Team chat

Talking to colleagues

Everybody in your company who can sign in has Chat in the sidebar (in the menu on a phone). It opens a page that uses the whole width, with two tabs: Team for your colleagues and AI for the assistant (the AI tab is there only if your company has given it to you; see The assistant). A number beside Chat says how many messages are waiting for you.

• Chats. On the left, your chats with the newest first, each with what was said last and how many messages you have not read. Click one to open it. On a phone the list and the chat take turns; the arrow at the top of a chat brings back the list.
• New starts a chat. Choose A colleague and click their name: if you two already have a chat, that one opens. Choose A group, give it a name, tick the colleagues and make it.
• Everyone is one room for the whole company. Everybody who has chat is in it.
• Write in the box at the bottom. Enter sends, Shift + Enter starts a new line. A message that did not go stays in the box, and sending it again never says it twice.
• Send files and pictures with the paperclip: documents (PDF, Word), pictures (PNG, JPEG), Excel sheets, text or CSV files and sound (MP3, M4A, WAV, OGG). A file is uploaded as you choose it and can be taken back (the cross) until you send. Each file is checked for viruses first: until the check has answered the chat says "Checking…", and a file the check rejects says "Blocked" and is never opened. A message may be a file alone.
• Look at a file without downloading it. A picture is shown in the chat and opens full size. Click a PDF, a Word file, an Excel or CSV sheet or a text file to read it in the page (a sheet as a table, with a tab for each sheet; a very long file shows its first part and says so); Download is always in the same window. Sound plays in the message. Only the words and cells of a Word or Excel file are shown: nothing in the file is run.
• Add an emoji with the smiley beside the box; it goes where you were typing and is sent as part of your words.
• React to a message with the small smiley beside it (always shown on a phone): choose one of ten emoji. Each emoji is shown under the message with how many gave it (hold the pointer over it for who); click it to give the same, or click yours again to take it back. You cannot react to a deleted message.
• Know what is new. A chat with messages you have not read shows a number beside its name. When you open it, a line says New messages where they begin. Under your own latest message, Seen says that your colleague has read it (in a group, Seen by 2 or Seen by everyone; hold the pointer over it for who). Your company can turn this off.
• The bell and the tab. When a colleague writes to you in a chat of two, the bell rings once, with their name and a link to the chat, and not again until you have looked; opening the chat clears it. The bell never repeats what was said. A group or the Everyone room does not ring for every message; it adds to the number. The number is also in the browser tab, for example (3) Tasks, so you see it from another tab.
• Tag a colleague by typing @ and choosing a name from the list (arrow keys and Enter, or click). Their name is picked out in your message and their bell rings with your name and a link to the chat, even if they muted the chat; the bell never repeats your words. You can tag only people who are in the chat, in the Everyone room anyone with chat, and a chat of two needs no tag. Your company can turn tagging off.
• Link an RFQ, an order or a vendor by typing # and a number or a name: the ones you may open are listed (arrow keys and Enter, or click). It becomes a chip under your message with its title, and clicking it opens the record. Up to five a message, and a record may be sent on its own. The chat keeps only the title; the record's page decides who may open it, so a colleague who may not sees that page's own refusal. Your company can turn linking off.
• Mute a chat with the bell at the top of it. A muted chat does not ring and is left out of the number beside Chat (it still shows its own number, in grey). Click again to unmute. It is your choice alone.
• Change or delete your own message with the pencil or bin beside it, for the time your company allows (15 minutes at first). A deleted message keeps its place and says "Message deleted"; its words and its files are gone for everybody.

Groups

The one who made a group opens Group details (the "i" at the top of the chat) to rename it, add colleagues and remove them. Anyone in a group can Leave group. If the one who made it leaves, the group goes to the person who has been in it longest; when the last person leaves, the group ends with its messages.

When someone leaves the company. Each night they are taken out of every group they were in (a group they made goes to the person who has been in it longest; a group with nobody left ends). A chat of two with them stays to be read, and nothing more can be sent in it: *"{name} has left the company"*. What they wrote stays as the company's record, under their name, then under *Former user* once their name is made anonymous, until the days messages are kept end. Your admin can have those messages erased as soon as their name is made anonymous: Settings → Rules → Chat (Erase the messages of a person who left, once their name is made anonymous).

Who can read what you write

Only the people in a conversation can read it, and open its files. Your company's admins cannot, and neither can SourcePro's team. A file sent in a chat is not among your company's documents, and neither it nor its name is in your company's audit trail. This is different from the assistant, where your company's admins can read what is asked. Your company's audit trail records that a group was made or that someone was added, never a word that was said.

There is one exception, and it is yours to use: when you report a message, your company's admins can read that one message.

Reporting a message

If a colleague writes something that is not right, hold your pointer over their message (a phone shows it always) and tap the flag. You can say why. Your company's admins are told and can read that message and only that message, with who wrote it and when. They cannot read the rest of the chat, and the person who wrote it is not told that you reported it. You cannot report your own message, and you report a message once. If your company has switched reports off, there is no flag.

How long messages are kept

Your company decides how long chat is kept (a year at first). Each night, messages older than that are erased, with the files they carried, for everybody in the chat. Files that were attached and never sent are removed after a day.

For company admins: Settings → Rules

The chat rules are a group of their own in the company's rules:

• Chat is on. Off, nobody can send or read chat (what was said is kept).
• People may make groups. Off, people chat one to one and in the room for everybody only.
• A room for everybody. Off, the Everyone room is not shown.
• How long a person may change or delete a message, in minutes (0: never).
• People may send files. Off, chat carries words only.
• People may react to a message with an emoji. Off, messages carry no reactions (those given stay kept).
• People see when a colleague has read their message (Seen). Off, nobody is shown who has read what.
• People may link an RFQ, an order or a vendor in a message. Off, nothing can be linked.
• People may tag colleagues with @. Off, nobody can be tagged (no bell for tags).
• A message in a chat of two rings the bell. Off, the number beside Chat is the only sign.
• Keep chat messages for this many days (365 at first; 0 keeps them for ever).
• People may report a message to your admins. Off, nothing can be reported.
• The biggest file in a message (10 MB at first, at most 25) and files in one message (5 at first).

You cannot read your people's conversations, and no setting changes that. What you do read is the messages people report, under Settings → Chat reports: each one is that message alone, with who wrote it, who reported it and why. Mark a report dealt with when you have acted on it, or open it again; a report that is dealt with is cleared after the days your company keeps chat.