Questions, answered plainly.
Business Partner is designed to be clear about what it can do, what it needs from you and where its limits are. Here are the questions a business owner should be able to answer before subscribing.
About Business Partner
What is Business Partner?
Business Partner is decision-support software for small business owners. Morning Brief is computed from defined rules and the information you provide. Ask uses AI to understand the question and phrase an answer only when your documents support it. It turns the information you provide into a daily Morning Brief: what needs attention, why it matters and what to do next. It also helps you chase overdue customers, stay ahead of compliance dates, understand supported figures and keep a record of important decisions.
Who is Business Partner designed for?
Business Partner is designed for owners of small, owner-managed businesses, particularly the person carrying the final responsibility for cash, compliance and day-to-day decisions. Its current compliance features are designed for South African registered businesses.
Is Business Partner a chatbot?
No. You can ask Business Partner questions, but the product is not built around waiting for you to start a conversation. Its central experience is proactive: Morning Brief prepares what deserves your attention before the working day begins.
Is Business Partner accounting software?
No. Business Partner does not keep your books, reconcile your bank account or replace your accounting system. It works from the documents you choose to provide and helps you understand what those documents can support.
Does Business Partner replace my accountant or bookkeeper?
No. Your accountant, bookkeeper or tax practitioner remains responsible for the professional services you engage them to provide. Business Partner helps you prepare, understand, remember and act on supported information between those conversations.
Getting started
What information is needed at setup?
Business Partner begins with the setup information needed for its current features:
- Do you have employees on payroll?
- When does your financial year end?
These answers determine which PAYE, provisional tax and EMP501 dates apply to your business. VAT and CIPC annual returns will follow only when correct dates can be calculated from the information held.
What documents do I need to provide?
Provide the invoices and financial documents your business already uses. Business Partner will tell you what it can read, which questions the information can support and what is still needed. You do not have to create a new reporting process just for Business Partner.
Do I need to connect my accounting software?
No. Business Partner does not require an accounting connection, bank feed or CRM integration.
What if my business does not use connected accounting software?
That is not a problem. Business Partner is deliberately designed to work from the documents you already have, including information prepared internally or supplied by your bookkeeper or accountant.
How soon does Business Partner become useful?
Your personalised compliance calendar can begin from the answers provided at setup. Debtor priorities and questions about your numbers become available when you provide the relevant invoices and financial documents.
How much of my time will it take?
Business Partner is designed to require less than ten minutes of the owner’s time each week. If it takes more, it has been built wrong.
Morning Brief and getting paid
What is Morning Brief?
Morning Brief is your considered starting point for the day. It brings forward the customers to chase, compliance dates approaching, supported questions about your figures and decisions that need to be recorded.
When is Morning Brief prepared?
Business Partner prepares a new Morning Brief every morning, without waiting for you to ask. Each edition is fixed once written. If new information requires a replacement, Business Partner creates a new edition and marks the earlier one as superseded. It never silently rewrites a brief.
How does Business Partner choose which customers to chase?
Morning Brief ranks overdue customers by amount owed and identifies the three who owe you the most. It shows how long each amount has been outstanding. If the oldest overdue customer is not among the three, Morning Brief names them separately without using a slot.
Does Business Partner write the payment reminder?
Yes. A message is prepared for each recommended customer, ready for you to review. You can edit the wording before choosing whether to send it from your own email, in your own name.
Can Business Partner send a message without me?
No. Business Partner does not contact customers independently. You read the message, change it if necessary and decide whether to send it. Nothing is sent without your instruction.
What if I disagree with a recommendation?
You remain in control. You can edit the proposed action, decline it or take no action. Your response also creates evidence that can help Business Partner improve the quality of future recommendations.
Does Business Partner guarantee that an invoice will be paid?
No. Business Partner helps you identify and follow up outstanding invoices. Payment still depends on the customer and the commercial relationship. Its value is in making sure the right follow-up is prepared and does not disappear beneath the rest of the day.
Compliance
Which compliance dates does Business Partner track?
Business Partner tracks the dates that apply to your business for:
- PAYE
- Provisional tax
- EMP501
How is the compliance calendar personalised?
Your payroll information and financial year end determine which of the currently supported deadlines apply and when they are due.
VAT and CIPC annual returns are not currently tracked. They will be added only when Business Partner can calculate the correct dates from the information it holds.
Where do the compliance dates come from?
Applicable dates are checked against SARS’s published information, with public holidays taken into account. The calendar also depends on the business information you provide, so it is important to keep those details accurate.
Does Business Partner submit returns or make payments for me?
No. Business Partner helps you see what is due and when. It does not file a return, make a payment or submit information to SARS on your behalf.
Questions about your numbers
What can I ask Business Partner about my numbers?
Supported questions include:
- What is my gross margin?
- What is my net margin?
- How long are customers taking to pay?
- How long is the business taking to pay suppliers?
The available questions will grow as Business Partner adds supported calculations.
Where do the answers come from?
Every answer is drawn only from the documents you have provided. Business Partner names the documents it used and their dates, so you can see what supports the answer.
What happens if information is missing?
Business Partner does not guess. It tells you what is missing and exactly what to provide.
What happens if a document is out of date?
Business Partner makes the age of the information clear and asks for a more current document when one is needed to support a reliable answer.
What happens if two documents disagree?
When two documents cover the same period, Business Partner applies its stated source-precedence rule and tells you which document it used.
Can I ask Business Partner anything?
You can ask in plain language, but Business Partner will answer only when it has the information and a supported calculation for the question. If it cannot answer, it says so and lists what it can answer instead.
Decisions, control and trust
What does Business Partner remember?
Business Partner keeps recommendations and the decisions you take on them together. This creates a working memory of what was decided and why it was decided.
Why does the decision record matter?
Most business decisions disappear into meetings, messages and memory.
A reliable record helps you revisit what was known and recorded at the time, and avoid beginning the same decision from scratch.
Can Business Partner act on behalf of my business?
Not without your instruction. Business Partner can prepare, explain and recommend. You remain responsible for every message, payment, submission and consequential business decision.
How does Business Partner handle my information?
You choose which documents to provide. Business Partner does not require access to your bank account, accounting platform or CRM. The Trust page explains the product’s operating boundaries. The Privacy Policy explains how personal information is collected, used, stored and protected.
Is Business Partner professional accounting, tax or legal advice?
No. Business Partner provides supported information and decision assistance from the material it holds. Where specialist professional judgement is required, you should continue to use an appropriately qualified accountant, tax practitioner, lawyer or other adviser.
Subscription and product development
How is Business Partner sold?
Business Partner is sold as one subscription, with no feature tiers at this stage. See Plans & Pricing for the current subscription price and any available founding-customer offer.
Can several team members use one Business Partner account?
At this stage, Business Partner is designed around one business and one owner. It is not a multi-seat team system.
Will new capabilities be added?
Yes. Business Partner is committed to ongoing product development and increasing subscriber value. Every new capability must help an owner recover cash, avoid an unnecessary cost, make a better-supported decision or win back meaningful time.
Will Business Partner become more complicated as it grows?
That is not the intention. New capabilities must earn their place without turning Morning Brief into another system the owner has to manage. More value should not mean more work.
Where can I see the current price?
The current subscription price and any active offer are shown on the Plans & Pricing page.
Still have a question?
Ask us. We will answer it as plainly as Business Partner should.