Docs

# 1.Get started with chatips

1. Login and Workspace 1. Open the workspace domain (provided by Chatips, e.g. https://workspace.chatips.com). 2. Log in using the account from the invitation email, or the email address + password provided by the administrator. 3. If two-step verification is enabled, enter the 6-digit verification code from your authenticator app or a backup code as prompted. For details, see Profile and Notifications. 4. The same login account can join multiple workspaces. The workspace name in the top-left corner can be switched. If you open the link and see: | Screen | Meaning | What to do | | No workspace | Account has not joined any tenant | Please ask an administrator to invite you, or contact Chatips | | Workspace suspended | Tenant deactivated | Administrators, please contact Chatips | | Seat locked | Insufficient seats in the current plan; your account is locked | An administrator must release seats or upgrade; you cannot go online to accept chats while locked |

# 2.My Inbox

My Inbox | Item | Content | | Menu location | On the left My Inbox (unread count is usually displayed next to the bell) | | Dependent packages | None | ‘My Inbox’ is a personal notification centre, not a channel in ‘Settings → Inbox’. It lists events that require your attention; clicking on an item will open the corresponding conversation. — 1. What will appear here The system will turn events within your subscription scope into notifications. Common types: | Type | When it appears | |—|—| | Assigned to you | Someone assigned a conversation to you, or automatic assignment matched you | | Mentioned | A colleague @mentioned you in a conversation (in a private note or reply) | | New Session | You have subscribed to ‘New Session Creation’ | | New message in assigned conversation | A customer has sent another message in a conversation you are responsible for | | New messages in conversations you participate in | You are a participant, but not necessarily the person in charge | | SLA timeout | First response / next response / resolution time limit breached (requires SLA activation) | Notification sources cover inboxes you have joined and subscribed to notifications for. Specific toggles are in Profile and Notifications. — 2. Interface Operations 1. Open My Inbox on the left. 2. The list is arranged chronologically, and unread items are usually more prominent. 3. Click a notification to open the corresponding conversation on the right and reply directly. 4. For a single notification, you can: – Snooze: Temporarily remove from the list, returning tomorrow / next week / at a specified time. – Delete: Discard this notification (will not delete the conversation itself). 1. You can use the filter or ‘Show’ options to toggle between Read / Unread / Remind Later notifications (subject to the options currently available on the interface). The number on ‘My Inbox’ in the sidebar = the number of unread notifications, which is not the same thing as the number of unread conversations on the ‘Conversations’ list. — 3. Difference from the ‘Session’ menu | | My Inbox | Conversations | |—|—|—| | Unit | One notification | One customer conversation | | Suitable for | Handling “Someone asked me to take a look” | Continuous handling, updating status, changing tags | | Same session | May have multiple notifications | Appears only once | Recommendation: When starting work, first scan ‘My Inbox’ to handle assigned items and @mentions, then head into ‘All Conversations’ to work through the queue by channel or team. — 4. Frequently Asked Questions The list is empty, but there are clearly unread messages in the chat? Notification subscriptions may have turned off ‘New messages’. Go to your profile to enable the relevant type, or use the ‘Conversations’ workbench directly. Already replied, but the notification is still there? Opening a notification usually marks it as read; if it is still there, you can delete it manually. Conversations will not be affected. Don’t want to be interrupted by new conversations? Turn off ‘New session created’ notifications, or set your status to Busy / Offline, and check whether automatic assignment still assigns them to you. — Related Documents – Conversation Workbench – Profile and Notifications – SLA

# 3. Conversation Workbench

Conversation Workbench | Item | Content | |—|—| | Suitable for | Agents, Administrators | | Menu location | Left Conversations | | Plan dependency | None (some sidebar capabilities such as SLAs and Shopify orders depend on the plan and integrations) | A conversation is a dialogue between a customer and your company. All channels (website, email, WhatsApp, etc.) ultimately end up here. — 1. How to slice the left-hand list Under Sessions, there are multiple entry points: | Entry point | What you see | |—|—| | All conversations | All conversations you have permission to access | | Mentions | Conversations where someone @mentioned you | | Participating | Conversations you are participating in | | Unattended | Conversations that no agent has actually taken over yet | | Folders | Custom filters saved by you or your team (e.g. ‘VIP + Opened’) | | Team | Conversations assigned to a team | | Channel | Conversations under a specific inbox (website, email…) | | Tag | Conversations tagged with a specific tag | The list can be filtered by status, assignee, and sort order. Whether the unread badge appears depends on whether unread counts are enabled for the workspace. 1.1 Session State | Status | Meaning | Typical Usage | |—|—|—| | Open | In progress, needs follow-up | Currently chatting, awaiting your reply | | Pending | Awaiting bot / Captain / customer | Assistant is replying automatically; or you explicitly marked it as pending | | Handle later (Snoozed) | Temporarily left the queue | Agreed to follow up in the afternoon; will return at the scheduled time or when the customer speaks again | | Resolved | Session ended | Question answered; if the customer sends another message, it will usually reopen | New conversations from blocked contacts will go directly to Resolved and will not reopen automatically. — 2. After opening a conversation In the centre is the message stream, at the bottom is the editor, and on the right are contact and conversation details. 2.1 Understanding Messages – Customer messages: Inbound. – Replies from you or a colleague: Outbound, sent to the original channel (website widget, email, WhatsApp, etc.). – Private notes: For internal use only; not visible to customers. Ideal for noting things like ‘Refund agreed’, ‘Emotionally agitated’, etc. – Activity log: automatically generated by the system, such as ‘Zhang San resolved’, ‘Tag added’, etc. – Failed outbound: Marked as failed when rejected by the channel or due to a network failure. You can retry following the on-screen prompts (depending on the channel). Channels such as WhatsApp have a 24-hour session window: once a customer’s last interaction exceeds this window, you cannot send regular messages at will and must use approved templates. See Quick replies and templates. 2.2 Write a reply 1. Type text in the input box, and insert emojis and attachments (there is a limit on the number of attachments per message). 2. Type / to invoke Quick Replies. 3. When you need to discuss internally, switch to Private Note before sending. 4. Select the send shortcut in your profile: Enter or Ctrl/⌘ + Enter. 5. If a personal signature is enabled, it will follow the messages you send (website, email, and API channels support illustrations in signatures). 6. Voice notes: If recording is enabled in the workspace, you can record and send a voice note (depending on whether the channel supports it). 7. Captain Tasks (if enabled): Allows the AI to rewrite, summarise, or suggest replies, which are sent after your confirmation. See Captain. In the email channel, you can also edit email fields such as the subject and CC (subject to what is displayed in the editor). 2.3 Session Actions (Title Bar / More Menu) | Action | Description | |—|—| | Resolve / Reopen | End the current session or resume when the customer returns | | Snooze | Select tomorrow, next week, next customer reply, or a custom time | | Assignment | Assigned to an agent or team; mutually exclusive with the bot owner | | Priority | Low / Medium / High / Urgent | | Tags | Multi-select, used for reporting and automation | | Participants | Add colleagues to this conversation, and they will see it under ‘Participating’ | | Mute | Resolves the conversation and blocks the contact, after which inbound messages from this customer will no longer automatically reopen it. Please proceed with caution. | | Translation / Other tools | Depends on workspace features | Bulk actions: Select multiple conversations in the list to assign, resolve, tag, etc. in bulk (subject to the actions provided in the interface). — 3. Right sidebar Draggable section order. Common blocks: | Block | Purpose | |—|—| | Contacts | Name, email, phone, social profiles; open full contact page | | Conversation Information | Channel, ID, Creation Time, SLA Status | | Contact properties | Custom fields, such as membership level | | Past conversations | Conversation history for the same contact | | Macro | Execute a set of actions with a single click; see Macros | | Shared Files | Attachments sent in this chat; you can jump back to the original message | | Contact notes | Saved to the contact, visible across all conversations | | Linear / Shopify etc. | Only appears when the corresponding integration is connected | — 4. Auto-assignment, Captains and Bots When a new session comes in, the following may happen: 1. Captain or Agent Bot takes over: Conversations are often ‘Pending’, with the assistant answering first; if unresolved, it will transfer to a human agent (removing the bot assignee and changing to Open). 2. Enable inbox auto-assignment: Distribute open conversations to online agents via round-robin / load balancing. 3. Unclaimed: Remains in Unassigned and appears in ‘Unattended’; colleagues on duty, please claim. Once you become the person in charge, new customer messages will trigger notifications according to your notification settings. — 5. Folders (Customised Views) Once you have set up filters in the conversation list (e.g. Status = Open, Tag = VIP, a specific inbox), you can save as a folder, which will appear under ‘Folders’ in the sidebar. Ideal for duty desks: ‘My unresolved’, ‘Email backlog’, etc. Folders are filter shortcuts and do not duplicate chats. Deleting a folder does not delete the chats. — 6. Initiate a conversation The Compose / New conversation option near the sidebar allows you to proactively start a chat with a contact (which channels can be used depends on whether the contact has an established identity in the corresponding inbox, as well as channel rules, such as WhatsApp templates). — 7. Frequently Asked Questions Replied, but the customer hasn’t received it? Check whether outbound messages have failed. For website channels, confirm that the customer’s page still has the widget open; for emails, check the spam folder and sending domain; for WhatsApp, check the 24-hour window and template status. Why is the session still pending? Captain / Bot or assignee. Transfer to a human agent or manually change the assignee to yourself. Customer replies after resolution? It will usually reopen automatically. If the contact is muted / blocked, it will not. Changed the widget position, but it hasn’t updated on the customer’s end? The bubble position is defined in the embedded script on the website, so you must paste the new script back onto the website. See Channels and Inboxes. Unable to send attachments? Check the storage quota, the number of attachments per message, and whether the channel permits the file type. — Related documents – My Inbox – Contacts – Channels and Inbox – Automation – Captain AI Assistant

