Frequently asked questions
Everything about what Pilla is, how you build and run workflows, what it connects to, what it costs, and how your data is handled.
Pilla overview
- Pilla is a work automation platform for teams of frontline and deskless workers. You design your day-to-day work as visual workflows, your team runs them from their phones, and Poppi, the AI built into Pilla, handles the briefing, checking, deciding and chasing that used to eat a manager's day. Building, running, tracking and automating work all live in one place.
- Any business where the work happens on the ground rather than at a desk, from a single site to a multi-location operation. It suits owner-managers running one team and operations leaders standardising work across dozens of locations. If your work is repeatable and needs to be done right every time, Pilla fits.
- Pilla is built to work across industries, not for one sector. Hospitality, retail, care, cleaning, facilities, logistics, warehousing, construction, clinics, gyms and more all run on it. The common thread is teams doing repeatable work in the real world that has to be consistent and accountable.
- Work automation means the routine parts of running frontline work happen on their own. Instead of just listing tasks, Pilla briefs your team with the right context, checks the work as it comes in, decides what should happen next, and takes follow-up actions in your other tools. Task and team management track work. Pilla runs and automates it.
- Both, on different surfaces. Managers and operators build and oversee workflows on the web app. Frontline workers carry out the work on the mobile app. Owners and operations leaders get visibility across every team and location without chasing people for updates.
- Pilla replaces the patchwork most frontline teams stitch together: paper checklists and SOP binders, spreadsheets, a separate training tool, and a group chat for work. It pulls building the work, running it, tracking it and chasing it into one product. It connects to the tools you keep, like Slack and Google, rather than replacing them.
- Build opening and closing routines, audits, inspections, onboarding, compliance checks, incident handling, and any repeatable process. Attach photo, video and written guidance to each step, require evidence, and have Poppi decide what happens next based on what your team submits. Then let Poppi brief the team and act in your connected tools when the work is done.
- A checklist app shows a list and records ticks. Pilla runs the work: steps can unlock in order, demand photo or signature evidence, branch based on an answer, and trigger AI actions when complete. Poppi adds the judgement and follow-through a static checklist cannot, so the work does not just get recorded, it gets driven.
- Poppi is the AI built into Pilla. It briefs your team with context pulled from your connected tools, judges the answers they submit against your rules, decides what happens next in a workflow, and carries out actions for you when a step is done. It does the reminding, checking and chasing that used to fall on a manager.
- No. You build workflows by dragging steps onto a canvas, and you can set up or edit them just by describing what you want in plain English. There is no code, and Poppi can draft a whole workflow for you from a short prompt.
- You can start building straight away, with no card needed. Every account's first 500 workflow steps each month are free and the whole product is included, so there is no separate trial to manage. Set up your teams, invite your people, and build your first workflow without paying anything.
- Describe the routine to Poppi in plain English and it drafts the workflow for you, or start from a ready-made template and adjust it. You can attach your existing photos, videos and written instructions to the relevant steps. Most teams have their first few routines live the same day.
- The Resources hub has guided courses, help docs and ready-made templates to get you going, and you can ask Poppi as you work. If you need a hand from us, get in touch through the contact page.
- Yes. Pilla runs an expert program for consultants and agencies who set up and run Pilla for several businesses. You can switch between the accounts you manage from one login, each kept fully separate. Get in touch if you would like to join.
- Two things changed. Frontline teams now all carry a smartphone, so the work can live where the worker is. And AI got good enough to brief, judge and act reliably, which is what turns a checklist into automation. Pilla is built around both, rather than bolting AI onto an older task tool.
What is Pilla?
What kinds of businesses use Pilla?
Which industries is Pilla for?
What does work automation actually mean?
Who uses Pilla, managers or frontline workers?
What tools does Pilla replace?
What can I actually do with Pilla?
How is Pilla different from a checklist or SOP app?
What is Poppi, the AI assistant?
Do I need to be technical to use Pilla?
How do I get started? Is there a free trial?
How do I move my existing checklists or SOPs into Pilla?
Where do I learn Pilla and get support?
I manage several clients. Can I run multiple accounts?
Why now? Why has this not existed before?
Building workflows
- A workflow is a piece of work your team runs, like an opening routine or a safety check, built as a series of connected steps. The Canvas is the visual builder where you create it: you drag steps on, connect them, and decide how the work flows. It is the web-app screen where managers design everything their team will do.
- Open the Canvas and drag steps onto it, then connect them in the order the work should happen. Each step can carry instructions, photo or video guidance, an input for your team to complete, or a Poppi action. You can also describe the workflow to Poppi in plain English and have it built for you.
