{
 "version": "https://jsonfeed.org/version/1.1",
 "title": "Nabcloud blog",
 "home_page_url": "https://nabcloud.geenius.io/blog/",
 "feed_url": "https://nabcloud.geenius.io/blog/feed.json",
 "description": "Practical notes for practices, firms and trades on working with your own AI: approvals, permissions, client portals, invoices and records, from the Nabcloud team.",
 "language": "en",
 "items": [
  {
   "id": "https://nabcloud.geenius.io/blog/change-your-assistant-keep-the-file/",
   "url": "https://nabcloud.geenius.io/blog/change-your-assistant-keep-the-file/",
   "title": "Change your assistant, keep the file",
   "summary": "Why the memory of your office lives in the Nabcloud workspace and not in a chat, and what that means when you switch or add AI assistants.",
   "date_published": "2026-10-18T09:00:00Z",
   "authors": [
    {
     "name": "The Nabcloud team"
    }
   ],
   "tags": [
    "memory",
    "ai"
   ],
   "content_text": "Anyone who has worked with an AI assistant for a few weeks knows the moment. A conversation has grown long and useful, the assistant knows the client, the preferences and the open points, and then the chat is lost, or full, or you would like to try a different assistant. The knowledge was in the conversation, and the conversation is gone.\nA file belongs to the office\nA well-run office does not keep its knowledge in the head of one employee. It keeps a file. Nabcloud applies the same idea to assistants. Notes, decisions, projects and documents are stored in the workspace. When an assistant learns something worth keeping, it is written there, with the project it belongs to, and the assistant can later search what has been learned, confirm it, or mark it as no longer true.\nA new chat then begins with a short instruction, for example: read the project and tell me where we are. The assistant reads the file and continues.\nWhat follows from that\nYou can change assistant. Connect a different one, such as Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, Grok or any assistant that supports MCP, and it reads the same file. Nothing needs to be re-explained or migrated.\nYou can use several. Each connected assistant appears as its own agent with its own role and permissions, and all of them read and write the same records.\nYou are not tied to our choice. Nabcloud has no AI of its own. We do not choose the assistant for you and we do not bill you for one. You keep paying for yours where you already do.\nYou can leave. Memory, projects and files can be exported at any time. A record that cannot be taken away is not really yours.\nAn illustration\nThe office and the people here are made up.\nA three-person accounting office has worked for a month with one assistant on its quarterly VAT preparations. The notes record which clients file monthly, which deadlines were agreed, and that one client prefers calls to email. In the autumn the office decides to try another assistant for the same work. The partner connects it, gives it the same role and permissions, and starts with: read the project and tell me where we are. The summary it gives matches what the office knows.\nAn honest limit\nThe memory is in the workspace, but your assistant still has to read it. A good first line in a new chat is worth the few seconds. How well an assistant uses what it reads depends on the assistant and on how you have set it up. We do not promise that two assistants will behave alike.\nKeeping the file tidy\nRecord decisions, not conversation. A decision with a date and a reason is useful in a year.\nCorrect what is no longer true rather than adding a second note beside it.\nKeep client matters in their own projects, so an assistant reads only what is relevant.\nYou will find the technical description in memory and your data, and a summary under one memory and your AIs."
