AI CaseQuery turns a plain-English question into a read-only query against your firm's database. Many questions have more than one honest reading. "How many open matters do we have?" can mean matters whose status says open, or matters with no closing date, and on a real database those two numbers are rarely the same. The AI has to pick one. If nobody has told it which reading your firm uses, it guesses, and sooner or later somebody notices a number that is not the one they expected. Once people doubt one number, they stop trusting the rest.
Your job is to settle those readings. When you settle a definition, you are writing down what your firm means by a word or a measure. It is recorded under your name and applies to everyone's answers from that moment. A lead:
An administrator then confirms or withdraws what you settled. Until they do, a settled definition is provisional, but it still applies.
There is no shared key in the cloud edition. Each person signs in at your firm's CaseQuery web address with their own sign-in name and password, or with their Microsoft work account where your firm uses one. What each person may do comes from the role on their own sign-in:
| Role | What it allows |
|---|---|
| User | Asks questions, reads Fine-tuning and Business Rules, and reports answers that look wrong. |
| Lead | Everything a User can do, and also settles definitions, sets questions aside, rules on floor votes and records verdicts on baseline questions. |
| Administrator | Everything a Lead can do, and also opens Settings, saves rules and terms, manages people, and confirms or withdraws settled definitions. |
Your firm's administrator gives you the Lead role on Settings › Security. Once you have it, the line at the top of Fine-tuning says you are signed in as a lead, and nothing on that screen asks you for anything more. A change of role ends the session you were in, so after your role changes you sign in again and the new role applies from then.
While you are signed in as a lead, a badge reading Lead · Sign out sits at the top right of every screen, so you always know you are acting as a lead. Clicking it signs you out, as does Sign out at the bottom of the left-hand menu. A session also ends by itself after 30 minutes without use, and after eight hours in any case.
You are not asked to type a name. Everything you settle, set aside or mark is recorded under the sign-in you are using, with the date.
The Lead role does not open the administrator's screens; Settings is not offered in your menu at all. As a lead you cannot:
Some controls only an administrator can use, such as Confirm this and Withdraw it, are still shown to you with a padlock, so you can see what the next step would be. They are for an administrator to press.
Open Fine-tuning from the left-hand menu. Anyone at your firm who is signed in can read it. It has four tabs and opens on the first: three numbered steps in the order the work is done, then the reference.
| Tab | What it is for |
|---|---|
| 1 · Definitions to settle | Your worklist. Two lists, Leads and DBA, with counts on each. This is where you settle, set aside, rule and hand over. |
| 2 · Baseline questions | A bank of questions arranged by the life of a matter, plus any your firm adds. You run them, judge the answers, and record the verdict. |
| 3 · Awaiting sign-off | Definitions already in force that are still waiting for an administrator to confirm or withdraw them. |
| How this works | Reference. Explains why definitions matter, what the definition scan looks for (two definitions of open, competing amounts, competing deadlines, history dated in the future, a concept defined in several places), why it uses no AI, and what it cannot see. |
Near the top of Definitions to settle a line says when the definitions were last checked against the database. The check is run by your firm's connector against your database: it reads your schema and each place a definition could differ, uses no AI and costs nothing at your provider. It is the administrator's: after the database changes, ask them to run Check for new definitions on Settings › DB Tuning. Settling a definition refreshes your list by itself.
Definitions to settle is split in two so that the number on your tab is work you can actually do today.
| Badge | What it means | What you can do |
|---|---|---|
| reported wrong (amber) | Somebody checked an answer against what they knew and it was wrong. The row says "Reported by". | Settle the definition or Send to the DBA |
| needs a decision | Somebody could not tell which reading the firm means. Nothing is being called wrong; the row says "Raised by". | Settle it or Send to the DBA |
| with the DBA | Handed over because it cannot be put into words. Shown on the DBA list. | Nothing from here. Open DB Tuning is for an administrator. |
Each row under What your terms mean names the question, then either the evidence the scan measured (for example, how many rows each reading would count) or the sentence "Your data cannot show this — it is your firm's convention." Where one of your firm's own database views already reads it one way, the row says so and marks that reading; it is still your decision.
Changed your mind on something you settled? The × at the end of a settled row clears the answer and puts the question back on the worklist. You can clear your own provisional answers; one settled by somebody else can only be cleared by an administrator, and one an administrator has already confirmed must be withdrawn on Business Rules › Rules › Definitions in effect from Fine-tuning before it can be cleared. The record keeps who settled it and that it was cleared.
