FAQ
Straight answers about Pilla
Find out what Pilla is, how workflows run, what it connects to, what it costs and how your data is handled.
Pilla overview
- Pilla is AI work management for deskless teams. You turn day-to-day processes into visual workflows, your team follows them on any device, and Pilla checks completed work and handles configured follow-up. Managers keep judgment, coaching and control while Pilla handles the routine coordination that used to mean constant chasing.
- AI work management is software for coordinating work where AI handles routine management tasks inside the workflow. With Pilla, teams follow the process on any device while Pilla checks completed work and handles configured follow-up. Managers remain responsible for judgment, coaching, exceptions and the standard being set.
- 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 is the capability Pilla uses to handle routine coordination inside work management. Instead of only recording tasks, Pilla can brief your team with the right context, check work as it comes in, decide what should happen next and take configured follow-up actions. These AI automations start on Pro with Pilla's own data and tools. Expert extends them to connected third-party services.
- 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 and require evidence. On Pro, Pilla can brief the team, judge what they submit and take follow-up actions inside Pilla. On Expert, those automations can also read from and act in connected third-party tools.
- 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. Pilla adds the judgement and follow-through a static checklist cannot, so the work does not just get recorded, it gets driven.
- Pilla is the AI built into Pilla. On Starter, it builds and edits workflow templates with you. Pro adds AI briefings, decisions, rules and actions that use Pilla's own data and tools. Expert also lets Pilla read from and act in connected third-party services. Together, those capabilities handle the briefing, 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 Pilla can draft a whole workflow for you from a short prompt.
- Start in the playground, build a workflow, then save it to create your account. Starter and Pro both begin with a 14-day cardless trial and every trial receives Pro features. Bring your team on and test AI workflow building and Pilla automations. At the end, an Admin chooses Starter at £49 a month or Pro at £99 a month to continue. Expert is £199 a month and adds third-party AI tools.
- Describe the routine to Pilla 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 Pilla as you work. Support is included during the 14-day trial and on every paid plan. Pro and Expert add priority support.
- 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 is AI work management?
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 Pilla, the AI assistant?
Do I need to be technical to use Pilla?
How do I get started?
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 Pilla action. You can also describe the workflow to Pilla 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, audio, signatures and file uploads. And Pilla 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 has Pilla gather information and brief the team on the step before they start. A decision has Pilla judge an answer against your rule and choose what happens next. An action has Pilla carry out a task when the step is complete. These steps start on Pro using Pilla data and tools. Expert also lets briefings and actions use connected third-party services, such as Slack or Google Calendar.
- Yes. The playground lets you build a workflow on the canvas without an account: start from a prompt and watch Pilla assemble it. When you want to keep it, hit Save my workflow and create your account in the same step. Your workflow comes with you and starts a 14-day trial with every Pro feature. No card is needed. At the end, an Admin chooses paid Starter or Pro to continue.
- 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 Pilla 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 Pilla 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 Pilla 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. Pilla 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 Pilla'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 Pilla step: briefing, decision or action?
Can I try building before I sign up?
Do you have ready-made templates?
Can Pilla 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 Pilla act on its own, or am I in control?
Can I test what Pilla will do before it runs for real?
Running workflows
- When you assign a workflow to a team, or privately to individual people, 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. When you choose who a workflow runs for, switch to the People tab and pick individuals instead of teams. Each person gets their own private run that only they, the manager who assigned it, and account admins can see. It works well for one-to-one check-ins, reviews and onboarding checklists, and it can repeat on a schedule like any other workflow.
- 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. There is no cap on how many you add and no charge per person on any plan, so the whole team can be on Pilla from day one. Your bill follows the workflows Pilla processes for you, not how many people or AI automations you use. Adding or archiving people does not change it.
- 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. On Pro and Expert, any Pilla action steps fire and carry out their follow-ups inside Pilla. Expert actions can also run in connected third-party tools. Managers can review the run in the web app, with logs of every change along the way.
- Pilla has built-in team messaging: direct messages and group chats, with photos and files. Because it lives alongside the work, messages carry the context of what your team is actually doing, and Pilla can post into it too.
- Yes. As part of a workflow, Pilla 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 Pilla.
How does a workflow get to my workers?
Can I assign a workflow to one person?
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 Pilla post messages to my team?
Do workers get push notifications?
Integrations and API
- Pilla connects to more than 40 tools, including Slack, Google Calendar, Google Drive, Shopify and WhatsApp. Pilla 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 Pilla 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, on Expert. That is what a third-party Pilla action does: when your team completes a step, Pilla carries out a task in a connected tool for you, like posting a Slack message or creating a calendar event. You decide which action sits on which step. Pro includes Pilla actions that use native Pilla tools instead.
- If a tool is not on our list, get in touch and tell us what you use. We are adding to the set of supported tools regularly, so it helps us prioritise. If your team has developers, you can also connect through the Pilla API to move work in and out of your own systems.
- For most integrations, no. You connect the tool by signing in to it once and approving access, the normal way you would connect any app. A few tools connect instead with an API key you paste in once, and Pilla checks the key works before saving it.
- 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 Pilla is acting through.
What does Pilla connect to?
Does Pilla post as me or as Pilla?
