Review AI proposals in Approvals

Overview#

In TradesWork, agents propose and people decide. The Approvals page is the one queue where every agent proposal waits: missing invoice lines, payment reminder texts, member visits to book, supplier bills to approve, supplier cost increases, and runs of automations set to "Ask first". Approving applies the change with your permissions and records it in the audit trail. Many changes can be undone for 24 hours.

Before you start#

• Who can use Approvals: owners, admins, dispatchers and accounting. Applying a proposal still needs the normal permission for that change. For example, adding invoice lines needs invoice editing, and approving a bill needs bill approval.

• Who can change agent modes: owners and admins, in Settings › AI › AI Assistants & Data Preferences.

• AI connection: invoice review, collections drafts and reading forwarded bills need AI. If AI isn't connected on the server, or is turned off for your company, a yellow notice at the top of Approvals explains why. Those agents are paused. Member-visit booking, automations and bill matching don't use AI and keep working.

• Open Approvals from the sparkle icon (AI approvals) in the top bar. The number on it is how many proposals are waiting.

Steps#

Review what's waiting#

1. Click the AI approvals icon in the top bar.

2. Stay on Waiting for you. Proposals are grouped by agent: Invoice review, Collections, Membership visits, Bills (AP), Automations and AI Team (changes your AI Team agents prepared, titled with the agent's name and role, with the steps they'll take and a link to the agent's page).

3. For each proposal, read:

   • The title and the agent's reason (the line with the robot icon).

   • A Low risk badge, or Reaches the customer for anything that goes out to a customer.

   • The change itself: invoice lines with the note text they came from, the reminder text, the proposed visit day and technician, the automation's exact steps (with a Run details link), a bill total (with Open the bill and its match), or each pricebook cost going from old to new with the evidence.

   • Open job when the proposal is about a job.

Approve, edit or reject#

1. To accept a proposal, click Approve. If it was a failed attempt, the button says Try again.

2. For a payment reminder text, you can edit the message in the box first. Then click Approve & send. Your edited text is what gets sent. The job's pay link is added on its own line.

3. To decline, click Reject. Nothing changes.

4. To approve several low-risk proposals at once, tick their boxes and click Approve selected in that agent's header. Only low-risk proposals have a box.

Undo a change#

1. Click Recent decisions.

2. Find the proposal. Reversible changes that were applied in the last 24 hours show Undo.

3. Click Undo. TradesWork reverses exactly that change:

   • Added invoice lines are removed (only while the invoice is still open).

   • A booked member visit is canceled and goes back on the due list.

   • A draft pricebook cost update is discarded.

4. Texts, automation runs and bill approvals can't be undone.

Run the agents now#

Agents run on a schedule a few times a day. Owners and admins can click Run agents now to check right away. A message says how many new proposals were found, or "Nothing new to propose."

Settings that change this#

Settings › AI › AI Assistants & Data Preferences (or Agents on the Approvals page):

• Use AI in TradesWork: off hides every AI control for everyone and pauses the agents.

• A Mode for each agent:

  • Off: the agent doesn't propose anything. For Automations, Off pauses "Ask first" runs.

  • Suggest (you approve): proposals wait here. This is the default.

  • Auto-apply low-risk: low-risk, reversible changes (invoice lines on unsent work, member visit bookings) apply on their own, acting as the person who set the mode. They show an Auto-applied badge and can be undone for 24 hours. Collections can't be set to auto: texts always need a person.

• Usage, last 30 days shows requests and estimated cost at list price.

Each automation also has its own How it runs setting (see "Build and test an automation").

Tips#

• Use Check invoice for missing items on a job page to run invoice review for one job on demand. Any finding lands here.

• Edit reminder texts to sound like you before approving. The agent drafts; you send.

• Start every agent on Suggest and watch Recent decisions for a couple of weeks before turning on auto-apply.

Troubleshooting#

• The sparkle icon isn't in my top bar. Cause: your role can't approve (Customer service, technician, viewer). Fix: ask an owner or admin.

• A yellow notice says AI isn't connected. Cause: no AI key is set on the server. Fix: an administrator adds the key. Until then, invoice review and collections are paused.

• A proposal shows "Couldn't apply" with a red message. Cause: something changed (the invoice was sent or paid, the appointment slot filled, or you lack the permission). Fix: read the message, fix the cause, then click Try again, or Reject it.

• No Undo button on an applied proposal. Cause: the change isn't reversible, or 24 hours have passed. Fix: change the record by hand.

• No Approve selected button. Cause: none of the waiting proposals in that group are low risk.

FAQ#

Does an agent ever text a customer without approval? No. Anything that reaches a customer is never low risk and always waits for a person, unless you set an automation that texts to run automatically yourself.

Who is recorded as making the change? The person who approved it. Auto-applied changes act as the person who turned on auto-apply.

What does the AI see? Only what the task needs: job notes, line items, equipment and your pricebook. At most a customer's first name; never phone numbers, emails, addresses, passwords or card details.

What happens if I reject an automation run? Nothing is done, and the run shows "Rejected" in its history.

Coming from ServiceTitan#

ServiceTitan has no single queue for AI proposals. In TradesWork, every agent and every "Ask first" automation feeds one Approvals page, with a reason for each proposal, a risk label, bulk approve for low-risk items and a 24-hour undo. Agent modes live in Settings › AI › AI Assistants & Data Preferences.