# The WhatsApp AI Copilot

> How managers can text your company WhatsApp number for answers about attendance or to make changes (confirmed with YES), what happens when employees text in, and how to turn it off.

When the WhatsApp AI Copilot is enabled, managers who text your company's WhatsApp number get an automated reply from the Attendance Copilot — the same AI assistant available in the app under **Management → Attendance Copilot**, just routed through WhatsApp.

This article covers how it works, how to enable or disable it, and what to do when it doesn't behave.

For the in-app version (chart widgets, downloadable reports, etc.), see [Attendance Copilot](https://timed.co.za/docs/attendance-copilot).

## How it works

When an inbound WhatsApp message arrives:

1. Timed matches the sender's phone number to a Timed user or employee.
2. If a matching user is found, the WhatsApp AI Copilot is enabled for your company, and the user has the **View Employees** permission, the Copilot answers.
3. The Copilot works with the same access as the user — it can see exactly what they can see in the web app, and nothing more.
4. The reply is sent back over WhatsApp and appears in the [Inbox](https://timed.co.za/docs/whatsapp-inbox) like any other conversation.

Employee commands are handled before any of this: `LEAVE`, `LEAVES`, `DOC` and `HELP` work for every employee, whether or not the Copilot is on. Documents sent with `DOC` land on the employee's profile (see [Employee documents](https://timed.co.za/docs/employee-documents)).

If the sender isn't a manager (no View Employees permission) and the message isn't one of those commands, the message is flagged for human review and they get an automated acknowledgement: *"Thanks, I have flagged your message for a manager to review."* It then shows up when you click **Show human review only** in the Inbox. While that conversation is waiting for a person to review it, further messages from the same sender are flagged without another automated reply.

If the sender's number isn't linked to a Timed user at all, they get a different reply: *"This WhatsApp number is not linked to a Timed user. Please contact your administrator."*

## What the Copilot can answer

The Copilot is good at:

- "How many people are clocked in right now?"
- "Show me late arrivals this week"
- "Who didn't clock in at the Cape Town office today?"
- "What's the variance approval queue length?"
- "How do I install the mobile app?" (it can look up and quote the relevant help article)

It can also generate downloadable reports. These arrive as web links that the recipient opens in a browser, rather than as file attachments. Report links stay available for 7 days.

## Making changes

Managers can also ask the Copilot to change things, for example:

- "Add Sipho Dlamini as an employee at the Sandton site"
- "Deactivate Lerato Mokoena" or "Reactivate Lerato Mokoena"
- "Put Thandi on the Late shift at Cape Town" or "Remove Thandi from the Durban site"

Nothing changes straight away. The Copilot replies with exactly what it will do, followed by:

*"To confirm: … Reply YES to go ahead, or NO to cancel."*

Only a clear **YES** from you carries it out. **NO** cancels it. The request expires after 10 minutes, and asking for something else replaces it. The Copilot can only do what your own role in Timed allows. For example, if you can't add employees in the web app, you can't add them here either. It can't change people's roles, approve variances or leave, or delete records.

## Enabling and disabling

Open **Settings → Tenant Settings** and, under **AI Settings**, tick or untick **Allow WhatsApp AI Copilot replies**. When unticked, inbound messages are still received and stored, but the AI does not reply. You can then handle them by hand in the Inbox.

There's no per-user opt-out yet. If a manager wants to text the company number without involving the Copilot, they need to remove their phone number from their user profile, or use a different number.

## Conversation memory

For each phone number, the Copilot remembers the most recent conversation for context. If the user refers to "those people" or "the same question as yesterday", it can follow up. The full back-and-forth is visible in the [Inbox](https://timed.co.za/docs/whatsapp-inbox).

## Troubleshooting

| Symptom | Likely cause |
|---|---|
| Copilot doesn't reply at all | Either the integration isn't set up (see [WhatsApp Integration](https://timed.co.za/docs/whatsapp-integration)) or **Allow WhatsApp AI Copilot replies** is unticked. If both look right, contact Timed support. |
| Copilot replies "Your Timed user account is disabled" | The user's account has been disabled. Re-enable them in **Users**. |
| Copilot replies "I have flagged your message" to a manager | The user doesn't have the View Employees permission in this company. Check their role. |
| Reply takes more than 10 seconds | Normal for complex questions — the Copilot may need to look up several things. Follow-up messages in the same conversation are usually faster. |
| Reply is wrong | The Copilot's answers should be checked. Reply "no, that's wrong because…" and it will try again; complex questions occasionally need a person to verify. |

If the Copilot keeps misbehaving for a specific user, contact Timed support with the user's name, the phone number, and roughly when the conversation happened.