AI assistance

schakl. runs no AI service of its own and sells no credits. You connect your own account at Anthropic, OpenAI or a server that speaks the OpenAI API, and every AI feature in the platform runs through that one key, that one budget and that one usage meter. With nothing configured, no AI control is drawn anywhere in the app.

Where to find it

Instellingen → AI (Settings → AI), in the Integraties (Communication & integrations) group: provider, key, model, features, house style, budget, speech and usage.
The Assistent (Assistant): the sparkle icon at the top right of the bar, on every page.
The Schrijfhulp (Writing assist): the sparkle icon in the toolbar of every rich text field.
The Urenhulp (Time assist): the Snel toevoegen (Quick add) field above the entry form on Uren (Hours).
Brief me and AI-rapport (AI report): two buttons on the client page.

AI falls under the commercial licence; see Licences.

Setting it up

Open Instellingen → AI. You need the AI-instellingen beheren (Manage AI settings) permission, which admins hold by default.
Pick a Provider: Anthropic, OpenAI or OpenAI-compatibel (eigen server) (OpenAI-compatible, own server). The last one is anything speaking the OpenAI chat API at an address of your own.
Paste your key into API-sleutel (API key). It is stored encrypted and never played back: next time it reads “Er is een sleutel opgeslagen; laat leeg om die te behouden” (a key is stored; leave empty to keep it), and leaving it blank keeps it.
Fill in Basis-URL (Base URL) only for OpenAI-compatible, for example https://ai.example.com/v1. Saving without it is a validation error on that field.
Leave Model empty for the provider’s default, or type one yourself. The field is free text so a new model needs no new release of schakl.; Modellen ophalen (Fetch models) pulls your provider’s current list in as suggestions.
Tick what you want under Functies (Features), optionally fill in Huisstijl (House style) and Maandelijks tokenbudget (Monthly token budget), and press Opslaan (Save).
Press Verbinding testen (Test connection). It round-trips a small request through the stored settings; on a failure the provider’s own error text is shown verbatim.

The four features

Each feature is its own checkbox with an Eigen model (optioneel) (Model override) box beside it, so you can put a fast model on the time assist and leave the larger one for writing.

Assistent. The sparkle icon in the top bar opens the Assistent slide-over, where you ask about your own clients, projects, tasks and hours (“How many hours did I log this week?”). On a client, project or task page it inherits that record, so “this client” resolves. Answers carry source chips that deep-link to the records they came from. The assistant is deliberately read-only: it looks things up and answers, it never creates or changes anything. And it only sees what you may see.

Schrijfhulp. Every rich text field (client, contact, project, task, interaction, invoice and quote texts, task and subscription templates, and long-text custom fields) carries a sparkle icon with: Verbeteren (Improve), Inkorten (Shorten), Uitbreiden (Expand), Spelling & grammatica (Spelling & grammar), Zakelijke toon (Business tone), Informele toon (Informal tone), Vertalen naar Nederlands / Engels (Translate to Dutch / English) and Schrijf uit (Write out). The result appears separately first, and you choose Vervangen (Replace) or Invoegen (Insert). Whatever you put under Huisstijl (up to 4,000 characters, e.g. “write informally, address the reader as je, keep sentences short”) is prepended to every writing request.

Urenhulp. On Uren you type one line into Snel toevoegen, for example “gisteren 14:00-16:30 website Jansen, homepage overleg”. The server looks up your own clients, projects and tasks and prefills the entry form with them; saving is yours. Vul mijn dag aan (Fill in my day) compares your work schedule with your approved leave and what you already logged, and suggests draft rows for the gap from tasks you demonstrably worked on that day. Nothing there is saved without your click either.

Briefing & rapporten (Digest & reports). On a client page, Brief me summarises that client’s recent activity, with source chips. AI-rapport drafts a monthly report you edit in the editor and save as a record. This is the light version in the core; the full report with a branded PDF, a schedule and sending is the reporting module.

Dictating instead of typing

Speech to text needs a credential of its own, because Anthropic (the default provider) has no transcription service. Instellingen → AI carries a Spraak naar tekst (Speech to text) block for it:

Spraakaanbieder (Speech provider): Uit (Off), OpenAI or OpenAI-compatible. Anthropic is deliberately absent, because that setting could never work. On Uit your chat provider is reused, which only resolves if that is OpenAI or a compatible server.
API-sleutel voor spraak (Speech API key), Basis-URL (compatible only), Spraakmodel (Speech model, empty means whisper-1) and Maandbudget audio (seconden) (Monthly audio budget in seconds). Audio is counted in seconds rather than tokens, so it gets its own budget.

A microphone then appears beside Snel toevoegen on Uren: Inspreken (Dictate), speak, Opname stoppen (Stop recording), and the transcript lands in the field. Reading it back is the whole point — Dutch proper nouns are exactly what a recogniser gets wrong, and “Janssen” instead of “Jansen” silently matches no client at all.

The microphone is drawn only when all four hold: a speech service is configured, Urenhulp is on, you may write time entries, and the browser is allowed to record. That last one requires https://. A recording runs to at most 60 seconds; too long, or an unsupported format, is a clean error rather than a half-transcribed line.

Budget and usage

Maandelijks tokenbudget is a soft cap per calendar month; empty means unlimited. The Verbruik (Usage) panel shows this month’s requests and tokens per feature, with a bar that turns amber at 80% and red at 100%. Over the cap, the app says “Het maandelijkse AI-budget is bereikt.” (the monthly AI budget has been reached) with a Toch doorgaan (Proceed anyway) button, so an urgent question does not strand on a limit you set yourself.

Usage records counts and labels only. The text of a question or an answer is stored nowhere in schakl.

Permissions

Permission	What it opens	Held by default
`ai.use`	Using the AI features: assistant, writing assist, time assist, briefings and dictation	Administrator, Member
`ai.settings.manage`	Instellingen → AI: provider, key, features, budget, test and usage	Administrator
`time.entry.write`	Additionally required to dictate, because the transcript becomes a time entry	Administrator, Member (own entries)

Clients with a portal login are not given ai.use, on purpose: AI reads across the very records a client role is scoped away from.

Good to know

A feature you just toggled can take up to half a minute to appear for colleagues: the list of active features is briefly cached.
The model name is free text, so a typo is not a validation error but a provider error on first use. Verbinding testen brings that forward.
Relative dates in the time assist match your day: they resolve in the organisation’s timezone and against the day you are actually looking at, not the server’s clock.
If your sentence says nothing about billable, the field stays empty and the project’s own setting wins. It is never quietly defaulted to non-billable.
Names are matched literally. “Jansn” finds nothing. What you yourself logged in the last thirty days is weighed in, so Tuesday’s client is usually recognised anyway.
Dictation works only in the Snel toevoegen field on Uren today, nowhere else.
AI-configuratie verwijderen (Remove AI configuration) at the bottom of the page takes every AI feature away until a new key is entered. The usage history is kept.
An expired licence stops generation, while the settings screen and the usage history stay readable.