# Asking the assistant for help > Ask how to do something, why something happened in your salon, or about your figures, and send a problem report or idea to FullColumn. Source: https://docs.fullcolumn.com/getting-started/assistant The assistant answers questions in the staff app. Ask it how to do something in FullColumn and it finds the answer in these guides, with a link straight to the right screen. Ask why something happened, like a client not getting a reminder, and it looks into your salon to explain it. It can also draft a problem report or feature request for you to send to FullColumn's team. ## Opening the assistant Choose **Ask the assistant** near the bottom of the menu, just above your name, or search for it with ⌘ K (Ctrl K on Windows). On a phone it covers the screen and closes when you follow one of its links. On a computer it opens one of two ways, and remembers the one you chose: - **Docked** beside the page, which makes room for it, so you can follow its links and keep the conversation open. It docks by itself on a wide screen. - **Floating** over the page as a card in the corner, so the page keeps its full width. It floats by itself on a smaller screen. The button beside **+** at the top switches between them. Drag the assistant's left edge to make it wider or narrower (double-click the edge for its usual width). Type your question and press Enter or **Ask**. The answer appears as it's written, with what it's doing underneath ("Searching the guides"). Under each answer, **What it looked at** lists the guides and screens it checked. ### Showing it a picture A screenshot often explains a problem faster than words. Paste one into the question box, drop it onto the assistant, or choose the picture button beside **Ask** (on a phone, it can take a photo). A question can have up to 3 pictures, and a conversation up to 12; the assistant sees them again with each question in that conversation. Pictures are shrunk before they're sent, and kept with the conversation. ## What the assistant can help with - **How to do something**: "How can seniors charge more than juniors?" It answers from these guides, and links to the screen. A link can point at one thing on a screen, like the **Price levels** button, which is highlighted when you get there. - **Why something happened**: "Why didn't Sarah get her reminder?" or "Why isn't 3pm Tuesday showing online?" It looks at the appointment, the messages sent and your settings, then says what it found. - **Your figures**: questions the reports don't answer, like "How many new clients booked a colour last month?" - **Telling FullColumn about a problem or an idea**: see [sending a problem report or feature request](#sending-a-problem-report-or-feature-request). ## What the assistant sees and can't do - **It sees what you can see.** It looks things up as you, so a screen you can't open is closed to it too, and clients' phone numbers and email addresses are hidden from it if they're hidden from you. - **Looking through all your salon's data** is only for someone who can download all of it and see clients' contact details ("Download a full copy of the salon's data and photos": owners, unless given out). - **It never sees passwords, PINs, or the links and codes clients and your team sign in or pay with.** - **It can't change anything.** It tells you where to make the change, with a link. - **It can be wrong.** It answers from the guides and what it finds, so check before you act on something important, and tell FullColumn when it gets something wrong. Your questions, and what the assistant looks up to answer them, go to the AI provider FullColumn uses, listed with our other providers in our [Privacy Policy](https://fullcolumn.com/privacy). ## Sending a problem report or feature request When something looks wrong in FullColumn, or you'd like it to do something it can't, ask the assistant to tell FullColumn. It drafts a **Problem report** or **Feature request** under its answer: 1. Check the title and details, and change anything you like. 2. Leave **Include what the assistant looked at** ticked to send what it found too, with the question's pictures (it can name clients, but their phone numbers and email addresses are hidden; a picture shows whatever it shows), or untick it. 3. Choose **Send to FullColumn**. Nothing is sent until you choose **Send to FullColumn**. Recent errors from your browser go with it, to help find the problem. ## Who can use the assistant The permission is "Ask the assistant (it sees what they can see)", under **Help** in **Fine-tune what they can do**. Owners and managers have it, staff don't unless you give it to them. See [roles and permissions](https://docs.fullcolumn.com/team/roles-and-permissions). On a **Front desk** [shared device](https://docs.fullcolumn.com/team/shared-devices), it asks for the person's password first. ## Your conversations Only you see your conversations in the assistant. They're help rather than your salon's records, so they aren't in [Download everything](https://docs.fullcolumn.com/settings/download-everything). The list button at the top of the assistant has your earlier conversations, and **Delete this conversation**. The **+** button starts a new one. A conversation is kept until it's gone unused for six months. Each question sends the whole conversation to the assistant again, so a very long one stops taking questions: start a new one then (it says so). The same happens if what you can do in FullColumn changes, as the conversation holds what you could see before. The assistant is included in your plan, with a daily allowance your team shares. Most questions use very little of it; ones that look through a lot of your salon's data use more. When most of it is used, the assistant says so, and once it's all used it's back the next day. You can wait for one answer at a time. ## Common questions ### Why can't I see Ask the assistant? Either you don't have the permission (ask the owner), or the assistant isn't switched on yet. ### Can the assistant book or change things for me? No. It only looks, and tells you where to do it, with a link. ### Does the assistant see my clients' phone numbers? Only if you can see them ("See clients' phone numbers and email addresses"), so it can work out things like why a text didn't arrive. If they're hidden from you, they're hidden from it. ### Can my stylists use it? Yes, if you give them "Ask the assistant (it sees what they can see)". It sees only what they can see.