The chat is read-only. The phone writes.
Ask Sofia answers from the store and week you have open. Each figure opens that screen. It cannot assign a shift or publish the week. The phone agent is the one that writes — see Call Sofia.
What does “grounded” mean for an assistant?
A grounded assistant answers from a specific set of data, rather than from what a language model happens to have memorised. Open shifts, labor against the typed sales plan, overtime, roster coverage, and — when those products are on — yesterday’s till sales, the pay-run gross, and saved report hours are computed in the app from the store and week open on Schedule. They use the same calculations as that screen, and they do not call the model. A question outside that set still goes to the assistant function, which reads the organization on the server. That function’s till and publish wording applies after askAssistant is deployed. The checkable answers ship with the app.
What people actually ask it
These figures are computed in the app for the store and week you have open. They are not estimated by the model.
A chip for each figure
Open shifts, a missing break, the week, payroll, the till, and a saved report each open that screen. The number on the answer is the number on the screen.
Prompts from this week
Saturday opens, missing breaks, and labor over the typed plan become the opening prompts. A quiet week says so.
“Fill Saturday”
Ask lists who Auto-Fill would rank and why, then links to the week. It does not assign anyone. Schedule applies the proposal.
The same labor and overtime
Labor is the scheduled cost against the typed sales plan. Overtime is the same weekly watch the schedule uses. Sofia only recommends qualified people already on the venue team.
Off means off
Till sales, the pay-run gross, and saved report hours appear only when POS, Payroll, or Analytics is on. Off is named as off. A missing day, run, or report is none, not a zero.
Read-only, deliberately
Ask has no write path. Fill Saturday explains a ranking and stops. Asking to publish does not publish. The schedule button and the phone write. Spanish questions use the same cents and the same hours.
No write access to shifts, pay runs, tickets, or messages Publish is refused, including before the week has loaded Manager-gated: the answers include labor and wage-derived figures A product that is off is named as off, and no zero is invented
It tells you when it is not the model talking
The checkable questions are always labelled “from your data”, even when the model is available. They never go to the model, so the model cannot change the figures. A question outside that set uses the assistant function. If that function has no model key, it uses a labelled fallback. The fallback refuses a publish and, when POS is off, says the till is off. That fallback wording applies after askAssistant is deployed.
Every answer carries its source, shown in the conversation Fixed answers are the screen’s numbers, not a translated estimate Tips are not added to till sales Answers render through an escape-first Markdown renderer with a fixed tag set
Questions, answered
Which model does Ask Sofia use?
The checkable questions do not use a model. They are computed in the app. Other questions use Google Gemini 2.5 Flash, one call per question, with no conversation memory. That call applies after askAssistant is deployed.
Can it change my schedule?
No. Fill Saturday lists who Auto-Fill would rank and links to the week. It does not assign. Asking to publish does not publish. Call Sofia, the phone agent, is the write path for late, sick, and a named swap.
Who can use it?
Managers and above. The answers include labor cost and wage-derived figures, so access matches the role that can already see that data elsewhere in the product.
Is my schedule data sent to the model?
Not for the checkable questions. Those stay in the app. A question outside that set sends a summary of the organization with the question, after askAssistant is deployed, so that answer can be grounded.
What if the till, payroll, or analytics is off?
The answer says that product is off. It does not invent a zero. When the product is on, yesterday’s till sales exclude tips, the pay-run gross is the saved run for the period that contains this week’s Monday, and report hours are the hours saved for this store and week.
Do Spanish questions change the figures?
No. A Spanish question about the same till, pay run, or hours uses the computed cents and hours. The words change. The numbers do not.
Explore more of Sofia
- Sofia
Staff call or text one store number. Sofia covers late, sick, a call-off, or a named swap, and writes the accepted change.
- Rostering & Auto-Fill
See the week. Fill open shifts. Every pick is scored and reversible.
- Labor cost control
See Saturday’s labor % while you can still cut a shift. Scheduled vs actual, live.