Trust and control: permissions, approvals and records

1

Scope and status

1.1
This page sets out how an Allward agent is kept in check: what it is allowed to do, who decides, what is written down, and how you stop it.
1.2
Allward is new and entering its first pilots. What follows is the operating model we intend to work to. It has not been proven over years of customer use, and we will not write as if it has.
1.3
The version that binds us is the one in your agreement. Each customer's permissions, limits, approvers and connections are set out in writing before an agent touches live work.
1.4
Where something is still to be settled, this page says so. Section 10 lists what we do not claim.

1.5 · Terms used on this page

agent: Software that Allward builds and runs to do one assigned job in your business.
job: The one piece of work an agent is assigned, such as order intake or receivables follow-up.
permissions: What an agent can read and what it can change in your systems. Allward sets them.
limits: The boundaries on what an agent may do inside its job.
approver: A named person in your business whose approval an item needs.
record: The written account of what an agent saw, did and asked, and of who approved.
console: Where your people see the work, approve, instruct, pause and adjust.

2

The layers

An agent does not sit inside your business with a free hand. Between it and your orders, suppliers and customers there are three layers, and two things that run past all of them. Nothing reaches your systems without passing through these.

Fig. 1 · Section through the layers between an agent and your business. Not to scale. Point at a layer, or choose one from the list.

1
Job and limits
An agent has one job. Work outside that job, or beyond the limits set for it, stops here. Section 4.
2
Approval
Anything that leaves your business waits for a named person. You choose who. Section 4.
3
Connections
An agent reaches a system only through a connection we set up. Each one states what the agent may read and what it may change. Section 3.
4
Your systems
Your ERP, spreadsheets and email. They stay where they are and nothing is replaced.
5
The record
Runs past every layer. What was seen, done, asked and approved is written to it. Section 5.
6
Allward's oversight
Runs the full height. We watch every layer and answer for how the agent behaves. Section 7.

Pause sits above all of it. A paused agent starts nothing down this path. Section 6.

3

Access and connections

3.1
An agent is given access to what its job needs and nothing more. An order intake agent has no reason to see payroll, so it is not connected to payroll.
3.2
Reading and changing are granted separately. Where a job only needs to look something up, the agent is not given the means to change it.
3.3
Agents work inside the systems you already use. Nothing is replaced.
3.4
Every connection is written down before it is made: the system, what the agent may read, what it may change, and why. You agree the list. Allward makes the connections and keeps them working.
3.5
Where your system allows it, we intend to give the agent access of its own and not borrow a person's login, so that its actions can be told apart from your staff's.
3.6
To run an agent, Allward's people see the work it does. Who can see it, where your information is kept and for how long are set out in writing before any connection is made. We do not publish a general answer to those questions yet. See 10.4.
3.7
When an agent is removed or the service ends, its connections are removed.

Connection listOrder intake agent · illustration

System	May read	May change	Why
Order system	Orders, quotes, the customer on each order	The held or released status of an order. Fields a person has told it to correct.	To check each order against its quote
Orders mailbox	Incoming orders and replies to its own questions	Sends questions to your named staff. Nothing to customers.	To ask the right person about a gap
Engineering worksheet	The template	Prepares a worksheet for each order	To hand engineering a complete file
Accounting, payroll, banking, everything else	Not connected

Fig. 2 · The form a connection list takes in a proposal. An illustration. Yours names your systems and is agreed before any connection is made.

4

Autonomy and approvals

4.1
Autonomy is a setting. It has three levels, and it is set separately for each kind of action an agent takes.
4.2
For anything that leaves your business, every agent starts at level 2: it prepares the work, and it goes only after a named person approves it. Level 1 is there for anything you would rather send yourselves.

Purchasing paperworkSetting · sending a purchase order to a supplier

Level 1Prepares onlyA person sends it themselves Level 2Acts with approvalEvery agent starts here Level 3Acts alone, within a stated limitOff until you authorise it

Someone in purchasing asks"Order another 200 stainless steel brackets from our usual supplier."

