Who sees budgets, rates and margins?

The owner and admins, until the owner decides otherwise under Who sees money. Each group (budget, costs, fees, margin) can be opened to more roles, separately for seeing and for changing. A role that may not see a group does not receive it at all, in either product or in any integration. The margin is shown only to roles that see the other three groups.

Can an AI assistant or an integration work with this?

Yes, through the MCP tools shortlist_list, shortlist_add, service_list, assignment_list, assignment_draft, budget_summary, workload_summary and project_task_create, with the money its role may see. agency_setup_get reads the setup (project pipelines and stages, saved views, templates and which company is your agency), and project_draft can start a project from a template on a pipeline. No tool approves a deliverable, signs, pays or marks anything paid, and none installs the blueprint, edits stages or marks your agency.

How do I set the agency up?

An owner or an admin opens Setup in Projects and installs the agency blueprint in English, Hebrew or Spanish: project pipelines with their stages, project fields, a service catalogue, saved views and two templates, a launch and a retainer. Installing again adds only what is missing. Then they rename or reorder the stages, and mark which company in the CRM is your agency, so commission counts only on representations held by it. A new project can start from a template, which fills the brief, the pipeline and stage, and a first task list.

Why does the shortlist not give a score?

Because a number would hide the reasons. It lists what matched and what is missing for each criterion, so you decide.

What is the difference between team load and availability?

Load is the hours booked on a person across the open projects, from the project teams. Availability is the hours that person said they can work: their time zone, their hours on each weekday, whether the workspace's holidays apply to them, and their time off. Each person sets their own under Team load, and the rest of the team sees it only while they share it; they can stop sharing at any time. Someone who has not shared is shown as unknown, never as free and never as zero, and the service calendar used for support hours is never read as anyone's availability. Time off is kept as dates and a status only, without a reason or calendar details. Tentative work and tentative time off are shown next to the confirmed ones, not mixed in, and a day already over in the person's own time zone takes no new work.

Can I try a different team, deadline or hourly cost before changing anything?

Yes. In a project, open What if: move a line's remaining hours to someone else, change hours, the state or an hourly cost, take a line off, add a person or move the dates, then press Compare. You see before and after side by side: hours, labour, total cost and planned margin (only the money groups your role may see), each person's load against the availability they shared themselves, and whether the end date still fits. Someone who has not shared their availability shows as unknown, never as free. Each hourly cost says where it came from and its date, and hours without a cost are counted apart. The comparison saves nothing and notifies nobody; to make a change, edit the team. The MCP tool project_scenario (crm_project_scenario in Brand My Inbox) answers the same comparison and writes nothing either.

Can a retainer report hours by month?

Yes, when you choose to. Hours on a project are a running total by default. On a retainer, Start the monthly report under Monthly hours: from that day each hour is logged with the day it was worked and whether it is billed to the retainer, and each month is shown against the included hours, with what is left or over. Hours logged before the report started keep no date: they stay in the total, shown as not attributed to any month, and are never spread over months, and an hour cannot be dated before the report started, so nothing is counted twice. A mistake is corrected or removed on the entry itself, and the person's total follows. The report can be turned off only while no hours are dated. An AI assistant can read the report through retainer_hours_report (crm_project_hours in Brand My Inbox); logging hours stays on the screen.

How do I count a creator's sales from a discount code?

Connect your Shopify or WooCommerce store in EmailPro's settings, under Store connections, with two webhooks: Order creation and Order update in Shopify, Order created and Order updated in WooCommerce. The second one brings refunds and cancellations. Create the creator's code in your store, then add the same code on the project under Codes, sales and gifts. It waits there until a person approves it; only then does it count orders, on the days you set, from the store you chose or any connected store. Each creator shows the orders, what was sold, what was refunded or cancelled, and the net, in each currency apart, with the time of the last order received. A code two creators hold at the same time is shown as shared and credited to nobody. Nothing is read from your store, no code is created there, and SUMIT documents carry no codes. Without a connected store the sales are unknown, not zero. MCP tools can read this (creator_commerce, crm_creator_commerce) and propose a code or a gift; no tool approves one.

How do gifts to creators work?

Add a gift on the project: what is sent, how many, its value if your role may see costs, and later the store order or tracking number. It waits for a person's approval, then you mark it shipped, delivered or returned. Nothing is shipped from here and no address is kept: you ship from your store or with your courier.

Can two creators share a social account?

No. The same account on the same platform is refused on a second creator; two people are never merged because a name looks alike.

What happens if the add-on ends?

Nothing is deleted. You can still mark a payable paid, log hours on existing work and complete tasks. New people, payables and lines need the add-on active.

Agency operations: shortlist, rates, team hours, payables and budget

The working half of the Creator Operations add-on: find and shortlist creators against a brief, keep each creator's channels, representation and rate card, book your team with hours, record what the agency owes, and see one budget per project with planned and actual margin. Campaigns and monthly retainers both work this way, in EmailPro and in Brand My Inbox.