  },
  {
   "id": "https://nabcloud.geenius.io/blog/what-an-audit-trail-is-for/",
   "url": "https://nabcloud.geenius.io/blog/what-an-audit-trail-is-for/",
   "title": "What an audit trail is for",
   "summary": "What the Nabcloud audit trail records, how to filter and export it, how long it is kept, and why a quiet record is useful before anything goes wrong.",
   "date_published": "2026-10-18T09:00:00Z",
   "authors": [
    {
     "name": "The Nabcloud team"
    }
   ],
   "tags": [
    "audit",
    "control"
   ],
   "content_text": "An audit trail is rarely interesting until the day it is needed. Then it is the only thing anyone wants to read. A client asks when a document was sent. A colleague asks who changed a setting. An adviser asks how an amount came about. The answer should not depend on anyone's memory, including the assistant's.\nWhat the trail contains\nThe trail in a Nabcloud workspace is append-only: entries are added, and not edited or removed afterwards. It records changes in one workspace, such as seats and roles, agents and their keys, grants of secrets, billing, deletions and deployments. Each entry says what happened, when, who or which agent did it, and where an approval was involved, who approved it.\nThis is a record of consequential changes. It is not a transcript of every conversation, and it is not meant to be one.\nReading it\nYou can work with the trail in four ways.\n**Filter** by actor, area, action, target and dates, or search for a text.\n**History** of one thing, for example everything that happened to one agent.\n**Export** the same selection as CSV, up to 5,000 rows at a time.\n**Retention**: owners and admins choose how long entries are kept, from 30 to 3,650 days.\nThe export is useful for your adviser or for your own files. The retention period is a decision for the office: a long period serves accountability, a short one serves data minimisation. Which is right for you depends on your obligations. Ask your adviser, and do not take a default as advice.\nThree ordinary uses\nQuestions after the fact. A client says an invoice never arrived. The trail shows when the invoice email was approved and by whom.\nReviewing access. Once a quarter, you look at changes to seats, roles and agents. A permission that was added for a short project and never removed is easy to spot.\nOnboarding and offboarding. When a colleague joins or leaves, the trail shows what was changed on their behalf, so that you can confirm the arrangement is complete.\nWhy it supports approvals\nApprovals keep a person in the decision. The trail keeps the decision on record. Together they let an office hand preparation to assistants without losing sight of what was done. An assistant that works quickly and leaves a clear record is easier to trust than one that works quickly and leaves nothing.\nThe trail records what the workspace records. Whether it satisfies a particular legal or professional requirement is to be confirmed with your own adviser, and we do not make claims of certification or compliance here. Details are under trust.\nStarting point\nOpen the trail in your first week, before there is anything to look for. Set a retention period deliberately, export once to see what the file looks like, and decide who in the office will review it and how often.\nMore is in audit trail, and the overview is under approvals and audit."
  },
  {
   "id": "https://nabcloud.geenius.io/blog/from-hours-to-invoice/",
   "url": "https://nabcloud.geenius.io/blog/from-hours-to-invoice/",
   "title": "From hours to invoice, without retyping",
   "summary": "How tracked time becomes invoice lines in Nabcloud: the timer, billable time, a timesheet PDF, and an email that waits for your approval.",
   "date_published": "2026-10-17T09:00:00Z",
   "authors": [
    {
     "name": "The Nabcloud team"
    }
   ],
   "tags": [
    "invoices",
    "time"
   ],
   "content_text": "For anyone who bills by the hour, the end of the month holds a quiet risk. The hours are in a notebook, a calendar and a few remembered afternoons, and they must be turned into an invoice that the client can follow. Mistakes here are rarely dramatic. They are small, and they erode trust.\nOne record, from the start\nNabcloud has a time tracker in the workspace. A timer can be started and stopped, or a finished entry can be added afterwards. Entries carry the project and the client, and billable entries carry a rate. Your assistant can use the same tracker, so you may say "log two hours on the Hartmann project this morning" and it is recorded where the rest of the work is.\nBillable time becomes lines\nWhen it is time to invoice, the tracker can list the billable time that has not been invoiced yet, as lines: a description, hours and a rate. These lines can be added to a draft invoice, and the entries used are marked as billed, so the same hour is not charged twice. If you decide against it, entries can be unmarked.\nThe sequence is short:\nList the billable, not-yet-invoiced time for the client.\nAdd it to a draft invoice as lines.\nCheck the totals per VAT rate.\nIssue the invoice, which locks it, and render the PDF.\nA monthly timesheet PDF can be produced from the same entries, so the client sees the hours behind the amount.\nAn illustration\nThe consultancy, the client and the figures below are made up.\nA consultant has logged 18.5 hours for a client in October at an agreed hourly rate. She asks her assistant to prepare the October invoice. The assistant collects the billable lines, drafts the invoice and creates the timesheet. It then drafts an email with the PDF attached. The email does not go out. It waits in Approvals, and she reads it, then approves it.\nNothing was typed twice: not the hours, not the client's address, which comes from Contacts.\nWhat stays with you\nInvoices carry the legal lines for Germany and the Netherlands. Other countries are not covered, and templates are not tax or legal advice. Have your texts and your numbering checked by your adviser before you rely on them.\nThe rate is yours to set. So is the decision whether a stretch of time is billable at all. The assistant can propose, but it cannot know that you promised a client the first hour free.\nGetting the habit\nThe tool is only as good as the entries in it. Two habits make the difference.\nLog time on the day. A timer left running is easier to correct than an afternoon that has to be reconstructed.\nReview the billable list before you invoice. Look for entries without a client or a rate.\nFor the details of the invoice tools, read invoices and quotes and matters and time. The feature overview is under documents and invoices."
