Frequently asked questions

These are the questions that come up most once you're actually working in Bitment, grouped by theme. Each answer links to the page that covers the topic in full.

Getting started

What is Bitment, exactly?

A suite of integrated apps a services firm uses to run itself and serve clients: one workspace, one search, one AI, and one set of clients shared across every app. See What is Bitment.

Why isn't an app in my dock?

Not every app is enabled by default. The default launch set is Clients, Files, Chat, Agents, Tokens, Projects, Emails, Calendar, Meetings, Messages, Phone, and Settings; the rest (Signatures, Forms, Recordings, Payroll, Bookkeeping, Taxes, Wealth, Campaigns) are switched on per person by the Bitment team. Ask for the app to be enabled. See Taking the workspace tour.

How do I find anything quickly?

Press ⌥Space (Option+Space) from anywhere to open the search palette. It searches clients, emails, files, tasks, messages, and meetings at once, tolerates typos, and doubles as an app launcher. See Search and shortcuts.

How do I switch between the firms I operate in?

You don't switch: one Bitment session spans every firm you belong to, with no workspace switching. Things a firm owns carry a firm badge, and you pick which firm owns something when you create it. See Firms, scopes, and clients.

Account & security

Yes. One account can hold several verified email addresses, and signing in with any of them lands you in the same account. Manage them from the account dashboard behind your avatar, or Settings › Account. See Your account and signing in.

How do I turn on two-factor authentication?

Two-factor authentication is coming soon. It will live in the Security section of the account dashboard (click your avatar in the top menu bar) and Settings › Account. In the meantime, the secure email link is the recommended way to sign in. See Your account and signing in.

How do I switch between the operators workspace, the client portal, and other portals?

Use the account row's portal switcher: on desktop, click your avatar in the top menu bar; on a phone, tap the account row in the Control Center's quick actions sheet. See Your account and signing in.

Where do I manage my firm's team and permissions?

Settings › Firm, or the account dashboard's Firms section. Both open the same roster: members, roles, fine-grained permissions, and invitations. See Firm and team.

AI

What's the difference between AI Chat, the Assistant, and Agents?

They're three configurations of the same underlying AI. Chat is a conversational assistant you open and talk to. The Assistant is a page-aware pane that knows what you're looking at and can move your view. Agents are autonomous colleagues woken by events or a schedule rather than by a conversation. See AI overview.

Why did the AI stage something instead of just doing it?

Anything that changes your data is proposed, not done, by default: the AI stages the change as a card you review and approve, showing every field of what would change. You can elevate a session or an Agent's permission to Execute for capabilities you trust, so it commits directly. See AI Agents.

Where does my data go when I use the AI?

The AI runs through your firm's connected AI provider credentials (AWS Bedrock, Anthropic, OpenRouter, or a self-hosted Ollama your firm connects itself), and picking a model also picks which firm's credential and which provider handles that call. See Models and providers and Security and data.

What's a Soul, and why does an Agent need one?

The soul is the standing instructions that define an Agent: who it is, what it's responsible for, its judgment calls, and its tone. Write it the way you'd brief a new hire; it's the single biggest lever over how an Agent behaves. See AI Agents.

Can the AI answer a data question directly, without me building a report?

Yes. For counts, filtered lists, and aggregations that cross several apps at once, the assistant can write and run its own read-only query against your data instead of chaining a lot of per-app lookups. It can only see what you're already permitted to see, and it can never use this to change anything. See Chat.

Apps & integrations

Can I connect more than one email account?

Yes. Emails is multi-account: switch between mailboxes from the account tab bar at the top, and add as many Gmail or Microsoft 365 accounts as you need. There's no unified inbox, so search and each view are scoped to the account you're on. See Emails.

How do I connect Slack, Signal, or Telegram?

Under Settings › Connections, then the matching service page: authorize your Slack workspace, link Signal by scanning a code from your phone, or authorize Telegram by QR code. The data itself then shows up in Messages. See Connections overview.

Can I keep my books in QuickBooks Online instead of migrating them?

Yes. Bookkeeping's QuickBooks tab mirrors a QuickBooks Online company directly: accounts and journal entries sync both ways, invoices and other documents mirror in read-only, and every report and AI feature works on the live QuickBooks data. This has to be enabled for your account first. See Bookkeeping.

What happens if I change my email password?

Google and Microsoft revoke Bitment's access whenever your sign-in changes, so that mailbox stops syncing until you reconnect it. You'll get a notification and a Reconnect button; nothing synced is lost. Emails and Calendar connect separately, even for the same provider account, so reconnecting one doesn't reconnect the other. See Emails and Calendar.