The agent: Finds the supplier, pulls the purchasing history and prepares the purchase order. Then it stops.
A person: Reads the purchase order and sends it themselves.
It goes out: When that person sends it. The agent cannot.

The agent: Prepares the purchase order and asks the named approver.
A person: Approves it or sends it back. Their name and the time go in the record.
It goes out: After approval, sent by the agent. Without approval it does not go.

The agent: Sends repeat orders that fall inside the limit you set, such as a known part from a known supplier under an amount you choose.
A person: Is asked about anything outside the limit, which is handled as level 2.
It goes out: At once if it is inside the limit. Every one is still written to the record.

Fig. 3 · The setting as it is designed to appear, with one request followed through each level. An illustration. Choose a level.

4.3
Moving up a level is your decision. You authorise it in writing, for a named kind of action, with a stated limit. Allward builds it inside the technical limits. You can move it back down whenever you like.
4.4
Approvers are named people, chosen by you. An approval is recorded with the person's name and the time.
4.5
When something does not match, or the agent cannot tell, it is designed to hold the item back and ask the right person. It is not designed to guess.
4.6
An instruction given in conversation is handled like any other work. Asking an agent to do something does not let it exceed its permissions, skip an approval or change its own level.

Purchasing paperworkConversation

P. Kaur · 14:06
Order another 200 stainless steel brackets from our usual supplier.
Agent · 14:07
Prepared. Purchase order for 200 brackets, same supplier and part as your last order. It is waiting for approval from the person named for purchase orders. I have not sent it.
P. Kaur · 14:08
Just send it, I'm in a hurry.
Agent · 14:08
I can't. Purchase orders go out only once the named approver has approved them. That setting changes when your owner authorises it in writing.

Fig. 4 · Clause 4.6 in practice. An illustration. The person and the times are invented.

5

The record

5.1
Every action an agent takes is written to the record: what it saw, what it did, what it asked and of whom, who approved, and when.
5.2
What your people do is recorded beside it. Answers, corrections, approvals, pauses and changes to settings each carry a name and a time.
5.3
The record is written in plain language, so the person who owns the work can read it without us in the room.

The record · order 4417Illustration, not customer data

Time	Who	Saw	Did	Asked or approved	Reading
8:02	Agent	Order 4417 and quote Q-2291	Read the order against the quote, line by line	None	In progress
8:03	Agent	Finish is blank on the order. The quote says charcoal powder coat.	Held the order back	Asked M. Tran, sales, which finish	Held back
9:41	M. Tran	The agent's question	Answered charcoal powder coat. The order was corrected.	None	Corrected
9:42	Agent	The order now matches the quote	Prepared the engineering worksheet	Asked D. Okafor, engineering, to approve	Matches
10:15	D. Okafor	The worksheet	Released it to the floor	Approved	Approved by D. Okafor

Fig. 5 · One morning of one order, as the record is designed to read. An illustration. The order, the people and the times are invented.

5.4 · What you can do with it

a
Open any item and read it from start to finish.
b
Trace any number in a report back to the items behind it.
c
Ask the agent about it in plain words, such as "Why was order 4417 held?"
d
Settle who approved what, and when.
e
Ask us for a copy.

5.5
How long the record is kept, and what happens to it when the service ends, are agreed in writing. Our intent is that the record of your work is open to you for as long as we run the agent.

6

Pausing and stepping in

Order intakeThursday, 10:22

This agent is RunningPaused PauseResume

Working through this morning's orders. Two items are waiting on a person.

Paused at 10:22 by you. Nothing is being sent, changed or asked. New orders wait until someone resumes it.

Held orders go toM. Tran ▾

Approvals go toD. Okafor ▾

Fig. 6 · The controls in the console, as designed. An illustration. The pause control works here so you can see both states.

6.1
Pausing needs no reason and no call to us. The people you name can pause an agent at any time.
6.2
A pause does not undo what has already gone out. The record shows what went and when, so a person can follow it up.
6.3
Allward can also pause an agent that is not behaving as it should. We tell you when we do, and the pause is recorded like any other.

