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Alan can answer a wide range of questions about your work in CharleOS. This guide provides examples organized by category to help you get the most out of Alan.

Schedule & availability

Ask Alan about schedules, capacity, and who’s working on what.

Your schedule

  • “What’s on my schedule today?”
  • “What am I working on this week?”
  • “Do I have any help desk tickets scheduled?”
  • “Show my schedule for next Monday”

Team schedules

  • “What’s Luke working on today?”
  • “Show me the design team’s schedule this week”
  • “What’s the development team working on?”
  • “Who’s available for dev work tomorrow?”

Availability & capacity

  • “Who has capacity today?”
  • “How many hours does Sarah have available this week?”
  • “What’s the team’s availability next week?”
  • “Who’s free for a 4-hour task?”

Leave & holidays

  • “Who’s on leave this week?”
  • “Is James off tomorrow?”
  • “Who’s on holiday in August?”

Tasks & projects

Query tasks, check progress, and find work that needs attention.

Task queries

  • “Show me my tasks”
  • “What tasks are overdue?”
  • “Show tasks due this week”
  • “What tasks is Emma working on?”
  • “Show me all P1 tasks”

Task details

  • “Get details for task #123”
  • “What’s the status of the Fargro homepage redesign?”
  • “Show me tasks for [Client Name]“

Project information

  • “What projects are in progress?”
  • “Show me project details for [Project Name]”
  • “What’s the budget status for [Project]?”

Help desk

Find tickets, check status, and identify urgent support needs.

Ticket queries

  • “Show me open help desk tickets”
  • “What P1 tickets are there?”
  • “Show me help desk tickets for Fargro”
  • “What tickets are assigned to me?”
  • “Show unassigned tickets”

Ticket details

  • “Get details for ticket #42”
  • “What’s the status of ticket #67?”
  • “Show me priority 1 tickets opened today”

Ticket summaries

  • “Summarize open help desk tickets”
  • “What are the urgent tickets this week?”

Clients & quotes

Query client information, retainer status, and quotes.

Client information

  • “What’s the retainer status for Fargro?”
  • “Show me clients that need attention”
  • “How many hours has [Client] used this month?”
  • “What’s [Client]‘s retainer plan?”

Client schedules

  • “What work is scheduled for Fargro?”
  • “Show me upcoming work for [Client]”
  • “What’s on the schedule for [Client] this week?”

Quotes

  • “Show me quotes awaiting approval”
  • “What quotes are assigned to me?”
  • “Show me recent quotes for [Client]”
  • “Get details for quote #89”

Time tracking & reporting

Check logged time, utilization, and team metrics.

Your time

  • “How much time have I logged today?”
  • “Show my time entries this week”
  • “What’s my utilization this month?”

Team time

  • “What’s the team’s utilization?”
  • “How many hours has the design team logged this week?”
  • “Show me time entries for [Client]“

Capacity planning

  • “What’s the team’s capacity this week?”
  • “How many billable hours do we have available?”

Team members

Find team members and get information about people.
  • “Who is the PM for [Client]?”
  • “Find Sarah’s contact info”
  • “Who works in the design department?”
  • “Show me all developers”

User information

  • “What’s Luke’s job title?”
  • “Who is the CSM for Fargro?”
  • “What’s my work type?”

Documentation & how-to

Ask Alan how CharleOS works and get help with features.

General how-to

  • “How do I create a quote?”
  • “What is a retainer plan?”
  • “How does scheduling work?”
  • “What are blocks?”

Business logic

  • “How is day rate calculated?”
  • “What’s the difference between tasks and projects?”
  • “How does the priority system work?”
  • “What are task phases?”

Features

  • “How do I log time?”
  • “How do I request annual leave?”
  • “How do I schedule a help desk ticket?”
  • “How do I create a subtask?”

Assignment recommendations

Get AI-powered suggestions for who should do what work.
For assignment questions, use the “Ask Alan” button in scheduling dialogs for the best experience with contextual recommendations.

Assignment queries

  • “Who should I assign this to?”
  • “Who’s best for this dev task?”
  • “Who can take this urgent ticket?”
  • “Who should work on this design?”
Alan will analyze:
  • Availability - Who has capacity
  • Workload - Current commitments and interruption difficulty
  • Skills - Work type match (dev/design/QA)
  • Context - Leave status, past work on client/project

Tips for asking good questions

Be specific

Include client names, time periods, or specific IDs when relevant

Use natural language

Ask questions as you would to a colleague - Alan understands context

Ask follow-ups

Alan remembers your conversation - you can refine your query with follow-up questions

Try variations

If Alan doesn’t understand, rephrase your question or add more detail

What Alan can’t do (yet)

Alan is read-only and focused on information retrieval. Alan cannot:
  • Create tasks, quotes, or clients
  • Modify schedules or assignments directly (though action buttons make this easy)
  • Send emails or notifications
  • Change system settings
  • Access admin configuration features
When Alan provides assignment recommendations, you’ll see action buttons to quickly apply the suggestion - no need to navigate away from the chat.

Examples by role

Delivery Team

  • “What’s on my schedule today?”
  • “How much time have I logged this week?”
  • “Am I assigned to any help desk tickets?”
  • “What’s my day rate for this month?”

Project Managers

  • “Who’s available for a 6-hour dev task?”
  • “What’s the team working on tomorrow?”
  • “Show me overdue tasks”
  • “Who should I assign ticket #45 to?”

Customer Success Managers

  • “What’s the retainer status for all my clients?”
  • “Which clients need attention?”
  • “What quotes are awaiting approval?”
  • “What work is scheduled for Fargro this week?”

Managers

  • “What’s the team’s utilization this month?”
  • “Who’s on leave next week?”
  • “What’s the team’s capacity?”
  • “Show me P1 tickets across all clients”

Next steps