AI Advisor
Natural language financial insights powered by AI
Overview
The AI Advisor is your conversational interface to Gantry. Instead of navigating dashboards and running reports, simply ask questions in plain English and receive intelligent, data-driven answers.
Getting Started
Setting Up AI Advisor
Before using the AI Advisor, you need to configure an AI provider:
- Open Settings from the Gantry navigation
- Go to the AI Provider tab
- Choose your AI mode:
- Smart — Balanced speed and capability
- Max — Most powerful, slower responses
- Light — Fastest, simpler queries
- Custom — Manual provider/model selection
- Select your provider (Google Gemini, Claude, OpenAI, etc.)
- Enter your API key for the selected provider
- Click Save
ℹ️ Note: You need an API key from your chosen AI provider. This is separate from your Gantry license.
AI Providers Supported
| Provider | Best For | API Key Source |
|---|---|---|
| Google Gemini | General use, good balance | cloud.google.com |
| Anthropic Claude | Complex analysis, detailed responses | anthropic.com |
| OpenAI | Broad capabilities | platform.openai.com |
| OpenRouter | Access to multiple models | openrouter.ai |
Using the AI Advisor
Asking Questions
- Click Advisor in the navigation
- Type your question in the chat box
- Press Enter or click Send
- Wait for the response (usually 5-15 seconds)
Effective Questions
The AI Advisor works best with specific, clear questions:
Good questions:
- "What's our current cash position?"
- "Which customers have invoices more than 60 days overdue?"
- "How does this quarter's revenue compare to last quarter?"
- "What's the gross margin for the Professional Services department?"
- "Which vendors have the highest maverick spend?"
Less effective questions:
- "Tell me about our finances" (too broad)
- "Is everything okay?" (too vague)
- "What should I do?" (needs more context)
Question Categories
The AI Advisor understands questions across all Gantry areas:
| Category | Example Questions |
|---|---|
| Cash | "What's our cash runway?", "When do we need to collect receivables?" |
| Revenue | "What's YTD revenue?", "Which customers are growing fastest?" |
| Expenses | "What are our top expense categories?", "Has any vendor increased prices?" |
| Profitability | "What's our gross margin?", "Which department is most profitable?" |
| Labor | "What's our utilization rate?", "Which employees are under-utilized?" |
| Customers | "Who are our at-risk customers?", "What's customer ABC's lifetime value?" |
| Vendors | "How is vendor XYZ performing?", "Who has the best on-time delivery?" |
| Spend Patterns | "Are any costs accelerating?", "Do we have zombie vendors?" |
Understanding Responses
Response Format
AI Advisor responses typically include:
- Direct answer — The specific information you requested
- Context — Additional relevant details
- Data source — Which dashboard or data the answer came from
- Suggestions — Related questions you might want to ask
Example Conversation
You: What's our current cash position?
AI Advisor: Your current cash position is $1,247,500 as of today.
Breaking that down:
- Bank accounts: $1,247,500
- Accounts receivable: $892,000
- Accounts payable: ($445,000)
- Net position: $1,694,500
Your cash runway is approximately 14 weeks at your current burn rate of $89,000/week.
Data source: Liquidity dashboard
Would you like to know about upcoming large receivables or payables?
When AI Can't Answer
Sometimes the AI Advisor will indicate it can't answer:
- Data not available — The question refers to data Gantry doesn't have
- Entity not found — A customer or vendor name wasn't recognized
- Outside scope — The question is beyond financial analysis
In these cases, try rephrasing or providing more specifics.
Advanced Features
Multi-Step Analysis
The AI Advisor can perform complex analyses requiring multiple data lookups:
"Compare our top 5 customers by revenue to their payment timeliness"
This requires: identifying top customers → looking up revenue → analyzing payment history → comparing results.
Session Memory
The AI Advisor remembers your conversation within a session:
You: What's customer ABC's revenue? AI: Customer ABC's YTD revenue is $125,000...
You: What about their payment history? AI: (Understands you mean ABC's payment history)
Suggested Queries
The advisor suggests follow-up questions based on your conversation. Click any suggestion to ask it.
Best Practices
Be Specific
Include relevant details: time periods, specific names, exact metrics.
Use Exact Names
Match customer and vendor names exactly as they appear in NetSuite.
Specify Time Periods
"Q3 revenue" is clearer than "recent revenue."
Ask Follow-ups
Build on previous answers rather than starting new topics.
Verify Important Numbers
For critical decisions, confirm numbers against the actual dashboards.
Configuration Options
In Settings → AI Provider:
| Setting | Description |
|---|---|
| AI Mode | Balance between speed and capability |
| Provider | Which AI service to use |
| Model | Specific model version (in Custom mode) |
| Token Budget | Limit response length to control costs |
| Timeout | How long to wait for responses |
| Debug Mode | Show detailed processing information |
Troubleshooting
No Response
- Check that AI provider is configured
- Verify API key is valid and has credits
- Try a simpler question
Slow Responses
- Switch to Light mode for faster responses
- Reduce token budget
- Ask simpler questions
Inaccurate Answers
- Use exact entity names
- Specify time periods
- Try rephrasing the question
"Cannot Find" Errors
- Verify the entity exists in NetSuite
- Check spelling
- Try using the entity ID instead of name
Privacy & Security
- Your questions and data stay within your NetSuite environment
- AI providers receive only the data needed to answer your question
- No financial data is stored by AI providers
- API communications are encrypted
Requirements
- AI Advisor requires Professional tier license or higher
- API key from supported AI provider
- Internet connectivity to AI provider services