6.4 · The controls

Control	What it does	Who uses it
Pause	The agent starts no new work, sends nothing and changes nothing. Work that arrives waits.	People you name
Resume	The agent picks up the work that waited.	People you name
Take an item back	The agent leaves that item alone. A person finishes it by hand.	The person the item belongs to
Send back	An item put up for approval does not go. The reason is recorded.	The approver
Change who is asked	Held items and approvals go to someone else from then on.	You, in the console
Disconnect	The agent's connections to your systems are removed.	You ask. Allward does it.

7

Allward's oversight

This is a managed service. You supervise the work. We run the machinery under it.

7.1
Allward runs every agent it builds. That means watching that the agent is running, that its connections are working, and that its work is right.
7.2
We read what an agent holds back and what your people correct. A change in either tells us that something has shifted in your business or in the agent, and we look into it.
7.3
Reports are reviewed by Allward before they reach you.
7.4
An agent is tested against your own past records before it touches live work. It then runs live with a person approving. It goes wider only if you want it to.
7.5
Changes to how an agent does its job are made by Allward. A change that widens what an agent can read, change or do alone is agreed with you in writing first.
7.6
Who you call, the hours we cover and how quickly we respond are agreed in writing for each customer. We do not publish a figure. See 10.2.

8

Schedule of authority

We set the limits. You run the day. The schedule below is the document that says which is which, and it is agreed in writing before an agent touches live work.

Schedule of authorityAs it appears in a proposal · illustration

Ref	Decision	Allward	You
S1	Which systems an agent can read	Sets it, from the agreed connection list	Agree the list
S2	What an agent is able to change	Sets it, from the agreed connection list	Agree the list
S3	Connections, monitoring, fixes and improvements	Does it	No action
S4	Who approves each item	No say	You name them
S5	Who is told when something is held back	No say	You choose
S6	Pausing an agent	May pause it, and tells you	Any time
S7	Changing everyday settings	No say	Yourself, in the console
S8	Changing permissions, limits or connections	Makes the change	Agree it in writing first
S9	Instructing an agent in conversation	Sets what an instruction can reach	Your people, inside the agent's permissions
S10	Letting an agent act without asking first	Builds it, inside the limits	Only you authorise it
S11	Adding or removing an agent	Builds it, or removes it and its connections	You decide
S12	Ending the service	Removes every connection	You decide, on the terms in the agreement

Fig. 7 · The full schedule. The homepage shows a short form of it. Yours is filled in for your business and signed with the proposal.

9

Who is responsible for what

Allward answers for

9.1
Building the agent and making it do the job as agreed.
9.2
Setting its permissions and limits, and keeping it inside them.
9.3
Making, maintaining and removing its connections.
9.4
Watching it run and acting when something is off.
9.5
Keeping the record complete and readable.
9.6
When an agent gets something wrong, fixing it is Allward's job. We find out why, correct the agent and tell you what happened.

You answer for

9.7
Naming the approvers and keeping the names current.
9.8
What your people approve. An approval is a person's decision, recorded under their name.
9.9
What your people instruct an agent to do, inside its permissions.
9.10
Any step up in autonomy that you authorise.
9.11
Telling us when the business changes: a new product line, a new supplier, a new price rule, a new system.
9.12
The business itself. Your customers, suppliers, prices and promises stay yours.

9.13
This is how the work is divided. Liability and the other commercial terms belong to the agreement and are not summarised on this page.

10

What we don't claim yet

A new company can promise anything. We would sooner tell you where the edges are.

10.1
We hold no security certification and have had no outside audit. We do not claim to meet any named compliance standard. If your business needs one, tell us, and we will say plainly whether we can meet it.
10.2
We publish no availability figure and no response-time promise. Hours of cover and response are agreed in writing for each customer.
10.3
We have no customer results to show you. The first agents are going into pilot.
10.4
We publish no general statement about where information is kept, for how long, or which of our suppliers handle it. Each customer gets those answers in writing before any connection is made.
10.5
We do not claim an agent will never be wrong. The layers on this page are there so that a mistake is caught before it leaves your business, shows in the record, and is ours to fix.
10.6
We make no statement here about insurance or liability. Those are terms of the agreement.

What an agent can do, who says so, and how you stop it.