# 4. Search

Search | Item | Content | |—|—| | Suitable for | All members | | Menu location | Search bar at the top of the sidebar, or shortcut Ctrl/⌘ + K (as indicated on the interface) | | Plan dependency | Basic search is available by default; Advanced search (across more messages, more accurate) may require a plan subscription | Used to find conversations, contacts, messages and Help Centre articles in the workspace without having to page through lists. — 1. How to search 1. Click search in the sidebar, or use a shortcut. 2. Enter a name, email address, phone number, sentence that appeared in the conversation, article title, etc. 3. Results are grouped by type; click to navigate. 4. Certain interfaces support filtering by type (contacts only, articles only, etc.), subject to the current page. We recommend searching using the customer’s email address, order number, or unique words from the conversation, which is more effective than just searching for ‘hello’. — 2. What you can find | Type | Typical match | |—|—| | Contact | Name, email, phone, identifier | | Conversation | A conversation related to contacts or messages | | Messages | Chat and email body (coverage depends on whether advanced search is enabled) | | Help Centre articles | Title / content of published articles (when the Help Centre is enabled for the workspace) | You can only see results within your permissions. If a custom role cannot view all conversations, search will not list those conversations either. — 3. Usage tips – Search for the email address first, then go to the contact page to view ‘Past conversations’ – it’s faster than filtering through the conversation list. – Whether private notes are searchable depends on the current search implementation; do not leave the only clue in the notes without adding tags. – Help Centre drafts are not visible to customers, so it is better for agents to search in the back-end article list. — 4. Frequently Asked Questions Know you’ve chatted before, but can’t find it in search? Message-level search may not be enabled, conversations may have been cleared according to retention policies, or you do not have permission for this inbox. Search is slow or incomplete? When workspace message volume is high, administrators can check with Chatips to confirm whether advanced search / indexing is enabled. — Related documents – Conversation Workbench – Contacts – Help Centre

# 5. Contacts

Contacts | Item | Content | |—|—| | Suitable for | Agents, Administrators | | Menu location | Left Contacts | | Plan-dependent | Total number of contacts is subject to quota limits; import and company features may require separate activation | Contacts are customer profiles in Chatips. Whether they get in touch via the website, email, or WhatsApp, they are grouped under the same contact wherever possible, making it easy to view their history. — 1. Lists and Filtering | Entry point | Description | |—|—| | All contacts | All workspace files (subject to your permissions and quota list) | | Active | Contacts with recent interactions | | Segments | Saved contact filters, similar to conversation ‘folders’ | | By tag | Contacts with a specific tag | Filter by email, phone number, name, custom attributes, and tags. The list supports sorting and pagination. Each contact entry typically displays: Name, Email, Phone, Channel Identity, Last Active Time. — 2. How contacts are created | Source | Description | |—|—| | Customer sends a message | Automatically created upon inbound contact via website widgets, instant messaging, email, etc. | | Manually created by agent | “Create” on Contacts page | | Import | “Settings → Data” or the import entry point on the Contacts page, see Data Import | | API / Integration | Push from your business system | Within the workspace, email, phone number, and external identifier must be unique to prevent two records from competing for the same email address. In terms of type, these may be categorised as Visitors / Leads / Customers (subject to the interface fields), used for operational segmentation. — 3. Contact Details After opening Contacts, you will see: – Basic details: Name, email, phone, company (if Company is enabled), avatar – Social profiles: Facebook, Twitter/X, GitHub, etc. (manually entered or channel-synced) – Custom attributes: Membership number, plan name, etc., with fields defined in Custom Attributes – Tags – Notes: Internal memo, not visible to customers – Conversation list: Past conversations across all channels, which can be clicked to open – Merge: Combine duplicate files into one Clicking the contact’s name on the right-hand side of the conversation will also take you to the same details (or a compact sidebar version). — 4. Identifying Website Visitors (HMAC) By default, the website widget treats logged-out visitors as anonymous guests. If you want logged-in users to automatically match the same person in your CRM, you need to set up identity verification (HMAC) on your website according to the Chatips documentation: signed by your backend and passed to the widget. Once configured correctly, this contact will be displayed as verified. Without HMAC, the same person clearing their cookies may become a new visitor. This is a common occurrence on website channels, not a fault. — 5. Merge contacts When the same person has two profiles (for example, chatting anonymously first, then leaving an email address later): 1. Open the primary contact you want to keep. 2. Use Merge. 3. Search for and select another record. 4. Once confirmed, conversations and identities will be assigned to the primary contact, and merged profiles will no longer be used separately. Before merging, please confirm that the email / phone number has not been mixed up. Merging usually cannot easily be undone. — 6. Blocking and Muting Muting a contact in a conversation resolves the current conversation and blocks the contact: subsequent inbound messages will not automatically reopen it. Used for harassment and abuse. Unblock: Go to the contact’s profile to unblock them (if available in the interface), or contact an administrator to handle it according to your process. — 7. Import / Export – Export: You can export the current filter results under More Actions in Contacts (fields are subject to those provided by the system). – Import: Administrators use Data Import. Please note the contact quota; exceeding it will result in failure. — 8. Paragraphing Once you have configured your filters (e.g. Tag = VIP and attribute ‘Plan’ = Annual), save them as a segment to appear in the sidebar. Ideal for routine follow-up lists for operations. Segments are dynamic views, so if tags change, the list updates automatically. — 9. Frequently Asked Questions Why are there two entries for the same customer? Different email addresses / phone numbers were used across different channels, or the website did not recognise user identities. Use the merge feature to combine them. Creation failed? The email address or phone number conflicts with an existing contact, or the contact limit has been reached. Go to Billing and Usage to view. No IP location? This feature is disabled by default and requires the corresponding function to be turned on in the workspace. As this involves privacy, please decide whether to enable it in accordance with your compliance requirements. — Related documents – Session Workbench – Company – Custom Properties – Data Import

# 6.Companies

Companies | Item | Details | |—|—| | Who it is for | Agents, administrators | | Menu location | Left sidebar Companies | | Plan dependency | Requires the Companies feature; otherwise the menu may be hidden | Companies group several contacts under one customer organisation — useful in B2B so you can see how often that firm has contacted you. — 1. What problem it solves Without Companies, you can only note “Acme Ltd” on each contact. With the module: – Multiple emails ([email protected], [email protected]) attach to the same company – The company page lists contacts under that firm and related conversation entry points – Fields such as domain help identification (for example acme.com) — 2. Create and edit 1. Open Companies → All companies. 2. Create a new company; enter a name, and optionally domain, description, and so on (as on the form). 3. Link the contact from the contact detail page, or add contacts from the company page. 4. Search and sort by name / domain when needed. Prefer the company’s primary domain; do not use consumer mail domains (such as gmail.com), which can cause incorrect grouping. — 3. Relation to conversations and automation Conversations still happen on contacts. Company is a grouping attribute on the contact. If automation or reports expose a “company” condition, you can route by organisation (as available in your workspace). — 4. Frequently asked questions No Companies menu? Your plan does not include the feature. See Billing and usage. Can companies be created automatically from email domains? Follow whatever auto-linking the current UI offers; in most cases you assign the company yourself, or write it via import / API. — Related articles – Contacts – Conversation workspace