Pressing Settle the definition (or Settle it on an item that needs a decision) opens a dialog titled Settle the definition this report needs. The box starts with what the reporter wrote. That is a complaint, not yet an instruction, so edit it before recording.
If the two models read your sentence differently, the button becomes Record it anyway. You may still record it if you are sure. Two options are also offered: Try rewording it (naming the column or the exact values usually closes the gap) and Send it to the DBA to settle.
A definition reaches the AI exactly as you write it, for every question it concerns, for everybody. Good ones share a few habits:
status = 'Active' or 'OnHold' matches every row. Validation refuses that shape and says why; write "status is Active or status is OnHold".Whatever you settle is recorded in your name, dated, and in force at once. It appears on Awaiting sign-off and on Business Rules › Rules › Definitions in effect from Fine-tuning, marked In force · awaiting sign-off. An administrator then confirms it or withdraws it. Provisional does not mean inactive: an unreviewed definition goes on applying. See section 9.
Some things the firm means cannot be said in a sentence. The query is simply more than a definition: several tables, a particular order of steps, a calculation. When that happens, stop rewording and hand it over.
Some of what looks like an ambiguous definition is really the product reading the wrong table. Where your firm has three tables with similar names — a live one, an archive, a staging copy — a question can be answered correctly from the wrong one, and no amount of rewording fixes it.
Type @ in the question box and a list of your tables appears. Choose the one you meant and ask again. If the answer changes, the problem was which table, not which words, and that is worth telling the DBA rather than settling a definition around it.
The answer always says which tables it used. If it names one you did not expect, that is the finding. And if you mistype a name, it tells you the name matched nothing and reads the question the ordinary way rather than silently narrowing it.
Your sentence is all the DBA will have, apart from the question. Write it for someone who knows the database but not your practice. For example: "Count matters referred in the last 90 days where a sale date is set, but leave out any where the client has told us to hold."
The item moves to the DBA list with the badge with the DBA. On the administrator's side it appears under Settings › DB Tuning › Question-SQL pairs, in Waiting for you. An administrator, working with the DBA, writes and settles the query. From then on, that question is answered from the settled query: instantly, identically, and without an AI call, and users see a Verified query mark on the answer. There is no separate DBA sign-in; the DBA works alongside an administrator.
The Baseline questions tab is a list of questions you already know the answers to. Running them and recording whether each answer is right gives the firm a baseline to measure against later, and it is the best way to catch a definition that did not land the way you meant.
The sections follow the life of a matter. Sections start folded; each heading shows how many of its questions have been checked. The badge at the top shows how many have been reviewed overall. Some questions warn "Rests on" a number of definitions "nobody has settled yet"; settle those first, or the answer may be right for a reading your firm has not chosen.
Rather than running questions one at a time, you can have a whole section answered while you do something else.
Press View on an answered question, or Run on one that is not (running asks the provider, which costs calls). A dialog titled Check this answer shows the answer, a table of up to 25 rows, How it worked this out with What it assumed, and the query folded under The query it wrote. Read the assumptions: a figure can be arithmetically perfect and still measure a reading your firm does not use.
Two things may appear above the answer. Asked twice — and read two different ways means the two attempts built different queries; read carefully before marking it. A line saying the answer rests on definitions nobody has settled means settle those before calling it wrong. A held answer also says when it was answered; nothing has re-checked it since.
Then choose one of five verdicts. Every one is recorded in your name.
| Verdict | Choose it when | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| Right | The answer matches what you know to be true. | Recorded in your name against today's date, with the query that produced it. It is your evidence the answer was correct on this database. An administrator can later turn a confirmed answer into a settled query. |
| Wrong | You know the answer is wrong, and can say how. | Asks for one sentence saying what it got wrong, then puts it at the top of Definitions to settle with the badge reported wrong. Say what was wrong, not just that something was. |
| Doesn't apply | The firm does not do this kind of work. | Moves the question to Inactive at the foot of the list. Kept, not deleted. Mark it Right or Wrong at any time and it returns to its own section. |
| Needs a decision | You cannot tell which reading the firm means. | Asks which readings you are caught between, then goes to the settling list as a handover, badge needs a decision. Nothing is called wrong. |
| Ask the DBA | The answer exists in your data but nobody can say it in words. | Asks what the query has to do, then goes to the DBA list in Settings › DB Tuning, badge with the DBA. |
After you choose, the dialog moves on to the next unreviewed question, preferring ones that already have an answer waiting. The same five buttons also sit on each question's row. Press the chosen one again to clear a mis-click.
