Daily use

This guide is for anyone using CallMerlin as an end user (PIN user). You'll learn how to use Merlin as a personal AI assistant in your daily work.

Getting started

After receiving your PIN code from your administrator, you can start immediately. Open any channel (Phone, webcall widget, Windows / macOS desktop app, Android / iPhone & iPad, Slack or Teams), enter your PIN, and you're ready.

First time? Type "help", or say "What can you do for me", to get an overview of what Merlin can do for you.

Merlin only uses connections in your vault: the connection group of your PIN, plus shared connections. A Marketing PIN does not see the CEO's private bank. See Connections and PIN users.

Voice or chat

You can reach Merlin in two ways:

Tip: Combine them. Start a conversation via voice and switch to chat halfway through if you want to see a table or URL.

---

Phone

Call your organisation's CallMerlin number and enter your PIN. Merlin then works with your permissions, tasks and workflows.

Examples

• "What's on my calendar today?"
• "Which invoices are still open?"
• "Prepare my open purchase invoices"
• "Create a task: call Jan back"

Practical tip

Phone is ideal for hands-free work. Combine with tasks: after a client call, dictate the follow-up as a task.

See Phone numbers for how your organisation manages numbers.

---

Webcall widget

The webcall widget appears on pages your administrator configured (intranet, client portal, internal site). Click the widget, enter your PIN, and chat or call via the microphone.

When to use

• On your laptop without installing the desktop app
• On a shared work environment where you're already logged in
• When you need a quick lookup without opening Slack or Teams

Practical tip

The widget keeps your session briefly. Close the tab and enter your PIN again for a new conversation.

---

Tasks

Merlin remembers your to-dos and reminds you of them.

Creating tasks

• "Create a task: send quote to De Zon Bakery"
• "Remind me tomorrow to review the contract"
• "Add to my tasks: check server backup"

Viewing tasks

• "What are my tasks?"
• "Do I have open tasks?"
• "Show my tasks for this week"

Completing tasks

• "Mark the quote task as done"
• "The server backup is done"

Practical tip

Create tasks during conversations. After a phone call, say: "Create a task: follow up with Jan about the proposal, deadline Friday." Merlin remembers it and you don't have to write anything down.

---

Cases

A case is an ongoing dossier you hand off to a colleague or team. Unlike a task: a case has history, an owner and context (e.g. an angry client or outstanding invoice).

Cases in chat

• "Create a case for Sales from this."
• "Which cases are open?"
• "I'll take this case."
• "Hand off to Finance: angry client, max credit €50."
• "Close this case: client agreed."

Files on a case

Normal paperclip upload is temporary (analysis in this conversation only). Want a colleague to open the file later? Save it on the case:

• "Save this invoice to the case"
• "Add this screenshot to case [title]"
• After creating a case: say yes when Merlin asks for an attachment

Merlin stores the file permanently in EU Storage. Colleagues with case access get a shareable link (valid 15 minutes) in chat or via the Cases dashboard.

Practical tip

You don't need the dashboard to manage cases. Type or say what you need; the Cases screen is the same overview for those who prefer clicking.

See Cases for handoffs, notifications and files on a case.

---

Workflows

Workflows are automatic step sequences that Merlin executes for you. They combine multiple actions into a single command.

Starting a workflow

• "Run my morning workflow"
• "Start the week-end workflow"
• "Execute the monthly report"

Viewing my workflows

• "What workflows do I have?"
• "Show my workflows"

Workflow examples for daily use

Morning briefing

"Create a workflow 'morning briefing' that: checks my calendar for today, checks for outstanding invoices older than 30 days, counts unread emails, and gives me a summary."

Result: every morning you say "run my morning briefing" and Merlin gives you a complete overview of your day in 10 seconds.

Daily sales pipeline check

"Create a workflow 'sales check' that: retrieves all deals in the pipeline, shows deals not updated in more than 7 days, counts how many deals are in each stage, and gives a summary with recommendations."

Weekly closing for administration

"Create a workflow 'weekly close' that: retrieves all draft invoices from this week, totals the amount, checks for missing VAT numbers, lists open quotes older than 14 days, and creates a report."

Client onboarding

"Create a workflow 'new client' that: creates a contact in the CRM with the name, email and phone number I provide, creates a welcome invoice for the starter package of €500, creates a task to follow up in 3 days, and schedules a meeting for next week."

Monthly reporting

"Create a workflow 'monthly report' that: retrieves the total invoiced amount this month, compares with last month, counts new clients, calculates the percentage of paid invoices, shows the top 5 clients by revenue, and gives this as a summary."