  },
  {
   "id": "https://nabcloud.geenius.io/blog/a-portal-instead-of-attachments/",
   "url": "https://nabcloud.geenius.io/blog/a-portal-instead-of-attachments/",
   "title": "A portal instead of attachments",
   "summary": "Client portal links and signature requests in Nabcloud: share files with a client, set how long a link lasts, revoke it, and keep the signed copy.",
   "date_published": "2026-10-17T09:00:00Z",
   "authors": [
    {
     "name": "The Nabcloud team"
    }
   ],
   "tags": [
    "portal",
    "signatures"
   ],
   "content_text": "Email attachments are the habit nobody chose. A contract goes out as a PDF, comes back with a different file name, and a month later no one is sure which version was agreed. Sensitive documents sit in inboxes on several devices. A shared link with a clear purpose and an end date is a quieter way to work.\nWhat a portal link is\nIn Nabcloud a portal link is a page for one client. It shows what you decide it shows, and it shares the files you choose. Each link has a validity, which you can change, and it can be revoked at any moment, after which it stops working. You can see when a link was last opened.\nCreating and changing portal links is the work of an owner or an admin. A member can read them. The secret part of a link is shown once, to the person who creates it, and is never shown again. Your assistant can prepare the content and list the links, but it does not hand out the secret.\nSignatures\nA signature request asks a named person to sign a PDF. You can follow its state: whether the link was opened and whether it was signed. The record of a request includes its own audit trail and the evidence of the signature. When the document is signed, the signed PDF returns to Files with a certificate page. As with portal links, an owner or admin makes the signing link, or drafts the email that carries it and approves it. A link can be revoked, or kept valid for more days.\nWhether an electronic signature is sufficient for a particular document depends on the kind of document and on the law that applies to it. Nabcloud records who signed and when. It does not give legal advice. Ask your adviser if a document requires more.\nAn illustration\nThe practice, the client and the document below are made up.\nA small consultancy agrees terms with a new client. The consultant asks her assistant to prepare the engagement letter from a template, using the client's details from Contacts. The assistant produces the PDF and drafts the email with the signing link. The email waits in Approvals. The consultant approves it, and the client signs on Thursday. The signed copy, with its certificate page, is filed next to the matter.\nLater the client needs the signed letter and the first invoice. Instead of attaching them to another email, the consultant shares both files through the client's portal link, valid for thirty days. When the project ends, she revokes the link.\nWhy this is calmer\nOne current copy of each document, in one place, rather than five attachments.\nA deliberate end date on every link.\nA record of when a link was opened and a document was signed.\nA clear point of responsibility: the owner or admin who made the link.\nWhat to be careful about\nDo not share more than the client needs. A portal link shows what you choose, so choose narrowly. Prefer short validity periods and revoke links when the work is done. Remember that anyone who receives the link can use it, so send it to the right address, and keep the approval step in place for the email that carries it.\nYou will find the practical steps in client portal and documents and signatures, and an overview under clients and portal."
  },
  {
   "id": "https://nabcloud.geenius.io/blog/nothing-leaves-the-office-without-approval/",
   "url": "https://nabcloud.geenius.io/blog/nothing-leaves-the-office-without-approval/",
   "title": "Nothing leaves the office without approval",
   "summary": "How approvals work in Nabcloud for firms and practices: what waits for a person, who decides, and why a draft is not a promise.",
   "date_published": "2026-10-16T09:00:00Z",
   "authors": [
    {
     "name": "The Nabcloud team"
    }
   ],
   "tags": [
    "approvals",
    "control"
   ],
   "content_text": "Every office has a rule, spoken or not, about what may leave the building without a second look. A letter to a client. An invoice. A page published on the website. When an AI assistant joins the team, the rule needs to be written down in a place the assistant cannot talk its way around.\nDrafting is cheap, sending is not\nAn assistant can prepare a great deal in seconds: an invoice as a PDF, an email to the client that carries it, a message about a moved appointment. None of that carries consequences until it is sent. Nabcloud keeps the two moments apart. The assistant prepares; a person decides.\nEmails to clients and other risky steps wait in Approvals. The queue shows what is new, lets you open one approval in full, and keeps a history. You see exactly what would happen. You may edit it first. Then you approve, or you leave it.\nOnly a person decides\nAsking for an approval and settling it are separate steps, and only a person settles one. An assistant can ask, and can withdraw a request it made. It cannot answer its own question. This is the point of the design, not a limitation: the person who is accountable for the office remains the one who says yes.