# 7.Captain assistant

Captain assistant | Item | Details | |—|—| | Who it is for | Administrators configure it; agents use Copilot / rewrite | | Menu location | Left sidebar Captain; model switches under Settings → Captain | | Plan dependency | Requires Captain. Reply counts and FAQ counts are billed monthly / against stock | Captain is the workspace AI assistant: it can auto-reply to customers on selected inboxes, and help agents rewrite, summarise and suggest replies in the conversation view. Each workspace can create up to a platform limit of assistants (about 25). Each inbox can bind only one assistant. — 1. Capabilities at a glance | Capability | Who uses it | Description | |—|—|—| | Inbox auto-reply | Customers | When a conversation is Pending and the inbox has an assistant bound, Captain answers from the knowledge base | | Hand over to a human | Customers / agents | When the assistant cannot resolve the issue or a rule matches, the conversation is passed to a person | | FAQ | Administrators | Q&A knowledge retrieved during auto-reply | | Documents | Administrators | Upload files or web URLs; parsing produces FAQ drafts | | Scenarios | Administrators | Define “for this kind of question, add a label / call an API / hand over” | | Tools | Administrators | Let the assistant call HTTP APIs (look up orders, etc.); count is capped | | Playground | Administrators | Try the assistant without messaging customers | | Copilot | Agents | Ask the AI beside the conversation, with current-thread context | | Rewrite / summarise / suggest reply | Agents | Generate copy in one click; you confirm before sending | | Speech-to-text | Agents | Transcribe voice messages (requires the matching switch) | Auto-replies consume Captain reply quota (monthly). Copilot overview stats usually do not use that quota. Vector retrieval of knowledge is not billed as “replies”, but generating an answer is. — 2. Before you enable it (administrators) 1. Confirm the plan includes Captain and this month’s reply quota is not exhausted. 2. Settings → Captain: choose models for editor, assistant, Copilot and transcription, and whether assistant / Copilot / transcription are on. 3. Optional: connect your own OpenAI-compatible key (BYOK). Matching calls may bypass platform billing; on failure they may fall back to the platform model (per current settings). 4. Prepare knowledge: product URLs, FAQ sheets, Help Centre articles. Never put secrets in conversations or articles. — 3. Creating an assistant 1. Open Captain. If none exists yet, follow the creation wizard. 2. Enter a name and persona / instructions (state clearly who you are, what you must not promise, and when to hand over). 3. Bind one or more inboxes (each inbox may have only one assistant). 4. Set audience and hours (for example auto-reply only in business hours; outside hours leave for humans). 5. Turn the assistant on. 3.1 When auto-reply fires All of the following must be true: 1. Conversation status is Pending 2. No human agent and no Agent Bot is the assignee 3. The inbox has a bound, enabled assistant 4. The contact matches audience rules and is within allowed hours 5. Monthly Captain reply quota is not exhausted So: once you assign the conversation to yourself, Captain usually stops. Keep it Pending and do not claim it early if you want the assistant to answer first. — 4. Knowledge: FAQ and documents 4.1 FAQ – Add questions and standard answers under Captain → FAQ. – The assistant retrieves these when answering. – After conversations end, the system may suggest new FAQs; approve or reject them under “FAQ suggestions” so bad wording does not enter the knowledge base. FAQ count is limited by the plan’s faqs quota. 4.2 Documents – Add a web URL or upload a file; the system fetches/parses and proposes FAQ candidates. – Review manually before approving. Delete or update stale pages, or the assistant will cite old policy. Published Help Centre articles can also be a knowledge source if vector search is enabled (plan feature “Help Center Embedding Search”). A steadier pattern: Help Centre for customer self-service, FAQ for Captain’s scripted answers. — 5. Scenarios and tools Scenarios: describe a flow in natural language, for example “customer wants a refund → label refund → hand over”. Scenarios can use built-in actions (look up FAQ, hand over, label, note) and custom tools. Tools: register an HTTP endpoint (tracking, subscription lookup). Notes: – Expose only read-only or tightly scoped write APIs the assistant truly needs – Verify in a test environment before production – Custom tools are capped (about 50) – If a tool fails, instruct the assistant to hand over rather than invent order status Use Playground with real questions for several rounds before enabling for customers. — 6. Guardrails and system settings In the assistant’s Settings / guidelines / guardrails you can: – Restrict topics that must not be discussed – Define handover wording – Tune reply style and language – Choose whether to write “memory” after resolve, and whether to extract FAQ suggestions After changes, regression-test in Playground so the assistant does not suddenly become too quiet or too wordy. — 7. How agents use it 1. Open any conversation. 2. Suggest reply / rewrite / summarise: polish a draft, then send after you confirm. 3. Copilot: ask in the sidebar, for example “From history, what did this customer complain about last time?” 4. Voice messages: if transcription is on, wait briefly for the transcript. These features help you, but you remain responsible for what is sent. Confirm refunds and legal commitments manually. — 8. Usage and quality – Check this month’s captain_responses and faqs under Settings → Billing. – Charts on the Captain overview help with auto-resolution rate and handover reasons. – When quota runs out, auto-reply stops and conversations may stay Pending — hand over or upgrade promptly. — 9. Frequently asked questions Assistant stays silent? Check: feature on, inbox bound, conversation Pending, not already claimed by a person, quota, business hours, audience rules. Assistant answers badly? Tighten instructions, delete bad FAQs, add guardrails, force handover on uncertain questions. Use with Agent Bot or Dialogflow? Think of bot assignees as mutually exclusive per inbox: do not let several auto systems fight over one conversation. Pick one primary auto-reply path. Customers see the name “Captain”? Change the assistant display name / handover copy to your brand wording. — Related articles – Conversation workspace – Help Centre – Channels and inboxes – Billing and usage

# 8.Help Centre

Help Centre | Item | Details | |—|—| | Who it is for | Administrators configure it; anyone with permission can author in the back office | | Menu location | Left sidebar Help Centre | | Plan dependency | Requires Help Center. Portal count and published article count count against quota | Help Centre is the public knowledge site for customers: categories + articles, optional custom domain, with Chatips live chat and analytics pixels on the pages. The default back-office URL looks like: https://workspace.chatips.com/hc/your-portal-slug. After a custom domain is live, customers use your address (for example https://help.yourcompany.com). — 1. Structure | Object | Description | |—|—| | Portal | One knowledge site. Has name, slug, brand colour, languages, domain | | Locale | One portal can hold Chinese, English, and more; set a default language and draft languages | | Category | Article groups; can be nested and cross-linked | | Article | Draft / Published / Archived | Create the portal first, then locales and categories, then articles. — 2. Creating a portal 1. Open Help Centre. If there is no portal yet, follow the prompts. 2. Enter name, slug (URL path, for example help), and default language. 3. Upload logo, brand colour, home title, etc. (Settings → General). 4. Grant authoring rights to colleagues (administrators can manage by default; knowledge permissions depend on custom roles). Portal count is limited by the portals quota. Archive or delete unused portals so they do not consume quota (confirm no live custom domain still depends on them). — 3. Categories and articles 3.1 Categories – Create categories for the current language under Categories. – Slugs must be unique within the same portal and language. – You can set parent categories, sort order and related categories for browsing. 3.2 Articles 1. Articles → New. 2. Choose language, category and author. 3. Write the body (common rich text is supported). 4. Status: – Draft: back office only; unfinished locales can be marked as draft languages. – Published: customers can search and open it. Counts toward published_articles quota. – Archived: removed from the public site but kept in the back office. 1. SEO: keep title, meta description and slug stable; changing the slug changes the public URL. When quota is exhausted you cannot publish more; archive old articles or upgrade. 3.3 Multiple languages – Add locales on the Languages page. – Default language is used on first visit and when the browser language does not match. – Remove unused locales from the allow-list carefully if articles already exist. — 4. Portal settings Settings usually cover: General, Configuration (domain), Appearance, Integrations. 4.1 Custom domain (Chatips Cloud) When customers should use docs.yourdomain.com instead of the Chatips default: 1. The domain must include a subdomain (for example help.acme.com). Apex acme.com is not supported. 2. Enter the custom domain in settings and save. 3. At your DNS provider add: – CNAME: hostname → the target Chatips shows (typically a help-centre host such as help.chatips.com) – TXT: ownership verification (hostname and value shown in the UI) 1. After saving DNS, verification and go-live usually complete within about 10 minutes. Status must be Live before it is public. 2. If it stays pending: check CNAME/TXT match exactly, then click Refresh. The system retries a limited number of times; if it still fails, read the status message and refresh again. 3. Before verification finishes, opening that domain shows a “coming soon” style page, not a 404. 4. Use “Send instructions” to email DNS steps to a colleague. Do not put Chatips’ own help.chatips.com or workspace.chatips.com in “custom domain”. Those are platform hosts, not your customer domain. 4.2 Integrations | Item | Purpose | |—|—| | Use Chatips live chat | Pick a website widget inbox; public help pages embed the same chat | | GTM / GA4 / Hotjar / Plausible / Amplitude / Clarity / Meta Pixel | Paste IDs (administrators only). Scripts inject on public pages; back-office article previews are not counted | These are analytics pixels, not WhatsApp channels. Channels stay under Settings → Inboxes. Enabling both GTM and GA4 can double-count; keep one. Plausible uses the official plausible.io script; self-hosted Plausible cannot change the script URL. — 5. How customers visit – No custom domain: /hc/{slug}/… – Live custom domain: root path is the portal – Search, category browse, language switch, light/dark (theme-dependent) – Sitemap can be generated for search engines Put links in the site footer, the widget “Help” entry, and email signatures. — 6. Working with Captain and the widget – The widget can offer an “Open Help Centre” style entry (per inbox settings). – Captain can retrieve published articles if vector search is enabled. Even without it, keeping the same FAQ set in Captain keeps auto-reply wording aligned. — 7. Frequently asked questions Publish button greyed out / quota error? Published articles or portals are at the limit. Domain stuck on “waiting for verification”? DNS not live, A record used instead of CNAME, TXT name missing a prefix, or apex domain entered. Fix, then refresh. Chat widget missing? No website inbox selected under Integrations, or the portal is using a preview-only layout. Brand colour changed but customers still see the old one? Browser cache; on a custom domain also check CDN cache. — Related articles – Channels and inboxes – Captain assistant – Billing and usage