The shipped questions are written for firms in general. Add the ones your people actually ask.
It is checked alongside the others and counts toward the same baseline. Nothing has worked out which definitions your own question rests on, so unlike the shipped ones it cannot warn you it is not worth asking yet. Your own questions carry a Remove button, which deletes rather than sets aside, because your firm wrote them.
Open in chat on a row takes the question to the Chat screen and runs it there, as any user would see it, with the full answer panels. It costs the same as asking in chat. When you return to Fine-tuning, the list reopens at the question you left from.
Confirming an answer records what was true on the day. Every rule and definition settled afterwards can change what these questions return, and nothing will tell you when a confirmation has gone out of date. Most firms work through the list during setup and re-check it quarterly, or twice a year. Export at the top of the list saves the questions and every verdict to a CSV file in your browser's downloads. If you last confirmed who you are more than 15 minutes ago, you are asked to do so again first.
Users send you work from the Chat screen in three ways, and all of it lands at the top of Definitions to settle:
Each arrives with the question, "Objected to:" and the measurement they objected to, their sentence, their name and the date, and "from an answer they were given". Treat it the way you would a Wrong verdict from a baseline question: read their sentence, run the question yourself if you need to, then Settle the definition or Send to the DBA. Settling it takes the report off the list.
Under some answers in chat, a folded amber panel begins Worth checking. It means the product noticed something: most often that the same question has been read more than one way on different occasions. It lists the readings it saw and which one this answer used.
When you meet one as a lead, press Help me sort this out. A four-step guided flow opens:
The same guided flow opens from Neither — write what your firm means on the chat panel and on Definitions to settle. On the chat panel, pressing one of the offered readings settles it directly and asks the question again, so you see the number your decision produces.
Floor voting is off unless your administrator switches it on in Settings › Safeguards › On Floor Voting. When it is on, the people doing the work help settle what everyday words mean, and you rule where they cannot agree.
A vote appears under an answer only when both of these are true:
The user sees a line such as Counted "open" as Open. Is that right?, a button for each value, and Not sure. The line beneath says who will see the vote: because everyone signs in as themselves, the voter's name and answer are visible to whoever settles definitions. After voting, the person is told how things stand, for example how many more people answering the same way would settle it. Where your administrator has left "Everyone is asked" off, a Stop asking me link lets a person opt out.
Not asked about: "anything except", "one of" and "like" filters; numbers and yes/no flags; queries filtering more than one status column; a column with 7 or more values (the user just sees Counted "active" as Active.); and questions already answered by a Verified query.
While votes are still being collected and everyone agrees so far, there is nothing for you to act on under Floor needs a ruling.
Each row reads "What" the word "means", names the column asked about, and says why it is with you. It shows how many different questions raised it, and both camps with the names of who voted each way. Weigh who voted, not only how many: one senior person can be right where several others are not. The badge on the right is the floor is split, nobody agreed or votes unread.
Your ruling is recorded against your name, applies at once, and is provisional until an administrator confirms it, exactly like any other definition you settle. If it conflicts with an existing rule, the product refuses before writing and shows the rule it collided with; the item stays in the queue for you to act on.
If many people answer Not sure, the fault is more likely the wording of the question than anything the firm has failed to decide.
This tab lists the definitions that are already in force and still waiting for an administrator to confirm them: what the assistant was told, the question it settles, and who settled it and when. The badge at the top counts them. The box under the heading says it first: these are already in force, and confirming or withdrawing is the administrator's. Export saves the list as a CSV file, asking you to confirm who you are first if you last did so more than 15 minutes ago.
Once confirmed, a definition leaves this tab and is listed on Business Rules › Rules › Definitions in effect from Fine-tuning as confirmed. Once withdrawn, it moves to Business Rules › History.
| Status | Where | Does it apply? |
|---|---|---|
| In force · awaiting sign-off | This tab, and Business Rules › Rules › Definitions in effect from Fine-tuning | Yes |
| … overdue (30+ or 90+ days) | The same, marked overdue | Yes |
| In force · confirmed | Business Rules › Rules › Definitions in effect from Fine-tuning | Yes |
| Withdrawn | Business Rules › History | No |
| Cleared | Business Rules › History; only the record of who decided it is kept | No |
A count of provisional definitions also appears as a badge at the top of every screen while any are waiting, with the age of the oldest once it passes 30 days.