\nWhat this looks like in a small firm\nThe following is an illustration. The firm, the client and the amounts are made up.\nA two-partner firm asks its assistant on Monday morning to invoice the first consultation for a new client. The assistant drafts the invoice in the workspace and drafts the email that will carry it. Neither is sent. At ten o'clock a partner opens Approvals, reads the email, corrects the salutation and approves it. The step is recorded in the audit trail: what was prepared, by which assistant, and who approved it.\nNothing about this slows the assistant down. It does the preparation while nobody is at the desk. The only thing that waits is the decision.\nDrafts are not promises\nA draft saved in your workspace is a working paper. It has not been issued, sent or published, and nobody outside the office has seen it. This matters when you ask for several things at once: you can let the assistant prepare ten, review them together, and approve the six that are right.\nApprovals are only as good as the permissions around them. Which steps wait is set by the product and by what you allow each assistant to do. Read approvals and agents and permissions before you rely on it, and test with sample data first.\nA few habits that help\nAsk the assistant to prepare, then check the queue at fixed times, for example morning and late afternoon.\nKeep the people who may approve few and named. Owners and admins hold the sensitive steps.\nTreat templates and drafts as a starting point. They are not legal, medical or financial advice, and you remain responsible for what you send.\nThe approach is simple on purpose. A quiet office is one where nothing surprising reaches a client. Read more under approvals and audit, or see how access works on request access."
  },
  {
   "id": "https://nabcloud.geenius.io/blog/what-your-ai-may-touch/",
   "url": "https://nabcloud.geenius.io/blog/what-your-ai-may-touch/",
   "title": "What your AI may touch",
   "summary": "Permissions per agent in a small office: how to give each connected assistant a name, a role and only the access it needs.",
   "date_published": "2026-10-16T09:00:00Z",
   "authors": [
    {
     "name": "The Nabcloud team"
    }
   ],
   "tags": [
    "agents",
    "permissions"
   ],
   "content_text": "In a small office, access is usually granted by habit. The newest colleague is given the shared password, and nobody quite remembers who can see what. Assistants make this worse if they are connected carelessly, because they are quick and they do not hesitate. A clear arrangement at the start costs an hour. A vague one costs a good deal more later.\nAn agent is a connected assistant with a role\nWhen you connect an AI assistant to Nabcloud, it appears in the workspace as an agent. It has a name, a role and its own permissions, set per app. You can connect one assistant or several. Three agents may run on the same assistant, or you may combine Claude, ChatGPT and Gemini on the same projects. Each shows up separately, so the record says which one did what.\nThe number of agent accounts depends on the plan: ten on Pro, fifty on Premium, and no limit on Max.\nStart from the job, not the tool\nA useful way to decide is to write down the jobs, then give each job to one agent. An illustration, with made-up names for a small tax and consulting office:\nAgent Role May work in\nIda Client communication and deadlines Contacts, calendar, documents\nMax Quotes and invoices Invoices, time tracking, files\nVera Website Websites only\nIda has no business reading the invoices. Max has no business changing the website. If either of them is asked to, the answer is that the permission is not there, and that is the right answer.\nWhat always waits for a person\nWhatever you allow, some steps wait for a person. Emails to clients and other risky steps go to Approvals, and only a person decides them. Handing out a signature link is limited to owners and admins, and so is creating a client portal link. Members can read these, but not change them. You can see the full picture under agents and permissions.\nReview the arrangement on a schedule\nAn arrangement that was sensible in October may be too generous in March. Once a quarter, open the list of agents and ask three questions.\nIs every agent still in use? Remove the ones that are not.\nDoes each one still need everything it can reach?\nWho holds owner or admin rights, and should they?\nThe audit trail records changes to seats, roles and agents, so you can see when a permission was added and by whom.\nKeys stay out of chats\nYou never paste a key or a password into a chat. The connector signs the assistant in once, and you can see and change what it may do afterwards. If a colleague leaves, you remove their seat and their agent. You do not have to guess which credentials they carried away in their head.\nThe names and roles above are an example, not a recommendation for your office. A practice with three employees and a firm with thirty will draw the lines differently.\nIf you are planning a rollout, your first week suggests a calm order of steps, and team and agents describes the features in more detail."
  }
 ]
}