# 9.Campaigns

Campaigns | Item | Details | |—|—| | Who it is for | Administrators | | Menu location | Left sidebar Campaigns | | Plan dependency | Requires Campaigns. Send volume counts toward monthly campaign_sends | Campaigns are for reaching out to customers: proactive website prompts, or one-off SMS / WhatsApp blasts. They are not agent-to-agent replies in the conversation workspace. — 1. Three campaign types | Type | Menu | Reach | Typical use | |—|—|—|—| | Live chat | Campaigns → Live chat | Website widget pops up by URL / time rules | “Need help?” into a conversation | | SMS | Campaigns → SMS | One-off list send | Campaign notices (needs an SMS channel) | | WhatsApp | Campaigns → WhatsApp | One-off template messages | Service notices, remarketing (needs WhatsApp and approved templates) | Live chat is an ongoing rule; SMS / WhatsApp are one-off broadcasts. — 2. Live chat campaigns 1. Choose an existing website inbox. 2. Set triggers: for example URL contains /pricing, dwell time over N seconds, business hours only (per form fields). 3. Write bubble copy and buttons. 4. Enable. Matching visitors see the proactive message; opening it creates a conversation in the workspace. Notes: – Do not pop on every page — poor experience and agent load. – With Captain also on, proactive chats may be handled by the assistant first (if the conversation stays Pending). – After edits, test in a private window and not from your office IP if you exclude internal traffic. — 3. One-off SMS / WhatsApp campaigns 1. Confirm the matching inbox is connected and the sending account is healthy. 2. WhatsApp must use an approved template, with all variables filled. See Canned responses and templates. 3. Choose audience: contact filters, labels, segments, etc. (as shown). 4. Preview count and copy. 5. Send. Success and failure appear in campaign detail; send count uses this month’s campaign quota. Follow local anti-spam law and channel policy (WhatsApp forbids unapproved marketing templates). Handle opt-out per channel rules. — 4. Quota When monthly campaign_sends is exhausted you cannot broadcast again. Whether live-chat pops count as a “send” follows the billing page; check Billing and usage before sending. — 5. Frequently asked questions No Campaigns menu? Plan does not include it. WhatsApp will not send? Template not approved, missing parameters, or number quality limited. Test the template in a single conversation first. Website campaign does not pop? Widget script not updated, URL rule too strict, rare third-party cookie blocking, or you tested a back-office preview instead of the customer site. — Related articles – Channels and inboxes – Contacts – Canned responses and templates

# 10.Reports

Reports | Item | Details | |---|---| | Who it is for | Administrators; agents may see some reports | | Menu location | Left sidebar Reports | | Plan dependency | Basic reports are included; SLA reports need SLA | Reports show workspace service quality. They are not a substitute for financial reconciliation. Dates use the workspace time zone. 1. Report types | Report | What you see | |---|---| | Overview | Volume in, resolutions, wait times, and so on | | Conversations | Volume trends, status mix | | Agents | Replies, first response, resolutions per person | | Labels | Conversation volume by label | | Inboxes | Inbound and performance by channel | | Teams | Team-level roll-ups | | CSAT | Customer scores and survey returns | | SLA | On-time vs breached (requires SLA) | | Bots | Agent Bot / auto-reply performance | Some charts drill into conversation lists. Very wide date ranges load slowly — prefer weekly views first. Captain overview stats may cache until end of day; very recent chats may not appear in AI reports immediately. 2. Common metrics | Metric | Meaning | |---|---| | New conversations | Created in the selected period | | Resolved | Marked resolved (multiple resolves on one thread may affect the definition — follow the report’s definition) | | First response time | From customer inbound to first human (or counted) reply | | Resolution time | From create to resolve | | Reply time | Wait between later turns | | CSAT | Score after resolve; missing surveys may be excluded or shown separately | When a bot replies first then hands over, whether first response counts the bot depends on the current report definition. When comparing agent performance, be consistent about including auto-replies. 3. How CSAT scores arrive 1. Turn CSAT on for the inbox. 2. After Resolve, the system sends a rating card or survey link. 3. Submissions appear in the CSAT report. 4. If comment capture is enabled, agents/administrators can read written feedback in the back office. Survey pages are public links; customers need not sign in to the workspace. Common reasons no survey is sent: channel cannot carry that message type, CSAT off on the inbox, or the conversation was never truly resolved. 4. Export Some reports offer CSV export (agents, labels, SLA, etc.). Exports contain business data — handle them under your confidentiality rules. 5. Frequently asked questions Numbers disagree with the conversation list? Time zone, inbox filters, including bots, or deleted/archived conversations. Trust the report’s selected filters. Agent report is all zeros? The agent did not speak in the period, or conversations stayed on bots (never assigned to a person). No SLA report? SLA not enabled, or policies not applied to inboxes. See 23-sla. Related articles 3-conversation-workbench 23-sla 24-conversation-workflows

# 11.Voice calls

Voice calls | Item | Details | |—|—| | Who it is for | Agents answer; administrators configure the channel | | Menu location | Left sidebar Calls (only when enabled); channel under Settings → Inboxes | | Plan dependency | Requires Voice. Minutes count toward calling_minutes | Use this to view call history and handle voice-channel inbound from the workspace. The provider (for example Twilio Voice, WhatsApp Calling) depends on the inbox type you created. — 1. Call list Open Calls and filter by status, for example: – In progress, inbound, outbound, missed, ended Opening a row shows time, duration, and linked contact / conversation (if created). Jump from there to the conversation workspace to follow up in text. — 2. How administrators connect it 1. Confirm the plan includes Voice. 2. Settings → Inboxes → Add, choose Voice or WhatsApp Calling (upgrade wall means upgrade first). 3. Follow the wizard for provider credentials and callback URLs. 4. Add on-duty agents to the inbox and ensure browser microphone permission. 5. Place a test call; confirm a list row appears and the conversation can be followed up. Minute quota is in Billing and usage. When exhausted, outbound or inbound may be blocked (follow system prompts). — 3. Notes for agents – Use a modern browser such as Chrome / Edge; allow the microphone. – Headphones reduce echo. – Mute during a call is microphone mute — not the conversation “mute and block contact” action. – For a written record, add a private note on the linked conversation. If Captain speech-to-text is on, check the transcript afterwards. — 4. Frequently asked questions No Calls menu? Feature off or your role lacks permission. Channel exists but list is empty? Callback URL not pointing at Chatips, number not routed to that inbox, or tests still hitting an old system. Customer hears busy tone? No online agents, capacity full, or provider error. Check whether the inbox needs re-authorisation. — Related articles – Channels and inboxes – Conversation workspace – Captain assistant