You can see these buttons, marked with a padlock, but only an administrator can use them. The confirmation is recorded under the administrator's own sign-in.
Business Rules in the left-hand menu is open to everyone at your firm who is signed in. It shows what the AI has been told, which is what you need in order to judge an answer. As a lead you can read all of it; changing it is the administrator's, because it applies to answers for everyone.
| Tab | What you will find |
|---|---|
| How this works | A diagram of where every instruction comes from and who may act on each. |
| Rules | Two sections, both folded until you open them, each with its count. Rules in effect by Administrator: standing instructions, "always do this". Up to a dozen rules and terms together go with every question; past that, each travels with the questions about the tables it names. Definitions in effect from Fine-tuning, directly below: every definition in force, marked awaiting sign-off or confirmed; they reach the AI exactly as rules do. A confirmed one is withdrawn here; one awaiting sign-off has Open in Fine-tuning, where it is confirmed or withdrawn on Awaiting sign-off. Withdrawn ones move to History. |
| Terms | Vocabulary: "when someone says X, they mean Y". |
| History | Earlier versions of the rules. |
| Has it worked? | Which questions steadied after a change, and which did not. |
Before settling a definition, glance at Rules and Terms. If a rule already says something about the same word, your definition and the rule may pull in different directions, and the fix belongs with the administrator.
These are writing aids for anything that will reach the AI. As a lead you use them in the dialog that opens when you settle a reported item (section 4): Check the wording rewrites your sentence as an instruction the AI can follow and has your firm's connector check its values against your database, and the second button runs the question with and without your wording and compares. On that dialog the second button reads Validate this wording because recording waits for it; elsewhere, such as when an administrator drafts a rule from a user's correction, the same check is labelled See what this changes. Nothing is saved by looking.
Use them to test an idea before you take it to an administrator. A sentence that validates cleanly as a definition is also a good candidate for a rule.
Settle it yourself if it is a definition: what a word means, which records count. Ask an administrator when it is a standing instruction that is not about one word, for example how to count after joining detail tables, or which account to leave out of every total. Send them:
They add it with Add the rule and Save written rules. Saving puts it in force for everyone at once, and the previous set is kept under History.
Casey is AI CaseQuery's assistant for the product. Casey explains and helps you think a wording through; Casey records nothing, applies nothing and never runs a query. The decision, the wording and the button press stay with you. Casey is available only if your administrator has switched it on. Open it with Ask Casey in the left-hand menu or Ctrl+K; the panel shows Reading: and what Casey has been allowed to read.
| Where | Control | What Casey is sent |
|---|---|---|
| A definition on Definitions to settle | Guide me through this | The question in the product's own wording, and the readings on offer. Not what the scan measured in your data, and no rows from your database. |
| The writing dialog | Help me word this | What you have typed so far. |
| Check this answer | How do I judge this? | The question and the unsettled definitions it rests on. Not the answer. |
| The Worth checking guided flow | I still do not follow — explain it to me | Your question and the readings it has had: table and column names, with how often each was used. No values from your database. |
If your administrator allows it, Casey can also read what your firm has written down: terms, rules, settled definitions and column notes, leaving out notes on sensitive columns. Casey never sees query results or rows from your database; a value from it reaches Casey only as a code your firm chose to keep in one of those notes, definitions or rules. Casey's answers come back as text to read: it does not write into the box you are filling in, so copy any wording you like yourself, then validate it as usual.
Good questions for a lead: "Which of these definitions matters most for our month-end report?", "What would each reading of this count?", "Is my definition saying one thing or two?". Treat Casey's answer as advice. You know how the firm works; Casey does not. Full detail is in Working with Casey.
About an hour a week keeps most firms steady. Adjust to how many people ask questions.
