Welcome to Distill! Think of this as your personal business intelligence hub. Whether you have stacks of PDFs or spreadsheets of data, Distill helps you find the patterns and get instant answers.

  • Artifacts = Words (Unstructured data)
  • Datasets = Numbers (Structured data)
  • Dashboards = Visual Results


The “On” Switch (Activation) 

Before you can use the magic, you have to tell the system you want it.

  • The Job: Go to your Billing page.
  • The Action: Find Distill and click the “Try” button.
  • The Result: A new sidebar menu option called “Insight Distillery” will appear. This is your new home for data-driven decisions.


Give the Distillery a Brain (Artifacts) 

If you want the AI to answer questions about your business, you have to give it something to read.

  • The Job: Find your PDFs, manuals, or “How-To” guides.
  • The Action: Go to Artifacts and drag those files or folders in.
    Or, in Files & Docs, select the items to send to Distill. Then, click manage and send.
  • The Result: The AI now has a “private library” of your specific business knowledge. It won’t guess; it will look it up in your files through a dashboard’s Ask Widget. (Choosing the Right Visualization- Charts & Widgets)


Feed the Distillery Your Numbers (Datasets) 

The AI is great with words, but it also loves math. It needs your data to build charts.

  • The Job: Identify a Form you use a lot that captures business data you’d like to reveal patterns of, a Data Source with numerous rows, columns, and a variety of data types, or a file from your local device that similarly contains data needed for your chosen visualization (Choosing the Right Visualization- Charts & Widgets).
  • The Action: Go to Datasets, and “Create a New Dataset” from the desired source or define a custom one manually.
  • The Result: Datasets are created and now ready to be turned into pretty Dashboard pictures.

The “Publish” Rule: If you are connecting a Form to Distill, your data won’t appear until you click Publish. Changes made in “Draft” or “Test” mode are kept separate to keep your final reports clean and accurate. Once you hit Publish, your data will automatically flow into your Distillery.


Build Your Masterpiece (Dashboards) 

This is where the magic happens. Open a New Dashboard and use the tools on the left to build your view:

  • The “Ask” Tool: Drag this onto your board to chat with your documents. You can ask things like, “What are the key maintenance milestones for 2024?” and the AI will answer based on your uploaded PDFs.
  • Charts & Graphs: Drag a Bar chart over. Select your data set for the chart to use. Then choose a category for the X-axis with the “Group By” property, and what you want to measure on the Y-axis with the “Metrics” property, and finally, if your data lends itself to it, split category data into segments with the “Break Down By” property.