# 12.Channels and inboxes

Channels and inboxes | Item | Details | |—|—| | Who it is for | Administrators | | Menu location | Settings → Inboxes | | Plan dependency | Inbox count uses inboxes. Some channels need extra feature flags | An inbox is one customer entry channel. Each has its own credentials, business hours, auto-assignment and collaborating agents. Left sidebar Conversations → Channels lists these inboxes. My Inbox is the notification list — do not confuse the two. See My Inbox. — 1. General steps to create an inbox 1. Settings → Inboxes → Add inbox. 2. Choose the channel type. An upgrade wall means the plan does not include it. 3. Follow the wizard for name and channel credentials. 4. Add agents: only members you add can see that channel’s conversations. 5. Afterwards fine-tune greeting, hours, CSAT, and so on in that inbox’s settings. When quota is exhausted you cannot create more. Archive or delete unused channels (confirm no open conversations first). — 2. Website widget The most common path: paste a script on your site; a chat bubble appears at the bottom corner. 2.1 Create 1. Choose Website; enter inbox name and site URL. 2. After creation open Configuration / Script and copy the embed code. 3. Place it on every page that needs support (ideally a shared layout, just before </body>). 4. Open the site in a private window; you should see the bubble. Send a message; a new conversation appears under Conversations. The script’s websiteToken binds to this inbox — do not mix test and production tokens. 2.2 Bubble position and style Inbox settings let you preview position (left/right), bubble type, launcher title, and so on. Those values are written into window.chatwootSettings on the page; they are not stored only as a server-side “channel field”. So: after changes you must paste the new script onto the website again. Saving in the workspace alone does not change what live customers see. You can also configure colour, welcome text, pre-chat form (collect email before chat), allowed domains, attachments/emoji, and whether customers can end the chat. 2.3 Identifying signed-in users To match logged-in members to contacts automatically, implement HMAC identity on your site backend. Without it, clearing cookies may create a new visitor. See Contacts. 2.4 Email continuation Website / API channels can email customers who left an address to continue the thread. Customers can unsubscribe. Sending via Chatips platform SMTP uses daily email quota; if the inbox has its own outbound mail, platform email quota is not used. — 3. Email For addresses such as [email protected]. Common setups: | Method | Description | |—|—| | Forward to a Chatips address | Forward all mail from the original mailbox | | Google / Microsoft OAuth | Authorise send/receive — recommended | | Manual IMAP | Not available on the tenant side (disabled for security). Use OAuth or forwarding | Outbound: prefer that email inbox’s own SMTP / OAuth; otherwise platform mail counts toward the daily emails quota. When setting reply-to and display name, ensure SPF/DKIM on your domain are correct, or mail may land in spam. — 4. WhatsApp 1. Connect the number via embedded signup or a provider (for example 360dialog — follow the current UI). 2. Confirm callback URL and webhook health. 3. Prepare message templates in Meta Business Manager, wait for approval, then sync under Chatips Settings → Templates. 4. Within the 24-hour customer window you may reply freely; outside it only templates. 5. Poor quality ratings cause throttling — avoid spammy marketing. To re-authorise or change numbers, follow on-screen “reconfigure”; do not create a new inbox and forget to move agents off the old one. — 5. Facebook Messenger / Instagram / TikTok Sign in with the business account and authorise the Page. When authorisation expires, the sidebar shows Reconnect — act promptly or inbound stops. One Chatips inbox maps to one Page / account. Changing Page means create new or migrate as product support allows. — 6. Telegram / LINE Create the bot in the UI and enter the Bot Token or LINE Channel credentials. The wizard gives a webhook URL to save in the developer console. Send “hello” from your own account to verify. — 7. SMS / Twilio Enter Twilio (or another listed provider) account, number or Messaging Service SID. Watch regional endpoints (for example AU/IE keys). For SMS campaigns see Campaigns. — 8. API channel and others If API still appears in the add list, it connects your own app’s messages into the Chatips workspace. On the current cloud build, creating a new API inbox in the UI may be redirected/closed; existing API inboxes can still be managed in the list. Contact Chatips if you need this. Legacy Twitter / X inboxes, if present, can be maintained or re-authorised in the list; new-workspace wizards may no longer list that channel. An agent’s personal Access Token lives under Profile and notifications for workspace API calls — it is not the same as an “API inbox”. — 9. Voice / WhatsApp Calling See Voice calls. — 10. Settings to check on every inbox Open the inbox → Settings and confirm: | Item | Suggestion | |—|—| | Collaborators | All on-duty agents are listed | | Auto-assignment | Useful for small teams; pairs with Online status | | Greeting | Separate copy for in/out of hours | | Business hours | Match the workspace time zone | | CSAT | Whether to send a survey after resolve | | Lock to a single conversation | Reuse one thread per customer where possible | | Bind Captain | At most one assistant per inbox | | Bind Help Centre | Widget can link to the portal | | Re-authorise | Act as soon as an expiry banner appears | — 11. Frequently asked questions Customer says they chatted but nothing appears? Wrong script token, domain not on the allow-list, expired channel auth, or messages landed in another workspace. Bubble position changed but the site did not? Redeploy the script. See 2.2 above. Only I see conversations, colleagues do not? They are not inbox members. Email receives but cannot send? SMTP/OAuth outbound failed, or daily platform email quota exhausted. — Related articles – Conversation workspace – Help Centre – Captain assistant – Assignment rules

# 13.Agents

Agents | Item | Details | |—|—| | Who it is for | Administrators | | Menu location | Settings → Agents | | Plan dependency | Headcount uses agents seats. Administrators consume a seat too | Agents are members who can sign in and handle conversations. Check remaining seats on the billing page before inviting. — 1. Inviting members 1. Settings → Agents → Add. 2. Enter name and email; choose Administrator or Agent. 3. If custom roles exist, you can also pick one on top of the agent role — see Custom roles. 4. They accept the invitation email and finish sign-up / join. 5. Add them as collaborators on each inbox, or they will not see channel conversations. 6. For shift grouping, also add them to Teams. If seats are short, the invite fails, or the new member is seat-locked: they can sign in but cannot go online to take chats. Administrators should upgrade, remove unused accounts, or unlock (as the UI allows). The system tries to keep at least one administrator so the workspace is never unmanaged. — 2. What you can do on the list – View role and invite status (accepted or not) – Switch Administrator / Agent – Delete or deactivate (they lose this workspace; conversation history stays) – See whether they are locked Do not delete the only administrator. — 3. Auto-assignment Auto-assignment usually considers only Online agents who belong to that inbox. Busy / Offline agents do not get new tickets. Capacity is covered in Assignment rules. — 4. Frequently asked questions Invitation email missing? Spam folder, mistyped address, or platform email quota. Ask them to sign in with the same email in case a join entry already exists. Colleague is an administrator but cannot open a setting? Some features need a plan add-on; or the browser still has old permissions — sign in again. What happens to conversations after someone is removed? Conversations remain, unassigned or still showing the old assignee name. Reassign them. — Related articles – Teams – Custom roles – Billing and usage

# 14.Teams

Teams | Item | Details | |—|—| | Who it is for | Administrators create; agents see their team queues under Conversations → Teams | | Menu location | Settings → Teams | | Plan dependency | Team management must be on (usually on by default) | Teams group agents, for example “Pre-sales”, “After-sales”, “Chinese shift”. Conversations can be assigned to a team (not only a person); that team’s queue appears in the Conversations menu. — 1. Creating a team 1. Settings → Teams → New. 2. Enter name and description. 3. Tick members (they must already be workspace agents). 4. Finish the wizard. Sidebar Conversations → Teams only lists teams you belong to. — 2. How to use them – Manual: set the conversation’s team assignee to “After-sales”. – Automatic: automation action “Assign to team”; or assignment rules route to people by inbox (team queues still help with manual claim). – Reports: workload by team — see Reports. One person can belong to several teams. — 3. Edit and delete You can add/remove members and rename. Deleting a team does not delete conversations, but the sidebar entry disappears and conversations tagged with that team may lose the team assignee — reassign before deleting. — 4. Frequently asked questions Team created but missing from the sidebar? You are not a member of that team. Assigned to a team but nobody replies? Nobody in the group is online, or members are not on the matching inbox. Also configure auto-assignment to people, or a duty roster to claim. — Related articles – Agents – Conversation workspace – Automation

# 15.Custom roles

Custom roles | Item | Details | |—|—| | Who it is for | Administrators | | Menu location | Settings → Custom roles | | Plan dependency | Requires Custom Roles | Layer finer permissions on top of “Agent” — for example outsourced staff may only see unassigned + assigned to me conversations, cannot export contacts, and cannot open Settings. — 1. Creating a role 1. Settings → Custom roles → Add. 2. Name it, for example “Read-only QA” or “Outsourced agent”. 3. Tick permissions (conversation scope, whether they can manage contacts, etc. — follow the form). 4. Save, then assign the role under Settings → Agents. The base role remains Agent or Administrator; custom roles are most useful for agents. Do not give outsiders the Administrator base role and expect a custom role to block Settings — administrator rights are broad. — 2. Design tips – Write down “must not see other teams’ conversations” before ticking boxes, so you do not over-grant. – After permission changes, ask them to sign in again. – QA accounts that only need to read conversations should not get inbox admin, automation or billing. Search, reports and exports all honour the same permissions; changing the entry point does not reveal more data. — 3. Frequently asked questions No Custom roles menu? Plan does not include it. Standard “Agent + inbox membership” still gives basic isolation. Permissions ticked but page still blocked? That page may also need a feature flag (for example audit logs) or be administrator-only. — Related articles – [Getting started] – [Agents]

