Messages

A message is a short note attached to a specific record: an invoice, a bank transaction, a bank statement, a match, a company or a partner. They are how the accounting side and the client side settle the small questions that come up in the books ("What was this payment for?", "Can you send the missing invoice?") without starting an email thread.

The conversation lives on the record it is about, so the context travels with it.

A conversation is not private to your side. Everyone in the workspace who can see the record can read it, on both sides. Two accountants can write to each other in a thread, and the client will see every word. Keep internal notes out of it.

Where the conversation lives

It is in two different places depending on the record, which is worth knowing before you go looking:

RecordWhere
Invoice, company, partnera Messages tab, with an unread count on it
Bank transaction, match, bank statementa Messages card, further down the page

There is no longer a slide-over on bank transactions: clicking a row opens the full transaction page, and the card is on it.

Writing one

  1. Type in the box at the foot of the panel. The placeholder reads "Write a reply…".
  2. Click Send.

The first message starts the conversation; everything later on the same record joins the same thread.

Messages are meant to be short. The limit is 2,000 characters, and Send simply stops working above it, with no warning of its own.

Most of what you see was not written by a person

Opening a thread, the first thing you are likely to find is a request AIFT raised by itself: a missing receipt, a document it needs from the client. These show the sender as AI Finance Team with an Automatic request badge instead of a role, and they deliberately send no email. They are the large majority of all messages today.

A human reply to one of them behaves like any other message, email nudge included.

Templates, suggestions and Draft with AI

Three things sit above the box, and they are easy to confuse because they look alike:

  • Use a template… is a dropdown of pre-written messages ("Tax ID mismatch", "Date unclear"). It drops the plain text in with every placeholder still to fill. The hint underneath says "Click each placeholder chip to replace it." - do that, because nothing stops you sending the message with the bare placeholder names still in it. Everyone gets this dropdown, on both sides.
  • Suggested: chips appear above it when AIFT has spotted something specific about the record. These are the ones that arrive already filled in with that record's values, and they are one tap. Accounting side only.
  • Draft with AI writes a first draft for the record, streaming as it goes. It is a starting point, not an auto-send: read it, edit it, click Send. Accounting side only.

You can browse every template from Browse template library at the top of the Messages page.

Suggested:
The tax ID on this invoice (tax_id_on_invoice) doesn't match our file (tax_id_on_file). Is this for the right company?
Click each placeholder chip to replace it.

The composer with a template already dropped in. The numbers match the list below. The invoice details are examples.

  1. Suggested: chips, one tap, already filled in with this record's values. Accounting side only.
  2. Use a template… drops the plain text in with every placeholder still a chip. Everyone gets this, on both sides.
  3. Draft with AI, accounting side only.

The two grey chips are unfilled placeholders showing their internal names. Click each one before sending, because nothing stops you sending them as they are.

Who can read a thread

There is no separate "messaging" permission. If you can see the record, you can read its thread and reply to it.

Two consequences:

  • Your own side reads it too, as above. Administrators of the accounting organisation can also read threads, for audit.
  • A member whose access to the records has been withdrawn sees a much smaller Messages page: only conversations about documents they uploaded themselves, or ones they have written in.

Every message carries the sender's name and a role badge - Accountant, Accountant admin, Finance lead, Finance admin or Team member. Someone on a custom role shows the badge of the role it was based on.

The email nudge

When your message stays unread, the people on the other side get an email about it. Worth knowing what that email is and is not:

  • It says a message is waiting and names the record. It does not contain the message text, and you cannot reply to it by email. It is a nudge to come and look.
  • It goes to the other side only. Your own side is never emailed.
  • At most one per conversation per recipient every ten minutes, so a flurry on one record does not become a flurry of email.
  • Automatic requests never send one.

Anyone can turn these off for themselves under Account → Notifications, with Unread message reminders.

Finding your conversations

The bell in the sidebar header carries a red count and opens your recent messages, with View all messages at the foot.

Two things about it that look like faults and are not:

  • The count covers every workspace you belong to, while the list shows only the workspace you are in. A red badge over an empty list means the messages are in another workspace.
  • It refreshes about once a minute, so a brand-new message can take a moment to appear.

The Messages page in the sidebar lists every conversation in the workspace, newest first, with the record, a preview, the time and who it is from. Click a row to jump to the record. Messages also surface on Mission control.

Unread clears when the page loads, not when you read. On a bank transaction, match or statement the thread is a card on the page, so simply opening the record marks the conversation read even if you never scroll down to it.

There is no way to mark a conversation done. You may see a Resolved badge mentioned in the interface; nothing in the product currently sets it, so no conversation ever carries it. Conversations stay in the list.

What Messages is not

  • Not private. Repeating it because it is the one that matters: the client sees everything written on the record.
  • Not your incoming email. Documents forwarded by email land in Intake, not here. See Forwarding Documents by Email.
  • Not a substitute for fixing the record. If the answer is "change the category" or "set the partner", make the change. Use a message when you need the other side to do or confirm something.