Once a quarter, work back through the whole baseline.
| You see | Where | It means | Your move |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lead · Sign out | Top of every screen | You are signed in with the Lead role | Click to sign out |
| Administrator · Sign out | Top of every screen | The person signed in is an administrator | Click to sign out |
| Padlock on a button | Anywhere | Only an administrator can use it | Ask your administrator |
| "N provisional" | Top of every screen | Settled definitions not yet reviewed | Ask your administrator to review |
| reported wrong | Definitions to settle | An answer was judged wrong | Settle the definition or Send to the DBA |
| needs a decision | Definitions to settle | Nobody could tell which reading is meant | Settle it or Send to the DBA |
| with the DBA | DBA list | Waiting for a written query | Nothing; an administrator handles it |
| the floor is split | Floor needs a ruling | Voters gave different answers | Press the value the firm means |
| nobody agreed | Floor needs a ruling | Asking stopped without agreement | Press the value the firm means |
| votes unread | Floor needs a ruling | Some votes could not be read | Rule with care, or tell your administrator |
| "N questions" | A scan definition | How many questions rest on it | Settle the biggest first |
| settled | A scan definition | Answered | × clears your own provisional answer |
| not applicable | A scan definition | Set aside with We do not do this | Answer it to bring it back |
| Right | Baseline verdict | Correct today, recorded with its query | Re-check quarterly |
| Wrong | Baseline verdict | Becomes a reported wrong item | Write one clear sentence |
| Doesn't apply | Baseline verdict | Moved to Inactive | Mark Right or Wrong to restore |
| Needs a decision | Baseline verdict | Becomes a needs a decision item | Name the readings in your sentence |
| Ask the DBA | Baseline verdict | Goes to the DBA list | Say what the query must do |
| awaiting sign-off / overdue | Awaiting sign-off and Business Rules › Rules › Definitions in effect from Fine-tuning | In force, not yet confirmed (overdue after 30 and 90 days) | Ask for review |
| confirmed | Business Rules › Rules › Definitions in effect from Fine-tuning | Confirmed by an administrator | None |
| withdrawn / cleared | Business Rules › History | No longer applied | Ask why before re-settling |
| Worth checking | Under a chat answer | Something was noticed, often two readings | Help me sort this out |
| This answer depends on a definition nobody has settled | Under a chat answer | A scan definition affects this number | Pick a reading, or Neither — write what your firm means |
| Asked twice — and read two different ways | Chat or Check this answer | Two attempts built different queries | Read carefully before judging |
| Verified query | Under a chat answer | Answered from a settled query, at no AI cost | None |
| What you see | Why, and what to do |
|---|---|
| Settings is not in your menu | Expected. Settings is the administrator's; the Lead role does not open it. |
| You cannot settle or mark anything, and the top of Fine-tuning does not say you are signed in as a lead | Your sign-in does not hold the Lead role. Ask your firm's administrator to give it to you on Settings › Security, then sign in again. |
| You are taken back to the sign-in screen | Your session ended: after 30 minutes without use, after eight hours, or because your role was changed. Sign in again; anything you had already recorded is kept. |
| Record it stays greyed out | The wording in the box has not been validated, or you edited it after validating. Press Validate this wording again. |
| Validation refuses your sentence and explains a problem with its shape | Usually shorthand such as status = 'Active' or 'OnHold', which would match every row. Write each condition out in full. |
| Answer this section is greyed out | Another section is being answered. One at a time; hover over the button to see which. |
| Answers from a section run have gone | They are held in the service's memory only, and are forgotten when the service restarts, when your firm's Schema rules change, or when the connector reconnects. Answer the section again; questions you already marked keep their verdicts. |
| A message says your firm has no AI provider set up yet, or that your firm's connector is not connected | Your firm is not ready to run questions just now. Tell your administrator. |
| The × on a settled definition says it was ratified | An administrator has confirmed it. Ask them to withdraw it on Business Rules › Rules › Definitions in effect from Fine-tuning first, so the record shows a reversal rather than a gap. |
| Guide me through this and the other Casey buttons are missing | Casey is not switched on for your firm. Your administrator decides. |
| A word people are voting on is not under Floor needs a ruling | Votes are still being collected and everyone agrees so far. It only reaches you after a split, after asking stops without agreement, or if votes cannot be read. |
| A question you marked Right now gives a different answer | A definition or rule settled since has changed it. Run it again, and mark it again. This is why the baseline is worth re-checking. |
| You settled a definition but an answer still ignores it | Check Business Rules › Rules › Definitions in effect from Fine-tuning to see it is in force, not on Business Rules › History. Past a dozen rules and definitions, one travels only with questions about what it names; name the column or table in the sentence. If it still does not take, report it to your administrator with the question. |
| The Leads count does not go down after settling | Reported items leave the list once settled, but scan definitions stay on it marked settled, so they still count. The badge at the top of the tab shows how many are settled out of the total. If the database has changed, ask an administrator to run Check for new definitions on Settings › DB Tuning. |
For set-up problems, your administrator has the Admin / DBA Guide. For how answers look to users, see the User Guide.