CellCog Spend Guide
Your AI employee can buy things for you with your own Link wallet: a book for the team, a train ticket, a conference pass, a part from a supplier. It puts the order together, sends the exact total to you in Link, and finishes checkout only after you approve. You approve every purchase yourself, in Link, at the exact amount and merchant. Link pays with a one-time card that works once, only at that merchant, for that amount, and for about 30 minutes.
Spend is off for every employee until you turn it on.
What You Need
- A Link account. Link is Stripe's wallet for paying online, and its agent wallet is available to people in the United States and Canada. Your cards stay in your Link wallet.
- Link connected to CellCog, once per organization. Open Spend (under Apps in the left sidebar), then Connect Link. You sign in to Link and allow CellCog to ask for purchases on your behalf. A connection belongs to the organization you are in when you connect it: it serves every employee you own in that organization. If you belong to several organizations, switch to each one and connect Link there; a wallet connected in one organization never pays for employees in another.
- Purchases are in US dollars for now.
Turning Spend On for an Employee
Open the employee's Settings app on the Employee Computer. The Spend section has:
- Let {Name} make purchases: off until you turn it on
- Per purchase cap (optional): the most this employee may request in one purchase. Blank means no cap
- Monthly cap (optional): the most this employee may spend in a calendar month, counted in your timezone. Blank means no cap
- Spent this month: what this employee's purchases add up to so far
Caps are blank by default on purpose: a flight or a conference pass can cost more than any default we could pick. Your approval in Link is the real check on every purchase; caps are an extra limit you add only if you want one. Until Link is connected, the section shows only Connect Link, which opens the Spend app. After you disconnect Link, the switch and caps stay as you set them and the section offers Connect again.
How a Purchase Works
- You ask. In chat, by email or on a task: "Order two copies of Working in Public for the reading group." Your employee buys only what you asked for or what is plainly part of the work you gave it
- Your employee prepares the order. In its own Browser it puts the items in the cart, picks shipping, and reads the final total on the checkout page, tax and shipping included
- It asks Link for approval. The request carries the merchant, the exact total, the items, and a few sentences on what it is buying and why
- Link notifies you. Link sends the approval request to you through its own app and notifications; CellCog sends nothing extra. You have 30 minutes to approve or decline. After that the request expires and your employee asks you before trying again
- On approval, your employee pays. Link issues a one-time card for that exact amount and merchant. CellCog passes it straight into the checkout form in your employee's Browser. It submits the order and records the confirmation. Screenshots your employee takes at checkout can show this one-time card; they stay with the chat like any other screenshot
- You see the result. Every step shows in the Spend app and as one line in the employee's chat
If you decline, your employee drops the purchase and does not ask again unless you tell it to.
The Spend App
The Spend app (under Apps in the left sidebar) is the one home for spending. Before Link is connected it shows four cards (connect Link, turn on spend for the employees you pick, approve each buy in Link, and how your employee pays once with a one-time card), an example of a purchase, and Connect Link at the top right. Once Link is connected it shows:
- This month: what your employees spent, how many purchases are waiting for you, and how many employees can buy
- Open purchases: one card each, at the top. While a purchase waits for your approval, Open in Link takes you to Link's approve page. You can Cancel any purchase that has not finished
- Purchases: the finished ones, newest first, with the items, the store, the employee, the amount, the status and the date. The five newest show first; Show all lists the rest
- Employees who can buy: each employee with spend on, its caps (Edit caps) and its spend this month. Turn on for another employee adds one
- Link wallet: the connected Link account, How it works and Disconnect
If Link stops answering, a red line at the top offers Connect again. After you disconnect, the page says so and offers Connect again; your employees' switches and caps stay as you set them. Each employee's Settings app has the same switch and caps under Spend.
Statuses you will see: Sending to Link, Waiting for approval, Waiting on Link (Link needs something first, for example a bank check), Needs a new request, Approved, Checking out, Bought, Declined, Not approved in time, Payment failed, Canceled, Not sent to Link.
What Your Employee Cannot Buy Yet
A one-time card works once, for the approved amount and merchant. So for now your employee does not handle:
- Hotels that charge a card at check-in or hold a deposit for incidentals
- Subscriptions and renewals, where the next charge needs the card again
- Purchases in currencies other than US dollars
For these, your employee tells you up front, finds and prepares what you need, and you pay yourself.
When a checkout asks for a bank security check or a captcha, your employee fills everything it can and sends you a link to its Browser so you can finish that one step.
Who Is Buying
You are. It is your money and your Link wallet; your employee acts for you only within the purchase you approved. CellCog is not a party to the purchase and never the payer. Questions about an order, a refund or a dispute go to the merchant, and about your card to Link or your bank.
What Is Stored
- A record of each purchase: the merchant, the items, the amount, what the employee wrote about it, every status change, the confirmation, and the card's brand and last four digits
- Your Link connection, encrypted, so CellCog can ask Link for approvals. Disconnect it any time in the Spend app
- Your real card never reaches CellCog. Checkout screenshots can show the one-time card, and when your employee pays in your own Chrome the one-time card is part of the chat. It stops working after this purchase
Disconnecting Link stops new purchases at once. Purchase records stay with the employee as history.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does my employee ever see my card?
Not your real card. Link issues a one-time card for the approved purchase, and CellCog places it directly into the checkout form. Your employee can see that one-time card in checkout screenshots, or as text when it pays in your Chrome; it works once, only for this purchase.
Can my employee pay in my own Chrome?
Yes, when Browse my Chrome is connected. Ask it to pay in your Chrome: after you approve in Link, it gets the one-time card and types it into the checkout in your Chrome, the same approval covering the fill and the Pay press. The card works once, only at that merchant and for that amount.
Can my employee buy something I did not approve?
No. Every purchase needs your approval in Link, at the exact amount and merchant. A card is locked to that amount and merchant and works once.
What if I miss the approval?
The request expires after 30 minutes. Your employee asks you before requesting again.
What if the price changes at checkout?
The card is locked to the approved total, so your employee cancels the old request and asks you again with the new total.
Do I need to set limits?
No. Caps are optional. Your approval in Link decides every purchase; caps are an extra limit for an employee if you want one.
Can several employees use my Link wallet?
Yes. You connect Link once per organization, then turn payments on for each employee you choose, each with its own optional caps and its own purchase history.
Is Spend available outside the United States and Canada?
Not yet. Link's agent wallet is available to people in the United States and Canada.
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