Maya is the assistant built into SeroBooks. Ask her a question in plain words — "Which customers owe me the most?", "Show me this month's profit & loss", "Are my books in good shape?" — and she answers from your company's live ledger, the same figures the screens and reports show. She also knows how SeroBooks works, so you can ask how to do something.
Maya reads your books; she never changes them herself. Anything she can do beyond answering (draft a journal entry, a purchase order, a payment run) is proposed as a card that waits until a person with the right permission approves it.
Opening Maya
- Click Maya in the dark bar at the top of any screen, or
- choose Help ▸ Ask Maya.
Maya's panel slides in from the right over whatever you are doing, so you keep your place. Close it with the × at its top right, or Esc. Closing the panel loses nothing: open it again and the conversation is where you left it, and an answer still being prepared keeps going while the panel is closed.
The panel
The header shows Maya's name and the line "by SeroBooks — reads your books, never edits them". Its buttons:
| Button | What it does |
|---|---|
| Chat history (clock) | Every conversation you have had, newest first, each titled from its first question. Click one to reopen it; the bin deletes it ("Delete this conversation?" — "It is removed permanently for everyone — there is no undo."). |
| Maya settings (gear) | Maya's controls. Shown only to the company's administrator. |
| New conversation | Starts a fresh conversation. |
| Close | Closes the panel. |
Below the header are tabs:
- Chat — ask questions.
- Briefings — a live summary of the business right now (money owed to you, what you owe suppliers, stock at or below its alert level, an approximate sales tax position) and Email me this brief (with PDF). Briefings are for the business owner, because they name balances and debtors.
- Knowledge — what Maya can answer, what she can do, who controls what, and the safeguards, with example questions made from your own company's data.
Which tabs you see depends on your role.
Asking a question
- Type in Ask about your books… at the bottom of the panel.
- Press Enter to send. (Shift+Enter starts a new line.) Or click the send button.
- While Maya works, the panel says "Maya is looking at the books…".
On a new conversation, four suggestions are shown ("Are my books in good shape?", "Show me this month's profit & loss", "Which customers owe me the most?", "What does the trial balance look like?"). Click one to ask it.
Maya sees only what your role may see. If your role cannot see the books, the panel says so instead of answering.
Reading a receipt or bill
The paper-clip button beside the question box reads a photographed receipt or invoice and records it as an expense, using the same reader as Enter Expenses. When it is recorded, SeroBooks says "Recorded. You will find it under Purchases ▸ Expenses." If your company has no expense categories yet, Maya says so instead. See Enter Expenses.
When Maya proposes an action
Each thing Maya can do is switched off until the owner switches it on in Maya's settings: drafting a purchase order, drafting a journal entry (balanced to the cent, or refused), sending customer statements to the customers you name, drafting a payment run, and coding a bank statement line to an account.
When she proposes one, a card appears above the question box headed Awaiting your approval, with a summary and, where it applies, an estimated value. "Nothing happens until approved."
- Approve carries it out, through the same checks, permissions and period locks as if you had done it yourself. Some actions ask for your password first (Confirm it is you). SeroBooks then says "Done." or reports what went wrong.
- Reject discards the proposal.
Every proposal, approval and action is recorded permanently.
Maya's settings (administrators)
The gear opens Maya's controls. Everyone can read them; only the owner can change them.
- Pause Maya (kill switch) — "Stops chat and briefings for this business instantly." While paused, the panel shows "Maya is paused for this business. An owner can resume her in Maya settings."
- Morning briefing — Email the owner a daily brief, and the time to send it after (store local time).
- What Maya may DO — switch each ability on or off.
- What your role can see, and this month's usage.
Who may use Maya's chat and briefings is set per role under Company ▸ Set Up Users and Roles. See Roles and permissions explained.
Messages you may see
| Message | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Maya needs a connection to the server. | SeroBooks could not reach Maya. Check your connection and reopen the panel. |
| Maya is paused for this business. | The owner has used the kill switch. |
| Something went wrong. Please try again. | The question could not be answered. Ask it again, perhaps in other words. |
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