- Guidance steps with written instructions, photos or videos. Input steps where your team types text, enters a number, picks a time, chooses from options, ticks a checklist, or gives a rating. Evidence steps for photos, videos, audio, signatures and file uploads. And Poppi steps that brief, decide or act. Steps can be gated so the next one only unlocks when the last is done.
- Three kinds. A briefing step has Poppi gather information from your connected tools and brief the team right on the step before they start. A decision step has Poppi judge an answer against your rule and choose what happens next. An action step has Poppi carry out a task in your connected tools when the step is complete, like posting to Slack or updating a sheet.
- Yes. The playground lets you build a workflow on the Canvas without an account. You can start from a prompt and watch Poppi assemble it, then sign up when you want to put it in front of your team.
- Yes. There is a library of ready-made workflow templates covering common routines across different industries. Open one, see how it is built, and use it as the starting point for your own. You will find them under Templates in the Resources hub.
- Yes. Describe the routine you want in a sentence or two and Poppi assembles the workflow on the Canvas, with the steps, guidance and logic in place. You then tweak anything you want before it goes live.
- Yes. Alongside the Canvas you can tell Poppi the change you want, like add a photo step after cleaning, or ask for a temperature reading, and it edits the workflow for you. You do not have to build every change by hand.
- Yes. A Poppi decision step judges what your team submits against a rule you set and chooses the path: revealing extra steps, picking a branch, or simply carrying on. So a workflow can react to what is actually happening rather than running the same way every time.
- You are in control. Poppi only does what you design into a workflow: the briefings, decisions and actions you place on the Canvas, against the rules you set. It acts when a step runs, within the boundaries you have given it, not on its own initiative.
- Yes. You can preview a workflow and have Poppi's steps run for real against a test team, so you see exactly how it briefs, decides and acts before any of your live teams touch it. Adjust until it behaves the way you want, then publish.
What is a workflow, and what is the Canvas?
How do I build a workflow?
What step types can I add?
What is a Poppi step: briefing, decision or action?
Can I try building before I sign up?
Do you have ready-made templates?
Can Poppi build a workflow from a prompt?
Can I edit a workflow in plain English?
Can a workflow branch or make a decision mid-way?
Does Poppi act on its own, or am I in control?
Can I test what Poppi will do before it runs for real?
Running workflows
- When you assign a workflow to a team, it appears in the Pilla app on their phones, ready to run. You decide who gets it and when, including on a repeating schedule. Your team just opens the app and works through the steps.
- Yes. There is a mobile app for iOS and Android where your team does their work, plus a web app you can use from any browser. Managers can build and review from either a phone or a laptop.
- Frontline workers use the mobile app to run their workflows: following guidance, completing steps, and capturing evidence like photos and signatures where the work happens. Managers mostly use the web app to build workflows, review completed work, and see what is happening across teams. Either role can use either surface.
- You invite your people and they join with a simple login on their phone, with no setup or technical steps. Adding people is always free and there is no cap on how many you add, so everyone can be on Pilla from day one.
- They can log in through the web app in any browser and do all the same things. Nothing is locked to the mobile app.
- Yes. Set a workflow to recur, like every opening, every Monday, or on whatever pattern the work follows, and it appears for the right team automatically. You can also run one ad hoc whenever you need it.
- The completed run is recorded with everything your team captured, including timestamps, answers and evidence, so you have a full record. Any Poppi action steps fire, carrying out follow-ups in your connected tools. Managers can review it on the web app, with logs of every change along the way.
- Pilla has built-in team messaging: direct messages, group chats and announcements, with photos, videos and files. Because it lives alongside the work, messages carry the context of what your team is actually doing, and Poppi can post into it too.
- Yes. As part of a workflow, Poppi can send a message to the right team or channel, like flagging a failed check or confirming a job is done. The message lands in your team's Pilla app, where they see it with a push notification.
- Yes. Your team gets push notifications on their phone for new messages and for work they need to do, whether it is a direct message, a group chat, or a message from Poppi.
How does a workflow get to my workers?
Is there a mobile app? Which platforms?
What do workers do on mobile versus managers on web?
How do workers get added? Do they need accounts?
What if some staff do not have smartphones?
Can workflows repeat on a schedule?
What happens when a worker finishes a workflow?
How does my team communicate in Pilla?
Can Poppi post messages to my team?
Do workers get push notifications?
Integrations and API
- Pilla connects to over 100 tools, including Slack, Google Calendar, Google Drive, Shopify and WhatsApp. Poppi can read information from them to brief your team and carry out actions in them when work is done. You connect the tools you already use rather than switching anything out.
- Actions run under the account of the person who connected the tool, not as a Pilla bot. So a Slack message Poppi sends appears as you, and a calendar event shows you as the organiser. It is a uniform "your account did this" model across every integration.