# 16.Labels

Labels | Item | Details | |—|—| | Who it is for | Administrators maintain; agents apply labels on conversations / contacts | | Menu location | Settings → Labels; Conversations / Contacts sidebars also list labels marked “Show in sidebar” | | Plan dependency | Usually on by default | Labels are coloured keywords for classifying conversations and contacts — used in filters, automation and reports. — 1. Creating a label 1. Settings → Labels → Add. 2. Enter name, colour and description. 3. Optionally tick Show in sidebar for one-click filtering. 4. If automation or macros reference the name, check those rules after renaming. — 2. Usage – Pick labels from the conversation title bar or sidebar; multi-select is allowed. – Contact detail pages can take labels too. – Automation, macros and Captain scenarios can “add / remove label”. Agree a controlled vocabulary, for example refund, bug, VIP, awaiting-finance, so synonyms do not split your reports. — 3. Reports Reports → Labels shows volume by label. Cleaner tagging makes reports more useful. — 4. Frequently asked questions If I delete a label, do conversations remain? Yes — only the label is gone. Label missing from the sidebar? “Show in sidebar” is off, or no conversation uses it yet (you can still open it from Settings). — Related articles – Conversation workspace – [Automation] – [Reports]

# 17.Custom attributes

Custom attributes | Item | Details | |—|—| | Who it is for | Administrators define; agents fill in | | Menu location | Settings → Custom attributes | | Plan dependency | Usually on by default | Add your own fields on contacts or conversations — membership tier, shop ID, ticket source — when standard fields (name, email) are not enough. — 1. Creating an attribute 1. Settings → Custom attributes → Add. 2. Choose Contact or Conversation. 3. Choose type: text, number, link, list, date, and so on (per form). 4. Enter a system key and a display name. Do not casually change the key later — automation may reference it. 5. For list types, define options up front so free typing does not break reporting. 2. Where to fill them in – Contacts: detail page or conversation right panel “Contact attributes”. – Conversations: right panel conversation details / conversation attributes. – If Conversation workflows require attributes, they must be filled before resolve. Automation can branch on these fields, for example “membership tier = VIP → assign senior agent”. — 3. Recommendations – Prefer labels for simple yes/no flags; keep attributes for structured data. – Do not store passwords or full national ID numbers in custom attributes. – When importing contacts, headers must match attribute keys — see Data import. — 4. Frequently asked questions Agent cannot see a field? Attribute is on Conversation but they looked on the contact page, or the reverse. Automation never matches? List values differ in case/spacing, or the key is wrong. — Related articles – Contacts – Conversation workflows – Automation

# 18.Automation

Automation | Item | Details | |—|—| | Who it is for | Administrators | | Menu location | Settings → Automation | | Plan dependency | Rule count uses automations. Delayed execution is usually on by default | Automation runs actions when a chosen event fires and conditions match, cutting manual labelling, assignment and fixed replies. Unlike 19-macros, macros need an agent click; automation runs unattended. — 1. Creating a rule 1. Settings → Automation → Create. – Conversation created / updated / opened / resolved – Message created 1. Choose when to run: – Immediately: as soon as the event fires and conditions match. – Wait then run: wait a period, and only run if state still matches. Wait must be about 10 minutes to 30 days. 1. Add conditions (inbox, status, labels, priority, attributes, etc.) with “all / any”. 2. Add actions: assign agent or team, label, send message, change status, mute, webhook, apply SLA, and so on. 3. Save and enable. If a plan downgrade exceeds the rule limit, excess rules may be turned off automatically — check the list switches. — 2. How delayed rules work Delay is not “wait N hours from now regardless”. It works like this: | Conversation stays in a status | Entering that status | Still in that status at expiry | Status changes mid-way | | Customer has not replied | Agent just replied | Customer still silent at expiry | Customer replies or conversation resolved | | Agent has not replied | Customer just messaged | Still no reply at expiry | Someone replied | Old conversations already sitting in the queue are not backdated. Only new activity starts the clock. Useful pattern: “Open more than 8 hours with no reply → urgent label and notify duty”. — 3. Design tips – One clear job per rule; avoid rules that flip status against each other in a loop. – Do not automate mute / block except for clear spam inbound. – When webhook actions fail, check the integration logs — do not assume delivery. — 4. Frequently asked questions Rule never runs? Disabled, wrong event (you changed a label but trigger is “conversation created”), conditions too strict, state changed during delay, or quota disabled the rule. Ran twice? Two overlapping rules, or “conversation updated” fires too often. Tighten conditions. Auto-reply fights Captain? Both send on the same inbox. Agree: Captain handles Pending Q&A; automation only labels / assigns. — Related articles – 19-macros – 22-assignment-rules – 24-conversation-workflows – Prove it on a test inbox before production channels. – Mark auto messages as system notices so customers do not think a human wrote them. | Wait type | When the clock starts | When it actually runs | What cancels mid-wait | |—|—|—|—| 1. Name and describe it so it still makes sense months later. 2. Choose a trigger event, for example:

# 19.Macros

Macros | Item | Details | |—|—| | Who it is for | Administrators configure global macros; agents can create personal macros and run them | | Menu location | Settings → Macros; also runnable from the conversation right panel | | Plan dependency | Count uses macros | A macro is a set of actions an agent triggers manually — for example: label refund + assign finance team + send an explanation + mark Pending. — 1. Create 1. Settings → Macros → Add. 2. Name it with a verb, for example “Start refund flow”. 3. Visibility: Personal or Global (everyone). 4. Add actions in order (similar to automation: labels, assign, message, status, etc.). 5. Save. When quota is full you cannot create more. Delete unused personal macros. — 2. Run In the conversation right panel Macros, click run. Actions apply immediately to this conversation. Check the thread first so you do not run a VIP-complaint macro on a routine enquiry. There is no “run automatically on conditions” — that is Automation. — 3. Versus canned responses | | Macro | Canned response | |—|—|—| | Main effect | Changes the conversation (assign, labels, status) + optional message | Only inserts text | | Trigger | Click the macro | Type /shortcode | They often work together: canned responses cover “what to say”; macros cover “how the ticket flows”. — 4. Frequently asked questions Colleague cannot see my macro? It is personal. Make it global or ask an administrator to copy it. It failed halfway? Later actions may skip due to permissions or channel limits. Check the conversation activity log. — Related articles – Automation – Canned responses and templates – Conversation workspace

# 20.Canned responses and templates

Canned responses and templates | Item | Details | |—|—| | Who it is for | Agents use them; administrators maintain global content | | Menu location | Settings → Canned responses; Settings → Templates (WhatsApp, etc.) | | Plan dependency | Canned response count uses canned_responses | — 1. Canned responses In the composer type / plus a shortcode to insert a common paragraph. 1.1 Create 1. Settings → Canned responses → Add. 2. Shortcode: short alphanumeric word, for example refund-intro — unique within the team. 3. Content: may include variables (contact name placeholders if the UI supports them). 4. After saving, permitted agents can pull it with /. Good for: greetings, asking for screenshots, business hours, refund document lists. Flows that change status or assignment should use Macros. 1.2 Use In the conversation editor type /, search shortcode or title, select, edit if needed, then send. — 2. Content templates (WhatsApp, etc.) Settings → Templates covers channel messages that need pre-approval — mainly WhatsApp. 1. Submit the template in Meta and wait until Approved. 2. Sync / select it in Chatips. 3. When the conversation is outside the 24-hour window, send the template and fill variables. 4. Campaign broadcasts must also use approved templates. See Campaigns. Rejected, disabled or wrong variable counts cause send failures. Changing copy requires Meta approval again — you cannot only edit wording inside Chatips. If other channel “content templates” appear in the same menu, fill media / quick-reply buttons per the on-screen help. — 3. Frequently asked questions / shows no list? No canned responses exist, or focus is not in the conversation composer. Shortcode clash? Use a group prefix, for example cn-greeting, en-greeting. Template is green in Meta but missing in Chatips? Click sync; confirm the same WABA / same inbox number. — Related articles – Conversation workspace – Channels and inboxes – Macros

# 21.Agent bots

Agent bots | Item | Details | |—|—| | Who it is for | Administrators | | Menu location | Settings → Bots | | Plan dependency | Requires Agent Bots | An Agent Bot pushes messages to your own service (or Dialogflow, etc.) over a webhook, and that external program decides the reply. Like Captain it is a non-human assignee — do not let both fight for auto-reply on the same inbox. — 1. When to use it – You already have an in-house dialogue engine – You want Dialogflow or another third-party NLU (Dialogflow can also be connected per inbox under Integrations) – You need fully custom buttons / API flows If you only need “answer from help docs”, prefer Captain and skip running your own model. — 2. Configuration outline 1. Settings → Bots → Add. 2. Enter name and webhook URL (HTTPS required). 3. The system issues a token for sending messages — store it in your server secret store. 4. Set the bot as an inbox assignee / subscribe to events per the docs. 5. Verify with a test conversation: inbound hits your URL, replies appear in the workspace. Webhooks should respond within a few seconds; long work must be asynchronous. Validate Chatips signatures when the docs require it, to block forged requests. — 3. Conversation status While a bot is assignee, status is often Pending. To hand over: remove the bot assignee, set Open if needed, and assign an agent. Captain’s “hand over” tool is similar. — 4. Frequently asked questions Events arrive but replies do not show? Wrong token, wrong account / conversation ID, or message payload does not match the API. Duplicate replies? Bot, automation and Captain all sending. Keep a single auto path. — Related articles – Captain assistant – Integrations – Channels and inboxes

