Appearance
What is Pencel?
Pencel (pronounced "pencil") is a desktop app that takes care of the recurring work in your business. You tell it what you want looked after, such as finding government bids, clearing your inbox or keeping an eye on your books. Pencel does the groundwork on its own and brings you only the decisions that need you.
It is built for people who know the work but don't write code: owners, operators, business development leads, office managers and consultants.
In a hurry?
Jump to the Quickstart. Most people have a first real result within 15 minutes.
What you can do with it
- Find and win government contracts. Pencel searches federal and state bid sources, scores each opportunity against what you sell, and drafts a proposal when you decide to pursue one. See RFP Operations.
- Get your inbox under control. Pencel reads your Gmail, clears out the noise and drafts replies for the few messages that need you. Nothing is sent until you press Send. See Email Chief of Staff.
- Ask questions of your books. Get answers from your live QuickBooks data and have expenses drafted for you to approve. See QuickBooks Accountant.
- Hand off anything else that repeats. Describe a process in your own words and Pencel sets up a room for it. See Set up your own Room.
- Write documents, spreadsheets and slide decks with AI help, grounded in what Pencel knows about your company. See Documents.
How it works, in one minute
Team lists your AI teammates. Each one has a room where you work with it. For example, Rory finds RFPs in RFP Operations, and Max sorts your inbox in Email Chief of Staff.
Each room looks after one area of your business, like bids, email or bookkeeping. It works like a Slack channel shared with the AI teammate who owns that work. You message it the way you would message a colleague: ask a question, drop in a file, or give it a standing rule like "always flag anything over $50K". Its results show up in the room as cards you can act on.
A room can also work on a schedule. It can check your inbox every 30 minutes or scan for new bids every morning, and it stays quiet when there is nothing new.
Home is where everything that needs you comes together: decisions to make, drafts to approve and questions only you can answer. You don't have to visit every room to know what's going on.
Knowledge is what Pencel knows about your business: what you sell, your certifications, your policies and your documents. Every room draws on it, so you explain your business once instead of in every conversation.
Read How Pencel fits together for a tour of each part.
You stay in charge
Pencel does the reading, sorting, scoring and drafting. You make the calls.
- It asks before it acts. Sending an email, posting to Slack, changing a record or moving money all wait for your approval. In a room, anything that moves money or deletes something asks every single time. See Approvals and permissions.
- You can see what it did. Every piece of work keeps a record of what Pencel read, what it did and what it cost.
- You set the budget. Each room can have its own monthly spending limit. See Control what you spend.
- Your data stays on your computer. Your workspace, documents and history live on your machine. Only the requests to the AI model, and to any services you connect, leave it. See Data handling.
How Pencel is different
| Compared to | The difference |
|---|---|
| A chat assistant (ChatGPT, Claude) | A chat assistant forgets your business between conversations and does nothing until you ask. Pencel remembers your company, runs on a schedule and brings you finished work. |
| Automation tools (Zapier, Make) | Rule-based automation moves data between apps but can't judge whether a bid is worth pursuing or which email matters. Pencel reads, reasons and drafts, then asks you before anything important happens. |
| Hiring help | Pencel handles the repetitive groundwork every day without getting bored of it. It frees you and your team for the decisions that need a person. |
What Pencel is not (yet)
- It's for one person. Pencel is a single-user app today. Workspaces shared by multiple people and collaboration are on the roadmap.
- It runs on your computer. Rooms work while Pencel is open and your computer is awake. If your laptop is closed, scheduled work picks up the next time you open it.
- It never submits or pays on its own. Pencel drafts proposals and expenses. You submit and approve them.
Models and plans
Pencel works with leading AI models from Anthropic, OpenAI and Google. You can use Pencel's managed models on a subscription, with no API keys to manage, or bring your own key. New accounts get free starter credits so you can see a real result before you pay anything. See Accounts, plans and credits and Supported models.