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.
- Deskless businesses — hospitality, retail, care, cleaning, facilities, logistics, warehousing, construction, clinics, gyms and more — 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. Floor work and office or back-office routines (marketing, finance, office ops) can sit on the same canvas when they belong inside the workflow. 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. Pilla also checks every workflow and step over the last 30 days, suggests work optimisations from those checks, and can use connected 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. Pilla can brief the team, judge what they submit, take follow-up actions, check every workflow and step, and suggest work optimisations from those checks. Those automations can also read from and act in connected 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. It builds and edits workflow templates with you, checks and follows up while the work is open, including briefings, decisions and actions, and suggests work optimisations from those checks. It can also read from and act in connected 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.
- 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 the Help Centre's step-by-step guides, ready-made workflow templates and answers to common questions, and you can ask Pilla as you work. Email support is included on Pay as you go. Enterprise adds a named contact and a dedicated channel.
- 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.
- Yes, if you are an Admin. Open Settings in the web app and use the AI card to turn chat workflow data, chat actions, canvas AI steps, and work checks on or off separately. Turning a canvas step off stops the canvas offering a new one of that kind; Calculate stays available. Changes apply to everyone in the account after you save.
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 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?
Can I turn off Pilla AI features for my account?
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, extract, classify, score, calculate, decide, look or act. Steps can be gated so the next one only unlocks when the last is done.
- Pilla steps sit beside ordinary workflow steps on the canvas. A briefing has Pilla gather information and brief the team, or write a note for later steps. Extract pulls one value from a PDF or Word file. Classify picks one choice and Score picks one level from the value in front. Calculate applies a sum to a number or date. A decision has Pilla judge a written or chosen value and choose what happens next. A look answers yes, no or unsure from a photo, signature or sketch, then runs a follow-up on that answer. An action has Pilla carry out a task when the step is complete. These steps are included. Briefings and actions can also use connected 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. Nothing goes into a Pilla account until you choose Save my workflow. If you are new, that sets up your account and adds the workflow when you open the sign-in link we email you; if you are already signed in as a Manager or Admin, it saves straight to your account and opens on the canvas in the web app. New accounts start with a 14-day cardless trial of Pay as you go, or you can talk to us about Enterprise.
- 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. A Pilla look does the same for a photo, signature or sketch. A Pilla look, and a Pilla decision that sits beside a step, can answer yes, no or unsure, so you can send the unclear cases to a person instead of guessing. So a workflow can react to what is actually happening rather than running the same way every time.
- You are in control. On the canvas, you choose the briefings, decisions and actions and the rules that trigger them. You can also ask Pilla to build, edit or act through chat, within your plan and permissions. Actions in connected third-party tools requested through chat require your confirmation.
- 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.
- You choose. When a Manager or Admin deletes a tag on the Tags screen in the web app, Pilla asks where to move what already uses it. You can only move it to another tag in the same list. A workflow tag has two choices. **Past and started runs** covers work from today or earlier, and any later run someone has already started. **This workflow from now on** is the workflow template and runs already on the calendar that nobody has started. A step tag has the same split. **Steps on existing runs** stays with the past. **Steps on the current workflow** follows the template, including the copies of those steps on upcoming runs nobody has started. **This workflow from now on** and **Steps on the current workflow** need another tag in that list. Runs created later use the tag you choose. They do not keep the deleted tag. **Past and started runs** and **Steps on existing runs** can stay on **Don't update**, which leaves that work on the old tag. A user tag has one choice, **Move them to**, because a person either has the tag or does not. Pick **Don't update** there to leave people on the old tag. The deleted tag can no longer be chosen for anything new. Before you delete, look under the tag's name on the Tags screen. It shows how many live workflow templates, steps or people use the tag, or Not used if nothing does.
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?
What happens to my workflows when I delete a tag?
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. Choose a schedule, such as daily or every Monday, and Pilla creates a new workflow run for the teams you choose. If you move an existing repeating schedule to a later start date, Pilla may ask whether to keep or delete future runs that already exist before that date; runs with activity always stay available. You can also start workflows set to Run manually whenever you need them. If your trial ends without a paid plan, Pilla stops creating scheduled runs and you cannot start runs from your templates. An Admin needs to start a paid plan to use these options again. Your templates and existing runs stay saved.
