Using Almanac

A tour of everything in the left-hand menu, in the order most businesses start using it. Nothing here needs technical knowledge.

Your first ten minutes#

1. Connect WhatsApp in Settings → WhatsApp (see WhatsApp setup).
2. Add your team, if you have one: Settings → Team members → Invite. Share the link on WhatsApp; it works for 7 days by default.
3. Save your most-typed answers as quick replies: Settings → Quick replies (price list, address, UPI ID, delivery times).
4. Import your customers: Contacts → Import, from a CSV exported from your phone, Excel or Google Sheets. Every number needs its country code, e.g. +919876543210.
5. Turn on a welcome message: Automations → New → Welcome message.

Inbox#

Every WhatsApp chat lands here, newest first.

• Reply with text, photos, videos, documents or voice notes (the paperclip and microphone next to the message box).
• Quick replies: open More next to the message box and pick a saved answer. Anything you type can be saved as a quick reply from the same menu.
• Assign a chat to yourself or a teammate so two people never answer the same customer. Close it when it's done; it reopens by itself when the customer writes again.
• Right-hand panel: the customer's details, tags, private notes (the customer never sees them) and their deals.
• Hover a message to reply to it, react with an emoji, copy or delete.
• The 24-hour clock at the top of a chat shows how long you can still reply freely. After that, the box switches to Send template. See the 24-hour window.
• ✨ Draft with AI writes a reply for you to edit, once AI is set up (AI features).

Turn on browser notifications in Settings → Your profile so a new message pings you even when the tab is in the background.

Contacts#

Everyone who has ever messaged you, plus anyone you add.

• Add one by hand or Import a CSV (name, phone, email, company, tags). Duplicates are detected by phone number.
• Tags group people: Wholesale, Diwali 2026, Pune. Broadcasts and automations use them.
• Custom fields hold anything else you track, like birthday, size or GST number. Create them in Settings → Fields & tags.
• Open a contact to see every conversation and deal with them.

Pipelines#

A board of deals, one column per stage. New pipelines start with New enquiry → Interested → Quote sent → Payment pending → Won.

• Add deal from the top bar, from a column's +, or from a chat's right-hand panel so the deal stays linked to the conversation.
• Drag a card to move it to the next stage.
• Rename stages, change colours or add a Lost column from the gear icon. Run separate pipelines for, say, Retail and Wholesale.
• Amounts show in rupees by default. Change the currency in Settings → Deals & currency.

Broadcasts#

One message to many customers, personalised.

1. New broadcast → pick an approved template.
2. Audience: a tag, all contacts, or a CSV you upload.
3. Personalise: map {{1}}, {{2}} to contact fields (name, city) or type a fixed value.
4. Send now or schedule it.

The broadcast page shows sent, delivered, read and failed for every recipient. Keep broadcasts to people who opted in, and don't send the same offer twice in a day: reports from annoyed customers lower your sending limits.

Automations#

"When this happens, do that", without code. Start from a template on the Automations page or build your own.

Triggers: a new message, a customer's first-ever message, a keyword (e.g. price, kitna), a button tap, a new contact, a chat being assigned, a tag being added, or a schedule.

Steps: send a message, buttons, a list or a template; add or remove a tag; assign the chat; update a contact field; create a deal; wait; branch with if/else; call a webhook; close the chat.

Ideas that work well for small shops:

• Welcome message with buttons: Price list, Location, Talk to us.
• After hours: "We're closed, we'll reply at 9am" outside your hours.
• Payment reminder: tag Payment pending → wait 1 day → send your UPI details.
• Review request: deal moved to Won → wait 3 days → ask for a Google review.

Each automation has a Logs tab showing exactly what ran and why. Automations with a Wait step need the scheduled jobs from the installer's final checklist (details).

Flows (beta)#

Chatbot menus: a customer taps buttons to check order status, browse a catalogue or read FAQs, and is handed to you when they need a person. Build them visually in Flows, test them, then turn them on.

AI Agents#

An assistant that drafts replies or answers simple questions by itself, using your own OpenAI or Anthropic key. See AI features.

Dashboard#

Today's conversations, how fast you reply, what your pipeline is worth and a live feed of what's happening. A good first screen each morning.

Team and roles#

Settings → Team members. Invite by link and choose a role:

Working alone? You're the owner; there's nothing to set up.

Settings at a glance#

Updating Almanac#

New features and fixes arrive regularly. Your data and settings are always kept.

• One click: Settings → Updates shows what's new. Click Update now; Almanac is back in a couple of minutes. (Only the person who installed Almanac sees this button.)
• From a terminal: almanac update.
• On Vercel: Sync fork on GitHub, then Vercel redeploys.

The almanac command#

The installer adds a small command you can run from any terminal:

Almanac keeps running after you close the terminal window.

Stuck? Troubleshooting, or email tuhin@almanac.bar.