Can Pilla 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 processed workflows, not users, which are unlimited and included on every plan. Starter is £49 a month with 500 included, then 5p each; Pro is £99 with 1,000 included, then 7.5p each; Expert is £199 with 1,500 included, then 10p each. Starter and Pro begin with a 14-day cardless Pro-feature trial. One processed workflow is one workflow Pilla processes for one team on one occasion. Automations have no separate usage charge.
- A processed workflow is one workflow Pilla processes for one team on one occasion. If the same scheduled opening routine goes to five teams, that is five processed workflows. If one team runs it every day for 30 days, that is 30. The number of steps, people and AI automations inside it does not create additional billed units.
- Most of what you do in a day. Building or editing workflows, whether you do it yourself or ask Pilla, does not count towards billed usage. Neither does adding people, creating teams, chatting, previewing on the canvas or using AI automations available on your plan. People are never counted, so headcount does not enter the sum. The billed unit is a processed workflow: one workflow Pilla processes for one team on one occasion.
- Three: Starter at £49 a month, Pro at £99 a month and Expert at £199 a month. Users are unlimited and included on all three. Starter includes 500 processed workflows then charges 5p each, Pro includes 1,000 then charges 7.5p each, and Expert includes 1,500 then charges 10p each. Starter and Pro have a 14-day cardless trial with every Pro feature. Expert adds third-party AI tools.
- No. Starter and Pro both begin with a 14-day free trial, and no card or Stripe subscription is created when you sign up. Every trial receives Pro features, whichever plan you selected. When the trial ends, an Admin must choose and pay for Starter at £49 a month or Pro at £99 a month before the team can continue. The trial does not convert to paid automatically.
- The 14-day trial is free, needs no card and gives every Starter or Pro signup all Pro features. After that, Starter is £49 a month with 500 processed workflows included, then 5p each. Pro is £99 with 1,000 included, then 7.5p each, and keeps the AI automations you tried. Expert is £199 with 1,500 included, then 10p each, and adds third-party AI tools. Users are unlimited and included on every plan.
- Expert is £199 a month and includes 1,500 processed workflows, then charges 10p for each additional workflow. It includes everything on Pro and adds third-party AI tools, so Pilla can read from and act in connected services. Expert records are not subject to automatic plan-retention deletion while the account remains active, unless its contract says otherwise, and the plan is arranged by talking to Pilla.
- AI automation activity is not a separate billed usage unit or charge. The plan controls what Pilla can do: Starter uses AI to build and edit workflows, Pro adds automations using native Pilla tools, and Expert adds third-party AI tools. Processed workflows are the usage unit that appears on your bill. Starter includes 500, Pro includes 1,000 and Expert includes 1,500 each month.
- There is no published annual discount. Starter is £49 a month and Pro is £99 a month, both billed monthly after their 14-day free trial. Expert is £199 a month and can be arranged on an annual contract with invoice or purchase order billing, so contact Pilla if that payment arrangement suits you better.
- On an active paid plan, Pilla keeps running and adds extra processed workflows to that month's bill. Starter includes 500 then charges 5p each, Pro includes 1,000 then charges 7.5p each, and Expert includes 1,500 then charges 10p each. Allowances reset each month rather than rolling over. The 14-day trial has no card or usage bill; when it ends, an Admin must start Starter or Pro before the team can continue.
- Your monthly bill is the plan price plus processed workflows beyond its allowance. At 3,500 processed workflows, Starter costs £199, Pro costs £286.50 and Expert costs £399. At 10,000, Starter costs £524, Pro costs £774 and Expert costs £1,049. The first 14 days are a cardless Pro-feature trial with no bill. AI automations do not add a second usage charge, users are included, and VAT is added to paid bills.
- Starter and Pro billing is monthly and flexes with your processed-workflow volume. Workflows past the plan's included allowance are added to that month's invoice at its published rate. Account Admins can use the billing portal in the web app to update the card, read invoices or cancel. Paid access continues through the period already paid for, then the app asks an Admin to start a paid plan again. Expert changes follow the account's agreement with Pilla.
- There is no standing discount on the published prices, though checkout accepts a promotion code if you have been given one. Starter and Pro include a 14-day cardless trial before you choose a paid plan. Non-profits and other special situations are welcome to get in touch and we will look at it. Expert, at £199 a month, can use annual contracts and invoice or purchase order billing where that suits your procurement better than paying monthly by card.
- Prices exclude tax. On a paid plan, Stripe calculates VAT or sales tax from your billing location, adds it to the plan fee and any processed-workflow overage, and shows it on the invoice. Prices and invoices are in GBP, so your bank or card provider may convert the payment into your local currency. If your business is tax-exempt, contact Pilla before paying.
How does pricing work?
What counts as a processed workflow?
What doesn't count towards my usage?
Are there plan tiers?
Do I need a card to start?
What do I get for each price?
What does the Expert plan add?
Is there a usage limit on Pilla?
Is there an annual discount?
What happens if we use Pilla more?
What will my monthly bill look like?
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.
- Pilla 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. Pilla 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, never sold, and only shared with the vetted providers that run the service, never for their own purposes. 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.
Who can see my data?
How is my data kept separate from other companies?
What data can Pilla see?
Do you train AI on my data?
Is Pilla GDPR compliant?
Where is my data hosted?
How do you handle my workers' personal data?
Can I export or delete my data?
Still deciding whether Pilla fits?
See how Pilla keeps routine work moving, or ask Liam about the process you want your team to run without constant chasing.