# 22.Assignment rules

Assignment rules | Item | Details | |—|—| | Who it is for | Administrators | | Menu location | Settings → Agent assignment (only when advanced assignment is on); inboxes also have an “Auto assignment” switch | | Plan dependency | Basic auto-assignment can be enabled per inbox; round-robin / capacity need Advanced Assignment | This decides who gets new (or unassigned) conversations. Without a policy, conversations stay unassigned until someone claims them under Unattended. — 1. Inbox-level auto-assignment Each inbox can turn on auto-assignment: route among agents who belong to that inbox and are currently Online. Suits small teams with similar skills. Confirm the member list first, or off-duty people will receive tickets. — 2. Assignment strategies (advanced) Under Settings → Agent assignment you can create strategies and attach them to inboxes: Common patterns: | Strategy | Behaviour | |—|—| | Round robin | Rotate in order for even spread | | Balanced | Prefer people with lower current load | You may also sort by “whose conversation was created earlier / who has waited longer” (follow UI options). The system periodically scans unassigned conversations (roughly every 30 minutes), not every second. For faster routing, use automation on “conversation created”. — 3. Agent capacity Capacity policies limit how many Open conversations each person (or an inbox) may hold at once. When full, new tickets wait for a free slot. Set this to real handling capacity — too high hurts quality. Busy / Offline agents are usually excluded from the pool. — 4. Stacking with teams and automation Recommended order: 1. Automation: by language / label, assign to a team or a named person first 2. Assignment strategy: round-robin anything still unassigned 3. Agents manually claim leftovers Avoid automation “assign to A” fighting a strategy “assign to B”. — 5. Frequently asked questions Always the same person? Others are Offline, not inbox members, or at capacity. No Agent assignment menu? Advanced assignment not enabled; use inbox auto-assignment + automation first. Already assigned then stolen? Another rule reassigns on “conversation updated”. Check the automation list. — Related articles – Channels and inboxes – Automation – Agents

# 23.SLA

SLA | Item | Details | |—|—| | Who it is for | Administrators configure; agents see countdowns / breaches on conversations | | Menu location | Settings → SLA; Reports → SLA | | Plan dependency | Requires SLA | SLA (service level agreement) defines how soon you must first reply, next reply, and resolve. Breaches mark the conversation, feed reports, and can notify My Inbox. Note: SLAs cannot be directly linked to Inbox; instead, they must be configured within the automation features. — 1. Creating a policy 1. Settings → SLA → Add. 2. Name it, for example “Standard business hours” or “VIP”. 3. Set each threshold (minutes / hours). Whether only business hours or calendar time count depends on the form — align with workspace time zone and inbox hours. 4. Apply the policy to inboxes, or use automation to apply SLA when conditions match (for example a VIP label). If several policies hit one conversation, follow the product’s stacking rules; prefer one main policy per inbox and override VIP via automation. — 2. What agents see Lists / detail may show FRT / NRT / resolution state (in progress, met, breached). Breaches can create “SLA breach” notifications. Whether a bot’s first reply counts as first response depends on the current SLA definition. If performance reviews only count humans, do not treat bot FRT as an agent win. — 3. Reports Reports → SLA shows attainment and can export CSV. Use it for weekly reviews, not as the only basis for penalties — combine with inbound peaks and staffing. — 4. Frequently asked questions Instant breaches? Thresholds too short, or calendar time while you only staff daytime. Align with business hours. Policy never applied? Inbox not linked, or automation conditions never matched. Old conversations are usually not backfilled; timing starts from events after apply. — Related articles – Conversation workspace – Reports – Account settings and security -automation

# 24.Conversation workflows

Conversation workflows | Item | Details | |—|—| | Who it is for | Administrators | | Menu location | Settings → Conversation workflows (label may vary in the sidebar) | | Plan dependency | Auto-resolve is often on by default; required attributes need the matching feature | Configure conversation lifecycle rules here: auto-resolve after idle time, and which fields must be filled before resolve. — 1. Auto-resolve Set how many idle minutes before still-Open conversations are marked Resolved. A background job scans due conversations. Suggestions: – First send an “we will close if there is nothing else” auto message (automation can help), then auto-resolve, so customers do not feel cut off. – Do not set shorter than your promised response time. – Pending Captain conversations may have separate assistant timeouts — plan them with auto-resolve so the assistant is not cut off mid-answer. Turning the feature off stops idle auto-resolve. — 2. Required conversation attributes When enabled, you can require custom attributesbefore resolve (close reason, product line, etc.). Agents cannot resolve until they are filled, which keeps reports and aftercare stats complete. Keep the field list short and precise, or agents will pick “Other” at random. — 3. Data retention If the workspace sets a retention period, messages on closed conversations past that age may be purged. That switch may live under billing / account settings, but it affects “can we still search chats in six months?”. — Related articles – Custom attributes – Automation – Conversation workspace

# 25.Integrations

Integrations | Item | Details | |—|—| | Who it is for | Administrators | | Menu location | Settings → Integrations | | Plan dependency | Master switch is Integrations; some apps also need feature flags (Slack, Linear, Shopify, API and Webhooks, etc.) | Connect Chatips to the collaboration, commerce and engineering tools you already use. This is not the Help Centre GA / pixel page (that lives under 8-help-centre → Integrations). — 1. How to use 1. Open Settings → Integrations. 2. Choose an app and complete OAuth or enter secrets. 3. When offered, attach the integration to the whole workspace or a specific inbox (Dialogflow is inbox-scoped, for example). 4. Verify with a test conversation that the sidebar or messages show the expected data. 5. To stop, disconnect on the same page and revoke access on the other platform. An upgrade wall means the current plan does not include that integration or API access. — 2. Common integrations | Integration | What it does | |—|—| | Slack | Push new conversations/messages to a channel; limited reply from Slack (per granted scopes) | | Webhook | POST conversation and message events to your URL; you can create several | | Dashboard App | Embed your own iframe in the conversation sidebar (for example an internal CRM) | | Dialogflow | Hand dialogue for an inbox to a Dialogflow agent | | OpenAI (bring your own key) | Captain / transcription use your key; watch fallback to platform models | | Linear | Create / link Issues from conversations | | Notion | Connect a Notion workspace (per current capabilities) | | Shopify | Show customer orders in the sidebar | | LeadSquared and similar CRMs | Lead sync (if the card appears in your workspace) | | Cloudflare RealtimeKit (Dyte) | Real-time audio/video features (if shown) | Authorise with a company account, not a personal test login, so the integration does not break when someone leaves. — 3. Webhook notes – HTTPS only; return 2xx quickly. – Verify signatures / tokens. – Do not log full customer messages (privacy). – Event volume is high — observe on a test URL before production. – When “API and Webhooks” is off, related capabilities are unavailable. An agent’s personal Access Token is under 28-profile-and-notifications for Account API calls; it is not the same secret as outbound webhooks. API tokens are available on paid plans. — 4. Help Centre pixels vs here | | Settings → Integrations | Help Centre → Settings → Integrations | |—|—|—| | Scope | Workspace / inbox | Public knowledge-site pages | | Examples | Slack, Shopify | GA4, Meta Pixel, website widget | — 5. Frequently asked questions OAuth succeeded but the sidebar is empty? Customer email does not match Shopify/Linear, or no shop/team was selected. Nothing in Slack? Bot not invited to the channel, incomplete scopes, or rules filtered that inbox out. Webhook delivered twice? Your endpoint timed out and Chatips retried. Make handlers idempotent. — Related articles – 21-agent-bots – 7-captain-assistant – 8-help-centre

