there for everyone who can create tasks.

For long imports and your past chats, open the full page: once you have sent a message, tap the open in new page arrow at the top of the chat. On an empty Tasks list, the link Had work before PracticeStacks? opens the full page too.

Ask about your work

Type a question the way you would ask a colleague:

• What's overdue this week, and who has it?
• Which invoices for Sharma Traders are still unpaid?
• Any GST notices with a deadline this month?
• Who is on leave tomorrow?

The answer comes from your firm's real records, not a guess. You only ever see what you could see yourself — a staff member asking about clients they are not on gets nothing about them.

Ask it to do something

You can also ask for a change: Mark the TDS return for Mehta Exports as done, Give Rahul all of Priya's GST tasks for next week, Record ₹25,000 received by UPI on invoice INV-1042, Apply casual leave for me on Friday.

The assistant does not do it straight away. It shows a card saying exactly what will change, with Confirm and Cancel. Nothing happens until you tap Confirm. Anything that reaches a client — like emailing an invoice — is marked in amber and says so.

Turn a diary page or Excel sheet into tasks

Attach photos of your diary pages (up to six at a time), one Excel or CSV sheet, or type the work out. The assistant reads it the way an article assistant at your firm would:

• A date line applies to every item under it until the next date.
• A heading with names listed under it — say Returns with six client names — becomes one task per client.
• A name in square brackets, or right after the work, is the client.
• Short forms are written out in full: 3B becomes GSTR-3B return, Udhyam regn becomes Udyam registration.
• Any word it could not read with confidence is noted on the row as unclear, so you know what to check.

You get a list — client, task, date, status and who did it — to check and edit before tapping Create.

Done or still to do? On a diary photo, a line counts as Done only if the page shows it: a tick, a strike-through, or done / filed written beside it. Everything else comes in as To do — a diary is often a planner, and an old to-do list should not quietly close real work. From a spreadsheet or typed notes, work dated before today comes in as Done unless it says otherwise. You can change any row before creating.

Clients you have not added yet. A name that is not one of your clients shows in amber. Open the client box on that row and pick the right client, or tap Add "…" as a new client — it is created from the name alone (fill in email and phone later from the client's page), and every other row with the same name is linked to it too. Only partners, managers and administrators can add clients. A row you leave with no client keeps the written name in its task title, so nothing is lost.

Finished old work is not billable, and nobody is sent a message when you import. The Tasks guide has the rest of the detail.

Your chats are saved

Every chat is kept, so you can come back to a half-checked list tomorrow. On the full page, open an old one from the list on the left, or from Past chats at the top on a smaller screen. Photos and files you attach are only read — they are not stored.

Connect your own Claude or ChatGPT

If you already use Claude, ChatGPT or another AI app that supports connectors, you can give it the same access:

1. Go to Settings → Integrations. Every member of the firm can open this.
2. Follow the Claude.ai card: copy the connector address and add it as a custom connector in your AI app.
3. Sign in to PracticeStacks when it asks. That connects it as you.

Your AI app can then look up and update your tasks, clients, invoices, notices, leave and more — and only what your own login allows. To disconnect, remove the connector in your AI app.

Good to know

• You can send up to 40 messages an hour.
• A sheet is read up to its first 300 rows.
• While it works, the PracticeStacks logo beside the reply animates and says Thinking… — reading photos can take up to a minute.
• If the AI service is down, the assistant says so — try again later; nothing is half-saved.

Common questions

What does "Beta" mean for me?

Everything described here works, and nothing changes without your Confirm. Beta means it will still sometimes misread a word or pick the wrong client, and it will keep improving — so check what it shows you, and report anything it gets wrong.

Can the assistant change something without asking me?

No. Looking things up happens straight away; every change waits for your Confirm.

Can a staff member see the whole firm through it?

No. It sees exactly what that person sees in PracticeStacks, and nothing more — the same goes for a Claude or ChatGPT they connect.

It read a name wrong from my diary.

Handwriting is hard — that is why every row is shown to you first. Fix the name in the client box, or type a correction in the chat such as it's Great-tech, not Great-track and the list is redone.

Everything from my diary came in as To do, but some of it was finished.

Only work the page marks as done — a tick, a strike-through or the word done — comes in as Done. Change the status on those rows, or type mark the 17 September ones as done.

I asked for something and it said it could not.

Either your login does not allow it (for example, only managers can hand work to other people), or it is something the assistant cannot do yet. The reply says which.