- The completed run is recorded with everything your team captured, including timestamps, answers and evidence, so you have a full record. Pilla action steps fire and carry out their follow-ups, including in connected tools. Pilla checks the last 30 days for missed, late or rushed workflows and for step answers that repeat, miss the question, or avoid a clear call, and suggests work optimisations from those checks. 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 post to the workflow's team chat, post to a group chat you belong to, or send you a direct message, 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 supports connections to services including Slack, Google Calendar, Google Drive, Shopify and WhatsApp. Anyone can connect their own account and use it for personal workflow automations or ask Pilla to use it in chat. Pilla can read information or carry out the actions available for that service.
- Actions run under the account of the person who connected the tool. A Slack message Pilla sends appears as that person, and a calendar event shows them as the organiser. Pilla does not act as a separate bot account.
- Yes. Anyone can use their own connected account for a personal Pilla action attached to a workflow, or ask Pilla in chat to use it. Staff can edit only their personal automations, while Managers and Admins can also edit the shared workflow. Pilla asks you to confirm before a chat request sends or changes anything in another tool; saved workflow actions run at the point you set.
- 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. Each person usually connects a tool by signing in once and approving access, as they would with any app. A few tools use an API key instead, which is a code supplied by that service that lets Pilla connect to it.
- Yes. Pilla has an API and an MCP server, so other systems and AI assistants can work with your workflows. You can connect a compatible AI app by adding Pilla's MCP server URL and signing in when asked. For deliberate integrations you can use a Pilla API key instead.
- Each person can connect one account for each supported service. Other people in your Pilla account can connect their own account for the same service. Pilla uses the connection belonging to the person who set up the personal automation or made the chat request.
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. Pay as you go is £199 a month with 1,500 included, then 15p each. Enterprise is from £25k a year, and the allowance and any extra workflows are set in the contract. 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.
- Two. Pay as you go is £199 a month with 1,500 processed workflows included, then 15p each, on a 1 month commitment. Records are kept for 3 years. New accounts start a 14-day cardless trial of that plan. Enterprise is from £25k a year, and the allowance, extra workflows, data retention and commitment are set in the contract. Users are unlimited on both. Talk to us if you need Enterprise.
- No. New accounts start a 14-day cardless trial of Pay as you go. You can also try the playground without an account. When the trial ends, an Admin adds a card in the web app to continue on Pay as you go at £199 a month. Enterprise is arranged with us and uses contract billing.
- You can try the playground without an account. New accounts start a 14-day cardless trial of Pay as you go. Pay as you go is £199 a month with 1,500 processed workflows included, then 15p each. It includes the full product: AI builds and edits workflows, checks and follow-ups while the work is open, and work-optimisation suggestions. Enterprise is from £25k a year. The allowance is set in the contract, and it adds the larger-account terms on this page, including single sign-on, an uptime SLA and invoice billing. Users are unlimited on both plans.
- Enterprise starts from £25k a year. The processed-workflow allowance, any extra workflows, data retention and length of commitment are set in the contract. It includes everything on Pay as you go, and adds single sign-on, multi-entity management, account-wide audit logs, white-label branding, dedicated compute, custom functions, skills and integrations written for your operation, an uptime SLA, a custom contract and security review, onboarding and training, and annual invoice or purchase order billing.
- AI automation activity is not a separate billed usage unit or charge. Pay as you go includes AI that builds and edits workflows, checks and follow-ups while the work is open, and work-optimisation suggestions. Enterprise includes the same product, and the contract sets the processed-workflow allowance. Processed workflows are what appear on the bill. Pay as you go includes 1,500 a month, then 15p each.
- There is no published annual discount. Pay as you go is £199 a month, billed monthly, with a 1 month commitment. Enterprise can be arranged on an annual contract with invoice or purchase order billing. Talk to us if that suits you better.
- On Pay as you go, Pilla keeps running and adds extra processed workflows to that month's bill at 15p each, after the 1,500 included. The allowance resets each month rather than rolling over. On Enterprise, extra workflows follow the contract.
- Your monthly bill is the plan fee plus processed workflows beyond the included allowance. On Pay as you go, 3,500 processed workflows is £499 and 10,000 is £1,474. Enterprise starts from £25k a year, and the allowance is set in the contract, so the total depends on that agreement. AI automations do not add a second usage charge, users are included, and VAT is added to paid bills.
- Pay as you go is billed monthly by card and flexes with processed-workflow volume. Workflows past the 1,500 included are added to that month's invoice at 15p each. 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. If a trial ends or a subscription is cancelled without a new card, the account is locked out of starting and finishing paid work until an Admin adds a card again. Enterprise changes follow the contract.
- There is no published non-profit discount or other ongoing discount, but you can enter a promotion code at checkout if you have one. Enterprise can use annual contracts and invoice or purchase order billing if that suits you 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 Enterprise 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.