# 26.Billing and usage

Billing and usage | Item | Details | |—|—| | Who it is for | Administrators | | Menu location | Settings → Billing | | Plan dependency | Every workspace has a usage page; upgrades happen outside the app | Chatips unlocks features and caps usage by subscription plan. The workspace does not take payment directly. This page shows the current plan name, renewal/expiry and how much of each dimension you have used. Change plan, pay and invoices through Chatips commercial process or your purchase portal (for example the website account). Usage refreshes after that completes. — 1. What you see on the page – Plan name and subscription status (active / cancelled / expired, etc.) – Expiry date: blank means it does not auto-expire under your agreement – Seat count – Progress bars for each quota After expiry the workspace falls back to the default free plan. Advanced features (Help Centre, Captain, Campaigns, etc.) may turn off, and excess rules may be disabled. Paid markers are kept so re-enabling is easier. — 2. Common quota dimensions | Dimension | How it is counted | When exhausted | |—|—|—| | Agent seats | Current members (including administrators) | Cannot invite more; surplus people may be locked | | Inboxes | Current channels | Cannot create more inboxes | | Contacts | Current profiles | Cannot create / import more | | Storage | Attachment usage in MB | Uploads fail | | Automation / macros / canned responses | Item counts | Cannot create more; downgrades may disable rules | | Daily email | Messages via platform SMTP | No more platform outbound that day | | Captain replies | Calendar month | Assistant stops auto-answering | | FAQ | Item count | Cannot add more Q&A | | Calling minutes | Calendar month | Voice features stop | | Campaign sends | Calendar month | Cannot broadcast | | Portals / published articles | Current counts | Cannot create portals or publish articles | | Data retention days | Policy | Closed conversations past the age may be purged | A value of 0 means that capability is off, not unlimited. Dimensions without a custom override still hit platform defaults and global caps. Does not use platform email quota: mail sent from your own Google / Microsoft / SMTP on an email inbox. Captain vector search and some overview stats may not count as “replies”, but answers generated for customers do. — 3. Seat lock When plan seats are fewer than current members, newer members are locked: they cannot go online and realtime channels are unavailable. Administrators should: 1. Remove long-unused accounts, or 2. Upgrade seats, or 3. Unlock people as the UI allows (always keep an administrator who can open Billing) — 4. Feature flags and paywalls Missing menu items or upgrade prompts mean the plan’s features list does not include them. The “Plan dependency” line at the top of each help article refers to this. After an upgrade you may need to refresh or sign in again to see new menus. — 5. Deleting a workspace If Account settings offers Request deletion, confirm as prompted. Afterwards channel messages and attachments are cleaned per platform policy — there is no recycle bin. Export reports and contacts first if unsure. — 6. Frequently asked questions Progress bar not updating? Periodic quotas (email daily, Captain monthly) can lag slightly; refresh Billing. Stock counts (seats, articles) are usually instant. Few emails but already over quota? Check whether platform SMTP is used by mistake (website email continuation, system notices) instead of your own mailbox channel. Data still there after cancelling? Usually yes, but capabilities drop to the default plan. Keep paying on schedule to avoid features turning off. — Related articles – Agents – Captain assistant – Help Centre

# 27.Account settings and security

Account settings and security | Item | Details | |—|—| | Who it is for | Administrators | | Menu location | Settings → Account settings; Settings → Security | | Plan dependency | Enterprise sign-in such as SAML requires enablement | Manage the workspace name, language, time zone, privacy-related switches and enterprise single sign-on. Personal passwords and MFA are under Profile and notifications. — 1. Account settings (general) Typically includes: | Item | Description | |—|—| | Workspace name | Shown in the sidebar, email subjects, etc. | | Default language | Used by members who have not chosen a personal language | | Time zone | Defines the “day” for reports, business hours and delayed automation | | Workspace ID | For support or API use — not a password | | IP geolocation | Whether to tag contacts by IP region; privacy-sensitive, often off by default | | Request workspace deletion | Irreversible — see Billing | Changing time zone does not rewrite stored historical timestamps; it only affects future day-based stats and business-hours logic. Prefer a quiet period and tell agents when you switch. Auto-resolve and required fields live under Conversation workflows; some builds may also show those blocks on the account page. — 2. Security (SAML, etc.) If SAML is enabled: 1. Create an application in your identity provider (for example Azure AD, Okta). 2. Paste Chatips’ ACS URL / Entity ID into the IdP. 3. Paste the IdP metadata / SSO URL / certificate back into Chatips. 4. Walk through sign-in with a test user. 5. Confirm that if SSO fails, at least one administrator can still use a password entry (per whether you enforce SSO). Emails must match the IdP assertion. Test in a maintenance window before changing domains or certificates. Without SAML this page may only show an explanation or upgrade prompt. If Google sign-in is enabled by the platform, members can use Google on the sign-in page without per-user setup here. — 3. Recommendations – Turn on MFA for members in production (enforce in profile or by policy). – Do not lend administrator accounts to contractors — use custom roles. – Review sensitive changes in Audit logs. — Related articles – Getting started – Profile and notifications – Custom roles

# 28.Profile and notifications

Profile and notifications | Item | Details | |—|—| | Who it is for | All members | | Menu location | Avatar menu → Profile; sidebar bell opens notifications | | Plan dependency | MFA recommended for everyone; API tokens may be paid-plan only | Manage your own sign-in and alerts. This does not change workspace channel configuration. — 1. Profile – Avatar and display name – Sign-in email (changing it may require signing in again) – Interface language and font size – Send shortcut: Enter or Ctrl/⌘ + Enter – Personal signature: appended to website / email / API messages you send; may include one uploaded image. Inline images pasted from elsewhere may be stripped — use the upload control. — 2. Password and two-factor authentication – Changing password invalidates other device sessions; sign in again. – Two-factor authentication (MFA): scan the QR code with an authenticator app and save backup codes. Before changing phones, unbind here or keep backup codes ready. – Super-admin MFA policy is stricter; ordinary tenant members follow workspace requirements. — 3. Sessions and API tokens – Active sessions: review signed-in devices; revoke suspicious ones. – Access Token: for scripts calling the Chatips API. Paid plans only. Reset immediately if leaked. Never commit to Git. — 4. Notifications and sounds You can set separately: | Channel | Examples | |—|—| | Browser push | Requires notification permission | | Email | Assigned, @mentioned, etc. | | Sounds | None / only my conversations / all | Then refine types: new conversation, new message on assigned, new message while participating, mentions, SLA, and so on. Too quiet and you miss tickets; too loud and you lose focus. On-duty agents should at least enable “assigned to me” and “mentions”. You can preview sounds. Muted browser tabs may silence them. — 5. Availability See Getting started.Status affects auto-assignment — switch to Offline when you finish work. — 6. Frequently asked questions No email notifications? Spam folder, personal toggles off, or daily platform email quota (system mail from administrators can be affected too). Lost MFA? Use a backup code. If those are gone, ask a workspace administrator to contact Chatips for an identity-verified reset (never post backup codes in a public chat). Customers cannot see my signature? The channel does not support signatures, or you sent a private note. — Related articles – My Inbox – Getting started – Account settings and security

# 29.Audit logs

Audit logs | Item | Details | |—|—| | Who it is for | Administrators | | Menu location | Settings → Audit logs | | Plan dependency | Requires Audit Logs | A security and compliance stream of “who did what, when” inside the workspace — for accountability and diagnosing mistakes. It is not the conversation transcript. — 1. Events you may see (examples) Varies by version; commonly includes: – Sign-in related events, agent invites and role changes – Create / update / delete of inboxes, automation, macros, labels – Help Centre portal / article admin actions – Captain document and FAQ changes – SAML / security settings – Create, update, delete on other admin objects Each row usually has: actor, time, object type and ID, action summary. Day-to-day agent replies to customers usually do not appear line-by-line here (those are conversation messages). Audit focuses on configuration and permissions. — 2. How to use 1. Filter by time, actor and type. 2. When a bad config appears, match it to the actor at that timestamp. 3. Export if the button is available, and retain copies per your compliance timeline. Logs themselves follow retention policy — do not treat them as a permanent archive. Record important changes in your own change tickets too. — 3. Frequently asked questions No menu? Plan does not include it. Cannot find a label change? That event type may not be covered, or it happened before audit was enabled. Actor shows as system? Automation, a platform job or an API token. Cross-check webhooks / the automation list. — Related articles – [Account settings and security] – Agents

# 30.Data import

Data import | Item | Details | |—|—| | Who it is for | Administrators | | Menu location | Settings → Data | | Plan dependency | Requires Data Import | Bulk-load contacts and other business data into Chatips instead of creating rows by hand. Imports are asynchronous; large files take time. Watch progress and failed rows on this page. — 1. Before you import 1. Check Billing that contact quota covers the new rows. 2. Create any needed custom attributes and labels first. 3. Use UTF-8 CSV. Headers must match system fields / attribute keys. 4. Normalise email and phone formats (include country codes) to reduce duplicates. 5. Trial-import 5–10 rows and confirm mapping before the full file. Duplicate emails / phones conflict with existing contacts; follow the job prompts to skip or update (depends on import type). — 2. Steps 1. Settings → Data → New import. 2. Choose type (contacts; if conversations or other types exist, prepare columns per the help text). 3. Upload the file and finish field mapping. 4. Submit and wait until status is complete. 5. Read the failure summary: fix the CSV and re-import only failed rows to avoid duplicating the whole sheet. Do not rename attribute keys while an import is running. — 3. Export Contact-list export complements import for backup or other systems. Exports are workspace confidential — transfer them over a secure channel. — 4. Frequently asked questions Stuck in queue? File is large or workers are busy; refresh later. If it never moves, contact Chatips with the job ID. Some rows failed? Empty required fields, invalid email, or quota ran out mid-job. Open the error report. Duplicate contacts after import? Same person used different emails. Merge them. — Related articles – Contacts – Custom attributes – Billing and usage