Who this is for. Anyone with SmartResearch access: analysts, managers and finance leads. Access. Included for everyone at an organization whose subscription covers SmartResearch, whatever their role. No permission needs to be assigned. See the Roles and Access Reference.
Asking is the whole interface. There is no query builder and no filter panel, which means the scope of an answer comes from two things you set outside the question itself: the SmartFlow instance you selected, and your Business Context. Understanding that is most of what makes the difference between a useful answer and a puzzling one.
Before you begin
Set your defaults in User Preferences first. They decide the entities and the period a question covers, so changing them afterwards changes the answer to a question you have already asked. For more information, see User Preferences.
Ask a question
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Check that SmartFlow Instance names the data you mean.
If it reads none, select an instance before continuing. Nothing is in scope until you do.
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Check Connection sync status.
If it reports that configured connections are not visible to your account, the answer may be scoped more narrowly than you expect, and that is an access question rather than a data one.
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Type your question in the message box, or select one of the starter questions. The empty box shows an example of the level of detail that works: Show me budget variance analysis for this month’s actuals.
Selecting a starter question places it in the box so you can edit it before sending.
Select Send message.
SmartResearch reports progress while it works, naming the step it is on and offering Stop. When it finishes, the answer replaces the progress indicator.
Most questions finish in under a minute. When the answer arrives, the status line reports how the work was done. For example, Analyzed in 6 steps · 50.2s. A step that fails and is retried automatically adds to that time without affecting the result.
When SmartResearch asks a clarifying question
A question that is too broad to scope is not guessed at. SmartResearch replies with A couple of quick questions and asks What would you like to do?, then offers a set of choices. Nothing is analysed until you answer.
Table 2. Clarifying choices
Choice |
What it scopes the analysis to |
|---|---|
Analyze accounts payable spending, invoices, and payment trends |
Accounts payable. Spend, bills and payment behaviour. |
Review accounts receivable, customer invoices, and collections |
Accounts receivable. Customer invoices and collection activity. |
Examine vendor relationships, contracts, and performance |
Vendors. Relationships, contracts and performance. |
Check approval workflows and process efficiency |
Process. Approval routing and how efficiently work moves. |
Other |
None of the above. Describe the intent yourself. |
Select a choice, then select Submit & start analysis. Cancel drops the clarification and leaves the question unanswered.
Write an effective question
SmartResearch handles ordinary business phrasing. What it cannot do is guess at scope you have not given it and have not set as a default.
Instead of |
Ask |
Why |
|---|---|---|
“What is our spend?” |
“What did we spend with our top 10 vendors in the last quarter?” |
Names the measure, the population and the period, so none of them fall back to a default you have forgotten. |
“Show me overdue” |
“Which invoices are overdue by more than 60 days?” |
A threshold turns a list into an answer. |
“Is DPO bad?” |
“What is our current DPO, and how does it compare with a typical range?” |
Asks for the comparison explicitly rather than expecting judgment. |
Re-asking a question you ask every month |
Save it as a Skill. |
A skill fixes the steps and defaults so the result is the same each time. See Skills. |
Starter questions
Three are offered on an empty workspace: Current DPO, Top vendors by spend and Overdue AP aging. They are ordinary questions rather than special reports, and they are a reasonable way to confirm an instance is answering at all.
Figure 1. The SmartResearch question area, with suggested starter questions beneath the message box.
Attach a file
Select Upload files beside the message box.
Uploading a vendor statement as a queryable source, and reconciling it against the system of record, is still in development. The control is present; the reconciliation workflow is not yet available.
Scenarios
When an answer misses, the cause usually sits outside the question: in the instance you selected or the defaults in Business Context.
Situation |
Likely cause |
What to do |
|---|---|---|
The answer covers the wrong period |
Your default time range applied because the question did not state one. |
State the period in the question, or change the default. |
The answer covers fewer entities than expected |
Default entities is narrowed. |
Check Business Context. |
Nothing can be answered |
The instance reads none, or its scope is No Connections. |
Select an instance, or check its configuration. |
A follow-up returns something unexpectedly narrow |
The chat is still applying earlier context. |
Start a new chat. |
The answer is taking too long |
A long analysis is running. |
Select Stop and ask a narrower question. |
SmartResearch states on every screen that it can make mistakes and asks you to validate responses. Read the sources and the reporting window before acting on a figure.
Related information
For more information, see Read an Answer.
For more information, see Chats and Recent Conversations.
For more information, see When an Answer Looks Wrong.