- Yes. That is what a Poppi action step does: when your team completes a step, Poppi carries out a task in a connected tool for you, like posting a Slack message, updating a sheet, or creating a calendar event. You decide which action sits on which step.
- Often yes. On top of the built-in integrations, Pilla can trigger workflows from external events through webhooks, so an event in another tool, like a new order or a calendar event starting, can kick off a Pilla workflow. If you depend on a tool you do not see, get in touch.
- No. You connect a tool by signing in to it once and approving access, the normal way you would connect any app. There are no API keys to manage for the standard integrations.
- Yes. Pilla exposes its workflow capabilities through an API and an MCP server, so other systems and AI assistants can work with your workflows programmatically. Get in touch if you want access for a custom integration.
- One per service for each account: one Slack workspace, one Google account, and so on. Connecting a tool again cleanly replaces the old connection. It keeps it clear which account Poppi is acting through.
What does Pilla connect to?
Does Pilla post as me or as Pilla?
Can Poppi take actions in my other tools?
Can I connect a tool that is not on your list?
Do I need my own API keys?
Does Pilla have an API or MCP server?
How many connections can I have per tool?
Pricing and billing
- You pay for what you use: the workflow steps your team and Poppi run each month. There are no per-user fees and no plan tiers, so adding people is always free and the whole product is included. Your first 500 steps every month are free, and you only pay beyond that.
- A step is one element of a workflow run: an input or guidance step your team completes, or an AI step Poppi runs for you. You are charged per step beyond your monthly free allowance, on a scale where each step gets cheaper the more you run. The live per-step rates are shown on the pricing page.
- No. There are no Basic, Standard or Pro tiers and nothing is gated. Every account gets the entire product, Poppi included, and the only thing that varies is how many steps you run.
- No. You sign up with no card needed and your first 500 steps each month are free. You only add payment when your usage goes beyond the free allowance.
- Free, always: adding your whole team, the workflow builder, the mobile and web apps, team messaging, every step type, and Poppi. You pay only for the workflow steps you run beyond the first 500 each month.
- It works like a progressive tariff. The price is split into bands by monthly step volume, and each band's rate applies only to the steps that fall inside it, getting cheaper as you grow. You are never bumped to a higher price across all your usage for crossing a line.
- Yes, 25% off. You start on monthly, learn your typical usage, then pre-pay annually for the volume you actually run and save a quarter. Anything above your committed volume simply bills at the standard monthly rates. Get in touch when you are ready to switch.
- Nothing breaks. You are billed for the steps you actually run that month at the normal banded rates, and a quieter month costs less again. There is no fixed plan to outgrow or get stuck under.
- Your account shows the steps you have used so far this month and a forecast of where you are heading, so there are no surprises. If you are projected to go past the free allowance, Pilla flags it early.
- There is no minimum contract and no lock-in. Billing is monthly based on usage, so you can stop whenever you like, and you can move to annual billing whenever it suits you.
- The 25% annual discount is open to everyone. If you are a non-profit or have a particular situation, get in touch and we will see what we can do.
- Prices on the site are shown in GBP and your invoice is converted to your local currency. Any VAT or sales tax is added based on your location and shown on your invoice. If your business is tax-exempt, send us your exemption details and we will apply it.
How does pricing work?
What is a workflow step, and what does one cost?
Are there plan tiers?
Do I need a card to start?
What is free and what costs money?
How does the volume pricing work?
Is there an annual discount?
What if my usage spikes one month?
How do I see my usage?
How do I change or cancel?
Do you offer non-profit or other discounts?
How is VAT or sales tax handled, and what if I am exempt?
Privacy, security and data
- Only you and the people you invite to your account. Your data is yours, kept private to your business, and never sold or shared with third parties.
- Pilla is multi-tenant, and every account's data is isolated so one business can never see another's. Access is enforced at the database level on every request, not just hidden in the interface.
- Poppi only works with your own account's data and the tools you choose to connect. It uses that to brief your team, judge answers and take the actions you have set up. It cannot reach another business's data, and what it sees stays inside your account.
- No. Your data is never used to train AI models. Poppi uses it to do the work inside your account and nothing else.
- Yes. Data is encrypted in transit and at rest, stored in secure data centres, and never shared with third parties. You can delete any person's data at any time.
- Your data is stored on secure, reputable cloud infrastructure with encryption in transit and at rest. Get in touch if you have specific data-residency requirements.
- Your team's personal details are part of your account's private data, visible only to you and the people you invite, and never sold or shared. You control it, and you can remove a person and their data whenever you need to.
- Yes. You can export completed work and records from your account, and you can delete any person's data at any time. It is your data, and you stay in control of it.