The question this page answers

What can Ask Tightly see, what did I ask last, and what does an answer rest on? Ask Tightly is the one assistant on every page of Tightly. This page is its own room, headed Conversations: the box that asks, the ways in, and the conversations you had. Kept answers live on the Board, and one kept answer is worked in the workspace. On Tightly Lite the Board holds ten fixed charts instead, and nothing is kept.

What you see

Conversations, the box and the ways in, marked 1.

1. 1The box, with the ways in beside it, Recap, Questions and Acts.

The head reads Conversations. Its basis shows the source, history depth and last sync; press it for record types and counts. History opens conversations older than those listed.

Under the head is the box. Before anything is typed it reads

Ask Tightly about your stock, your orders or your buy plan

on Tightly Pro, and ends with your budget on Essentials and Essentials+. On Tightly Lite it reads Ask Tightly about your stock, your sales or how Tightly works. Beside it stand the ways in, grouped Recap (the Weekly recap, while there is one), Questions (Today’s briefing, Stockout risks, Late suppliers, Chart days of cover) and Acts (Draft a PO). On Tightly Lite the ways in are what Lite's Ask Tightly does: Questions (What runs out next and Where the stock money sits, two of the fixed charts, then Reading my stock and Where my orders are) and Acts (Report a problem). Below, Recent conversations lists the newest eight in two columns, Conversation (with Starred beside a starred one) and Last.

A conversation is a document: your question in ink, the answer beneath. While an answer is on its way a status word stands where it will land: Thinking…, or a word for the step being taken, for example Reading your data… The head is the conversation's name, which you press to rename, with Started, the day and the turn count beside it, and Conversations as the way back.

A charted answer is one block: the title, the lead sentence, and the stamp, Read with the day and time, or Re-running… while a change is read again. Then one row of chips: Period, Read by, Split by, Compare and Threshold. A chip you changed reads Yours. Under the chart come The numbers with its row count, Basis (the choices the answer stood on, with Ask again with…), and Resources.

How Ask Tightly answers

A question that only asks to be taken to a page, such as open purchase orders, is answered at once:

Here is Purchase orders.

with the door Open Purchase orders under it. This happens only when the words name exactly one page your plan opens; anything else gets a full answer. A how-to question, such as how do I set a lead time, is answered from the help centre. If it needs your own figures, it is answered from your records from the start. An answer about how Tightly works must cite an article, open one, or stand on your own figures; one that does none of those is replaced with The knowledge base has no article for that. A question about your own products, orders, periods, rankings or charts, and anything that would change a record, is always answered from your records. On Tightly Lite, Ask Tightly draws the ten fixed charts, opens doors to pages, reports a problem and answers from the help centre, and nothing else.

What to do

1. Type your question and press Ask, or Enter; Shift+Enter breaks a line without asking.
2. Press Stop to halt an answer while it is being written.
3. Change an answer's basis with its chips (Period, Read by, Split by, Compare, Threshold); each press reads the same question again with your choice.
4. Press Adjust to bring the answer into the workspace, where Measure, Filters, Ordered by and How many are open to change; Back to the conversation returns.
5. Where a suggested act stands under an answer, press Yes or No; Ask Tightly changes nothing without that press.
6. On Essentials and above, open the answer's menu for Save to board or Add to Home; in a commitment's room, Keep on this room.
7. Open a conversation's menu for Star, Rename or Delete; a row in Recent conversations also carries Open.

Explain a recommendation and act

Ask "Why are you recommending this, and what can I change?" from the product or commitment; the answer can combine sales, forecasts, account demand, warehouse stock, promotions, pricing and analog evidence, and names what evidence is missing rather than guessing at it. Check the products, account or channel, dates and reason before confirming a forecast change: Ask saves through the forecast editor and links back to that selection, and never places an order or amends an agreed merchandise plan on its own.

A kept table without a live query behind it is a dated snapshot; reopening it keeps the rows it had, so ask again for current figures.

When it is empty or failed

Where a read did not land, Recent conversations says so, with Try again:

Ask Tightly could not read just now.

Your conversations could not be read just now.

A conversation that will not open reads

Error loading the chat, try again later.

An answer that failed prints its sentence with Try again; one you stopped offers Retry. Nothing on this page changes a record without your press.