Communicating with the Insightly Assistant

Tip

Insightly will no longer provide an integration with Slack. The decision comes as a result of Microsoft’s overhaul of the Microsoft Bot Framework, which we had used to build the connection. Learn more.

The Insightly Assistant chatbot will help you find, create, and update Insightly records right from Slack, and with straightforward natural-language communication. It's like getting help from a helpful colleague. Or an intern.

This article provides you with a list of available actions and some examples of how you might ask for them. Because the Insightly Assistant understands natural language, it can understand many variations of the phrases below, so you don't have to worry about entering them in the same exact way or memorizing commands.

The Insightly Assistant can understand your request to:

The Assistant can also pass along notifications when these things happen:

  • Imports or exports are complete
  • Project or opportunity pipeline stages are changed
  • Opportunities over a certain value are won
  • Leads with a minimum lead rating and company size (number of employees) are created
Notifications are configured by your administrator in Insightly's system settings.

Search for a contact, lead, or opportunity

Insightly Assistant can find a contact, lead, or opportunity by name and display a link and major details right in Slack. It will need to know what kind of record to look for and the name of that record.

To search for a record, type: Find <record type> <name>

You can also use verbs and phrases like: get, searchlook up, or search for.

Find lead Noah Webster

"Okay. I found this lead for you.
Noah Webster
Email (Work): lexipro@hartford.edu

You can follow up with 'add note your note here'." 

Add a note to the displayed contact or lead

Did you notice Insightly Assistant's last comment after it finds a matching record? Once a contact or lead is found and displayed, you can add a short note to it as a follow-up step. The Insightly note will be linked to the record, it will have the current date and time, and the text you enter will appear in the note title.

To add a note to the displayed contact or lead: 

  1. Search for the record by typing: Find <record type> <name>
  2. Wait for Insightly Assistant to display the correct record
  3. Type: Add note <note text> 

Find contact Alan Turing

"Okay. I found this contact for you.
Alan Turing
Email (Work)
: captchathis@npl.org"

Add note Spoke to Alan. He's an enigma.

"Done! Your note has been added to the lead."

Update a found opportunity's state

When an opportunity is found, you can update the opportunity state in a follow-up step. The available states are Won, Open, Lost, Suspended, or Abandoned.

To update an opportunity's state:

  1. Search for the opportunity by typing: Find opportunity <opportunity name>
  2. Wait for Insightly Assistant to display the correct record
  3. Type: Change state to <state> 

You can also use phrases like update status.

Find opportunity Mechanical Turk

"Okay. I found this opportunity for you.
Mechanical Turk
Status: Open   Value: $10,000"

Update state to Won

"Here you go, I've updated the state to won."

Create a new lead or contact

Insightly Assistant can add a new lead or contact to Insightly for you. The record will include the name of the contact or lead. Once it's created, you can click the link that Insightly Assistant provides and add more details in Insightly.

To add a new contact or lead:

  1. Type: Add <record type> <name>
  2. Wait for Insightly Assistant to display the new record

You can also use verbs and phrases like: make or create.

Create lead Noam Chomsky

"✓ Done! I've created this lead for you.
Noam Chomsky"

Add a task with a reminder

When you ask Insightly Assistant for a reminder, she will create a task with a reminder date and time that matches your instructions. She can understand specifics, like "January 3 at 5 pm," or more general instructions in relation to the current date and time, like "tomorrow" or "next week."

When Insightly Assistant creates a reminder task, it will not be linked to other records.

To create a reminder task, type: Remind me to <task name> <when>

Remind me to chat with Eliza next Thursday at 3 pm.

Get help with Insightly Assistant

Insightly Assistant will display some basic commands when you ask for help.

To search for a record, type: Insightly help

Insightly help

"Hey there, troma! I am your Insightly Assistant. You can speak to me like a normal person and I'll do my best to get you the information you want. These are some of the things you can ask me to do:
     Find contact Paul Betts
     Create lead Julia Grace
     Get my opportunity called Big Opp and then Update state to Won
     Remind me to call Ronnie in one week
To learn about all I can do, take a look at this article in Insightly's Help Center."

If you're having trouble, contact us at support@insight.ly. (Support available with all paid plans.)

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