Lead prospecting

"Create a workflow 'new leads' that: searches businesses in the category I specify in the city I name, filters by at least 4 stars and at least 20 reviews, saves results to my CRM as new leads, and creates a task to call them this week."

Collections workflow

"Create a workflow 'collections check' that: retrieves all invoices more than 60 days overdue, calculates the total outstanding amount, groups by client, and creates a task for each client to send a reminder email."

How workflows are built

You describe the workflow in plain language. Merlin translates this into a series of steps. You can adjust workflows, retest them and make them available per PIN user.

Tip: Start simple. Create a workflow with 2-3 steps first. Once it works well, add more steps.

---

Meeting summaries

After a Zoom or Teams video meeting, or after a live recording in the CallMerlin app or desktop, ask Merlin for a summary and action items. Same question in any channel. Merlin creates one summary and stores it. Follow-up questions use that summary, not the full transcript.

When to use

• After your client call: wait until the transcript is ready (Zoom/Teams), then ask: "Summarize the meeting and list action items"
• Face-to-face or hybrid without Zoom/Teams: open Record meeting in the app or desktop, confirm consent, stop after the conversation
• End of day: "What open action items came from today's meetings?"
• Handoff to a colleague: ask for the summary in Slack, Teams, or on your phone

Wait for the transcript

Do not ask immediately after hanging up. Zoom usually needs 5–15 minutes for the cloud transcript. Teams via Graph API often 5–30 minutes after the meeting ends. See Meeting summaries.

Live recording in app or desktop: no wait for an external transcript; processing starts after Stop.

Once the transcript or recording is available, CallMerlin usually creates the summary within 15–60 seconds. Follow-ups are faster.

Live recording (app & desktop)

No Zoom or Teams transcript? Record face-to-face or hybrid meetings in CallMerlin (app or desktop), not with the system voice memo.

1. Sign in with your PIN in the CallMerlin app or desktop
2. Open Record meeting
3. Confirm consent: inform all participants before you record
4. Start recording; stop when the conversation ends
5. CallMerlin creates a summary with action items and deletes the raw audio
6. Remember the title on the result screen (it disappears when you leave). Follow up in chat, for example:
   • Summary of <title>
   • Action items from <title>
   • Which F2F titles do you know?

You need the PIN permission Meeting summaries. Max. 90 minutes or 50 MB per recording; duration counts toward your minute bundle.

Details: Live recording (app & desktop).

Examples per channel

Follow-up questions

Works in the same conversation or later on another channel:

• "What were the action items?"
• "Who needs to do what?"
• "Create tasks for each action item"
• Summary of <title> (after a live recording)

Difference from thread summarizing

Practical tip

One of the strongest daily use cases: one question after the call, turn action items into tasks, done. Combine with workflows for a fixed routine after every meeting.

See Meeting summaries for setup (Zoom recording, Teams transcription, live recording, PIN permission Meeting summaries).

---

SEPA payment files

Merlin prepares open purchase invoices from your connected accounting package (Moneybird, WeFact, e-Boekhouden or Sevdesk) as a payment file. You upload and sign in your own bank. Merlin does not mark invoices as paid. If several packages are in the vault, Merlin asks which one to use.

• Chat: "Prepare my open purchase invoices"
• Phone: the same instruction. Merlin sends the link by SMS or email
• Later: "Do I still have a SEPA file?" for the link again

You need the PIN permission SEPA payment files and at least one of those packages in your vault. See SEPA payment files.

---

Automations and approval

Automations combine workflows with AI analysis. The system reads data from your communication channels, automatically fetches context from CRM and accounting, and sends everything through AI for analysis.

Approving via chat or dashboard

When an automation needs approval, a card appears with:

• Findings with urgency labels (URGENT, ACTION, INFO)
• An Approve and Reject button

Click the button to approve or reject the suggested actions.

Approving via voice

During phone calls, Merlin describes the findings and asks: "Do you want to approve these actions?" Say "yes" or "no".

Example daily automation

"Run my daily com check."

Merlin reads your Slack and email, fetches CRM and accounting data, and sends you a summary: "URGENT: Multivlaai BV is bankrupt. ACTION: New contact Lisa at Acme. INFO: Invoice #2024-789 paid." You approve and Merlin sends the summary to Slack and creates a CRM note.

---

Workflow Discovery

On Business and above, CallMerlin can send up to 3 automation suggestions per week in Slack (opt-in). No automatic execution: you decide per suggestion.

What you see in Slack

• Short explanation of why the suggestion is useful
• Buttons: Create draft, Not now, Snooze 1 wk

Activating a draft

After "Create draft", ask Merlin in any channel:

• "What automations do I have?"
• "Show my draft workflows"
• "Activate the draft [name]"

Your PIN needs Compose workflows via chat/voice to activate a draft.