How do I bring my existing Asana projects into Bitment?

Connect Asana under Settings › Connections › Asana; a second Asana tab appears in Projects, mirroring your workspace's projects and tasks both ways. When you're ready to move a project off Asana entirely, its header carries a one-time Migrate to Bitment button. See Projects.

Clients & portal

What can a client see in their portal?

Only what you've explicitly shared or sent them: files placed in their space, documents to sign, and forms to fill out (plus their own bookkeeping ledger, for a client given that access). They never see your internal notes, your AI context about them, or anything in your own workspace you haven't shared. See The client portal.

Can a client see my internal notes or AI context about them?

No. A client's Notes page and Context page are internal, operator-facing surfaces; the client portal only surfaces Files, Signatures, Forms, and (where enabled) Bookkeeping. See Client context and AI.

How do a client's emails end up filed under their record automatically?

Record a person's email address on the client or one of its contacts, and every thread they're on, past and future, appears on that client's Emails page automatically. For an address that shouldn't become a CRM contact, file just that one thread instead. See Clients.

Can I import my whole client list at once?

Yes. Clients supports a bulk import from a spreadsheet, an export, or a zip of client folders: the AI maps rows to clients and contacts, flags duplicates, and lets you review and correct everything before you commit. See Clients.

Desktop & mobile

Does the desktop app update itself?

Yes. When a new version is published, the desktop app offers Install and Relaunch the next time you open it; most improvements need no update at all, since the app loads the rest of Bitment live from your firm's server. See Desktop and mobile apps.

Can I install Bitment on my phone?

Yes, as an installable app (Add to Home Screen, or the iOS app), which also enables push notifications once you turn them on. See Desktop and mobile apps.

Why do I only see the Browser tile on some devices?

The embedded Browser exists only in the Bitment desktop app; in a plain web browser the tile isn't in the dock at all, because an embedded browser on the web would be blocked by most of the sites worth opening. Terminal shows on both. See Browser.

How do I get push notifications on my phone?

Install Bitment on your phone (Add to Home Screen, or the iOS app) and enable notifications when prompted; the Mobile column of your notification settings then controls which categories reach it. See Notifications.

Billing & tokens

What does the AI actually cost, and who pays for it?

Every AI call is metered and priced. Picking a model also picks which firm's connected credential pays for it, and the Tokens app's Usage tab shows exactly what's been spent, by whom, on what model, and from which part of the product. See Tokens and billing.

How do I stop an Agent from running up a big AI bill?

Set a per-agent spend cap when you create it, and use the Tokens app's account-wide, per-model, and per-person Limits. Every Agent run is also bounded automatically at roughly $5 of spend and ten minutes. See Tokens and billing and AI Agents.

Why does a cost show as "Est" instead of a final number?

Costs are recorded at call time and then settle over the next few days as the provider's exact price is confirmed; the Est / Settling / Final / Reconciled badge next to a cost says how settled that particular price is. See Tokens and billing.

Does picking a bigger AI model matter?

Yes, meaningfully. Bigger models cost more per call than smaller ones, so routine work like AI split-inbox matching is usually better served by a smaller model, while a harder question benefits from a larger one. See Models and providers.

Troubleshooting

Why did my email or calendar stop syncing?

Google and Microsoft revoke access whenever your underlying sign-in changes, most often after a password change. You'll get a notification and a Reconnect button on the affected account; nothing already synced is lost. See Emails and Calendar.

How do I turn off the microphone icon next to my cursor?

Go to Settings › Voice-to-Text and turn off Enable voice-to-text. That removes the microphone from every text field, along with its keyboard shortcut. See Voice-to-Text.

My AI split inbox isn't sorting mail the way I described. What do I do?

Open the split for editing and click Test to run your description against your last 20 inbox emails without saving or moving anything, then reword and test again until it catches what you meant. Concrete descriptions work better than vague ones. See Emails.

A window is stuck in full screen. How do I get out?

Click the green traffic-light control again, or press ⌥↓ (Option+Down). Full screen is deliberately sticky, so dragging the title bar won't exit it. See Taking the workspace tour and Keyboard shortcuts.

How do I report a bug or request a feature?

Ask the AI directly and tell it to file feedback; that goes straight to the Bitment team's backlog with your conversation's context attached. Paste or drag in a screenshot first if it helps show the problem. See Support and feedback.