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Setting Up a Program ​

This guide walks through setting up a custom Program from scratch — the describe → review → activate flow every custom Program goes through.

1. Start a custom Program ​

From Programs in the sidebar, click New Program and describe what you want it to do, the way you'd brief a new hire — what it's for, what it should watch or work on, and how often.

2. Review the proposed crew and responsibilities ​

Pencel drafts a plan: a small crew of named teammates (one of them the lead), and a set of responsibilities — the standing jobs those teammates will run on their own. Each responsibility comes with a proposed cadence (a schedule, or a trigger like "when new room work arrives").

This is an editable draft. Change a teammate's focus, adjust a cadence, or remove a responsibility you don't want — every edit creates a new revision, so nothing you had is lost while you iterate. Nothing runs yet.

INFO

Every Program also gets one responsibility you don't have to ask for: a built-in "Keep this room healthy" check owned by the lead. It only ever flags a problem for your review — it can't add tools, sources, teammates, or budget on its own.

3. Resolve readiness ​

Before anything can go live, Pencel shows a readiness checklist — one line per account or source a responsibility needs (a connected inbox, a specific QuickBooks company, a data source). Each line shows whether it's connected, verified, missing, or waiting on you to pick between multiple candidate accounts. Pencel never guesses on your behalf here — an ambiguous choice always waits for you.

Work through the checklist: connect what's missing, confirm what's ambiguous. Activation stays blocked until every required item is ready.

4. Activate ​

Once the checklist is clear, activate the Program. This locks in the crew and responsibilities you reviewed — the room's mandate — and starts each responsibility running on its own cadence.

5. What happens next ​

From here, the room mostly runs itself:

  • A responsibility that finds nothing worth reporting stays quiet — no message, just a clean record.
  • A responsibility that finds something posts the result right in the room, ready for you to read and act on.
  • You can pause or resume any responsibility later from the room's details, and revisit readiness if a connected account needs re-verifying.

What's next ​