See Workflow Discovery for enabling and privacy.

---

Learned facts

Merlin remembers information you tell him and uses it in future conversations.

Saving facts

• "Remember that our standard payment term is 14 days"
• "Remember that Jan de Vries is our contact at ABN AMRO"
• "My favourite meeting room is the Blue Hall"
• "Remember that we always close at 4pm on Fridays"

Retrieving facts

• "What do you know about our payment terms?"
• "Who is our contact at ABN AMRO?"
• "What did I tell you about Fridays?"

Deleting facts

• "Forget what you know about payment terms"

Practical tip

Teach Merlin your company-specific information. The more facts Merlin knows, the better and faster he can help you. Think of: standard prices, contacts, business rules, preferences.

---

Alerts

Alerts are proactive notifications. Merlin periodically checks a condition and sends you a notification when it's true.

Setting up via voice or chat

• "Set an alert: notify me if invoices older than 30 days are outstanding"
• "Alert: warn me if the number of draft invoices exceeds 10"
• "Notify me if a deal hasn't been updated for more than a week"

Viewing alerts

• "What alerts do I have?"
• "Show my active alerts"

How alerts work

1. You create an alert rule (via the dashboard or via voice/chat)
2. Merlin checks the rule at the set interval
3. If the condition is true, you receive a notification via email or Slack
4. The rule enters snooze to prevent repeated notifications

Practical tip

Alerts only send a notification (email or Slack). They do not start a workflow automatically.

Useful flow:

1. Set an alert for "invoice overdue > 30 days"
2. When notified, say in Slack: "run collections workflow for these invoices"
3. Or create a separate scheduled collections workflow that checks daily

You stay in control, without Merlin running actions unprompted.

---

Call logs

All conversations with Merlin are logged. You can review transcripts in the dashboard.

What you see

• Date and time
• Duration (minutes vs. billed)
• Source (phone, webcall, chat, desktop, Slack, Teams)
• PIN user
• Full transcript, including which actions Merlin performed

Filtering

• Filter by date range, PIN user or source
• Toggle between "Minutes" (raw duration) and "Billed" (what you pay)

Practical tip

Use the logs to learn which questions work best. If a colleague asked a complex question that was perfectly answered, copy that phrasing.

---

Insights

Insights shows KPIs and trends from your connected tools (accounting, CRM, project management). Your administrator sets this up; you use it via chat or the dashboard.

Ask via chat

• "How is our revenue this week?"
• "Are there deals that need attention?"
• "Give me an overview of outstanding invoices"

Dashboard

Open Insights for daily or weekly reports, sparklines and Generate now after a new connection.

Practical tip

Combine Insights with a board: say daily brief for a morning overview, then drill into one metric from Insights.

See Insights for supported connections and plans.

---

Boards

Boards are interactive overviews in chat: KPIs, charts and action buttons from your connected tools.

Triggers (type or say)

• daily brief / dagstart – today's KPIs
• cash position – outstanding and aging
• account health + client name – pipeline, invoices, meetings
• support queue – open tickets and SLA
• pipeline standup – today's deals and stuck items

Triggers work in NL, EN, DE, FR and ES.

Per channel

Practical tip

Start your day with daily brief. On mobile, tap Open board for the full overview in the browser.

See Boards for all triggers and sharing.

---

Lead Lookup

Search businesses by name, category or location and save them to your CRM.

Searching

• "Find dentists in Rotterdam"
• "Search hotels near Schiphol with at least 4 stars"
• "Find restaurants in Utrecht without a website"
• "Accountants in Antwerp with more than 50 reviews"

Saving

• "Save this business to my CRM"
• "Create a contact for this dentist"
• "Add these 3 leads to HubSpot"

Practical tip

Combine Lead Lookup with your sales workflow: "Search web design agencies in Amsterdam, filter for those without a website (yes, they exist), and save them as leads." Merlin handles the entire process in one command.

---

File upload

Upload images and documents in chat for AI analysis.

What can you upload?

• Images (JPG, PNG): screenshots, business cards, handwritten notes, invoice photos
• Documents (PDF, TXT, CSV, DOCX, MD, JSON): invoices, contracts, reports, spreadsheets

Maximum 10 MB per file, up to 5 files per session.

How to upload

Click the paperclip icon next to the chat input, or drag a file into the chat window. Merlin analyses the content and asks what you want to do with the results.

Save to a case (permanent)

By default a chat upload disappears after the session. For a dossier you hand off:

1. Upload the file (paperclip or drag & drop)
2. Say: "Save this to case [title]" or create a case first and say yes to the attachment question
3. The file is actually stored on the case, with a shareable link for case participants (valid 15 min)

Maximum 10 files per case, each max 10 MB. Same types as above.