Steps

In a project, press Find creators. Type the topics, languages, regions or skills the brief asks for and pick a service. Each creator shows what matches and what is missing, their rate for that service, whether they are already on the project and how many other live engagements overlap your dates. Tick the ones you want and add them to the shortlist.
Open Creators and services to keep each creator's channels (the account id stays when a handle changes), who represents them and on what commission, and their rate card per service. A new rate never changes a line already agreed: the line keeps the price of its day.
Under Team and hours add the people working on the project, their role, pencilled in or confirmed, and the hours you estimate. Anyone on the team logs hours as they go. Team load shows everyone's hours across the open projects you can see.
Under What the agency owes record each creator's fee, vendors and media, and move each one from planned to committed, invoiced and paid. Nothing is paid from here; it is the record.
Budget shows revenue (the client budget, or the monthly retainer times the months so far), the agency's fee, agreed lines, team time, what is committed and paid, commission and margin. A retainer also shows the hours included so far and how many are left.
A deliverable can wait for another one: choose it under Waits for. Until that one is approved, this one cannot be submitted or approved.
Add tasks from the project, about the whole project, one creator or one deliverable. They appear in My work like every other task.

Questions

Who sees budgets, rates and margins?: The owner and admins, until the owner decides otherwise under Who sees money. Each group (budget, costs, fees, margin) can be opened to more roles, separately for seeing and for changing. A role that may not see a group does not receive it at all, in either product or in any integration. The margin is shown only to roles that see the other three groups.
Can an AI assistant or an integration work with this?: Yes, through the MCP tools shortlist_list, shortlist_add, service_list, assignment_list, assignment_draft, budget_summary, workload_summary and project_task_create, with the money its role may see. agency_setup_get reads the setup (project pipelines and stages, saved views, templates and which company is your agency), and project_draft can start a project from a template on a pipeline. No tool approves a deliverable, signs, pays or marks anything paid, and none installs the blueprint, edits stages or marks your agency.
How do I set the agency up?: An owner or an admin opens Setup in Projects and installs the agency blueprint in English, Hebrew or Spanish: project pipelines with their stages, project fields, a service catalogue, saved views and two templates, a launch and a retainer. Installing again adds only what is missing. Then they rename or reorder the stages, and mark which company in the CRM is your agency, so commission counts only on representations held by it. A new project can start from a template, which fills the brief, the pipeline and stage, and a first task list.
Why does the shortlist not give a score?: Because a number would hide the reasons. It lists what matched and what is missing for each criterion, so you decide.
What is the difference between team load and availability?: Load is the hours booked on a person across the open projects, from the project teams. Availability is the hours that person said they can work: their time zone, their hours on each weekday, whether the workspace's holidays apply to them, and their time off. Each person sets their own under Team load, and the rest of the team sees it only while they share it; they can stop sharing at any time. Someone who has not shared is shown as unknown, never as free and never as zero, and the service calendar used for support hours is never read as anyone's availability. Time off is kept as dates and a status only, without a reason or calendar details. Tentative work and tentative time off are shown next to the confirmed ones, not mixed in, and a day already over in the person's own time zone takes no new work.
Can I try a different team, deadline or hourly cost before changing anything?: Yes. In a project, open What if: move a line's remaining hours to someone else, change hours, the state or an hourly cost, take a line off, add a person or move the dates, then press Compare. You see before and after side by side: hours, labour, total cost and planned margin (only the money groups your role may see), each person's load against the availability they shared themselves, and whether the end date still fits. Someone who has not shared their availability shows as unknown, never as free. Each hourly cost says where it came from and its date, and hours without a cost are counted apart. The comparison saves nothing and notifies nobody; to make a change, edit the team. The MCP tool project_scenario (crm_project_scenario in Brand My Inbox) answers the same comparison and writes nothing either.
Can a retainer report hours by month?: Yes, when you choose to. Hours on a project are a running total by default. On a retainer, Start the monthly report under Monthly hours: from that day each hour is logged with the day it was worked and whether it is billed to the retainer, and each month is shown against the included hours, with what is left or over. Hours logged before the report started keep no date: they stay in the total, shown as not attributed to any month, and are never spread over months, and an hour cannot be dated before the report started, so nothing is counted twice. A mistake is corrected or removed on the entry itself, and the person's total follows. The report can be turned off only while no hours are dated. An AI assistant can read the report through retainer_hours_report (crm_project_hours in Brand My Inbox); logging hours stays on the screen.
How do I count a creator's sales from a discount code?: Connect your Shopify or WooCommerce store in EmailPro's settings, under Store connections, with two webhooks: Order creation and Order update in Shopify, Order created and Order updated in WooCommerce. The second one brings refunds and cancellations. Create the creator's code in your store, then add the same code on the project under Codes, sales and gifts. It waits there until a person approves it; only then does it count orders, on the days you set, from the store you chose or any connected store. Each creator shows the orders, what was sold, what was refunded or cancelled, and the net, in each currency apart, with the time of the last order received. A code two creators hold at the same time is shown as shared and credited to nobody. Nothing is read from your store, no code is created there, and SUMIT documents carry no codes. Without a connected store the sales are unknown, not zero. MCP tools can read this (creator_commerce, crm_creator_commerce) and propose a code or a gift; no tool approves one.
How do gifts to creators work?: Add a gift on the project: what is sent, how many, its value if your role may see costs, and later the store order or tracking number. It waits for a person's approval, then you mark it shipped, delivered or returned. Nothing is shipped from here and no address is kept: you ship from your store or with your courier.
Can two creators share a social account?: No. The same account on the same platform is refused on a second creator; two people are never merged because a name looks alike.
What happens if the add-on ends?: Nothing is deleted. You can still mark a payable paid, log hours on existing work and complete tasks. New people, payables and lines need the add-on active.

Updated 2026-10-25 · llms-full.txt