Practical tip

Upload an invoice PDF and say: "Book this invoice in Exact Online." Merlin reads the data, extracts amount, date and supplier, and creates the entry.

---

Knowledge playbooks

A knowledge playbook is a stored lesson from a closed case: symptom, cause, fix and prevention. Merlin searches these when someone says "not working" or "error".

Chat examples

• "Moneybird shows an error on invoices, have we solved this before?"
• "What was the fix for an expired HubSpot token?"

Escalation in short

1. L1: Merlin searches the knowledge base and explains
2. L2: case + note what you already checked
3. L3: hand off to Support with context

See Knowledge playbooks for how procedures enter the knowledge base.

---

Direct Messages

Send messages to colleagues via @mentions, directly in the CallMerlin chat. No AI for the message itself; the chat session still counts as the chat forfait (1 min).

Sending messages

• Type @ in the chat input and start typing a colleague's name
• Select a name from the autocomplete dropdown
• Type your message and send

Group messages

Type @Sales or @Support to reach everyone in a group at once.

Inbox

• Unread messages show a badge on the inbox icon
• Click to open the inbox with all messages
• Mark individual messages or everything as read

Practical tip

Use @mentions when you want to ask a colleague about an invoice you just looked up via Merlin. You stay in the same chat, no context switch to Slack or email.

---

Slack channel

Type @CallMerlin followed by your question in a Slack channel or DM. Merlin replies in a thread with data from your connected tools.

Examples

• @CallMerlin how many open invoices do I have?
• @CallMerlin create a task: quote to De Zon Bakery
• @CallMerlin run my morning workflow

Billing

Each new Slack chat session (after 10 minutes of silence) = 1 minute. See Slack channel.

---

Teams channel

Type @CallMerlin followed by your question in a Teams channel. Merlin replies in the channel.

Examples

• @CallMerlin which deals expired this week?
• @CallMerlin show my tasks
• @CallMerlin summarize this conversation

Billing

Same rule as Slack: new session after 10 minutes of silence = 1 minute. See Teams channel.

---

Slack and Teams: summarize conversations

Merlin does not listen passively in team chats. You always start with @CallMerlin in Slack or Teams.

After a discussion in Slack

1. Go to the thread where your team discussed
2. Type @CallMerlin summarize this conversation
3. Follow-up questions in the same thread within 10 minutes stay in the same chat session:
   • @CallMerlin what are the action items?
   • @CallMerlin create tasks for each action item

Another channel or longer history

If Slack is connected and your admin has enabled Read messages for your PIN:

• @CallMerlin read #sales and give advice
• @CallMerlin what was discussed today in #support?

For summarize commands in the thread, Merlin automatically reads up to 50 messages from that conversation.

Billing

Each new Slack or Teams chat session (after 10 minutes of silence) = 1 minute. See Slack channel.

Practical tip

Combine summarizing with tasks and workflows: summary first, then turn action items into tasks, then run a week-closing workflow.

For video meetings (Zoom/Teams) or a live recording (app/desktop), see the Meeting summaries chapter above.

---

CallMerlin as AI Personal Assistant

Hands-free work

Use Merlin via voice while driving, walking or when your hands are full. Check your calendar, dictate tasks, check invoices, search businesses, all without touching your phone.

In meetings

After Zoom/Teams: wait for the transcript, then ask for the summary. Face-to-face without a transcript: open Record meeting in the app or desktop. Then: "Create a task for each action item: Jan calls the supplier, Petra sends the quote, I schedule the follow-up." Merlin creates three tasks with the correct assignments.

Between meetings

In the 5 minutes between two appointments: "How are my outstanding invoices?" or "Are there deals that need attention this week?" Merlin gives an overview in seconds.

End of day

"Run my end-of-day workflow" and Merlin gives you a summary: what was done, what's planned for tomorrow, are there urgent matters that need attention.

---

Tips for effective use

1. Be specific. "Search invoices" is less effective than "Which invoices from this month are still unpaid?"

2. Use natural language. You don't need to memorise commands. "Hey Merlin, can you check if there are any open quotes?" works perfectly.

3. Combine features. The power lies in combining: search → filter → save → create task → set alert. All in one conversation.

4. Get Merlin to know you. The more facts you tell Merlin about your business, the better the answers become. Start with your 10 most-used business rules.

5. Build workflows gradually. Start with a simple 2-step workflow. Once it works, expand. After a week you'll have a set of workflows that saves you hours per week.

6. Use alerts proactively. Don't wait until you discover that invoices are overdue. Let Merlin warn you.