Ask Root: coming, not available yet
Ask Root will be a question box inside ProfitRoot. When it ships, ProfitRoot will compute every figure and Ask Root will only put it into words. Any answer containing a figure ProfitRoot did not compute will not be shown, and each figure will link to the view it comes from. Until then, connect your own AI assistant. It can read your store’s figures but cannot change anything, and it is free on every plan. How to connect one.
What Ask Root will not hold
A figure it does not hold will get no number from it: it will say what is missing and print no dollar. Some of these are on another view of ProfitRoot, and Ask Root will not read them from there. Each line is what it will answer.
- Operating profit, rent, payroll and overheads. That needs your rent, payroll and other overheads, and those are in QuickBooks or Xero. ProfitRoot has not read them, so there will be no figure here.
- Bank balance, cash on hand and runway. That needs your bank balance, and ProfitRoot does not read it, so there will be no figure here.
- Google Ads spend. Ask Root will not hold Google Ads spend, so there will be no figure here.
- TikTok spend. Ask Root will not hold TikTok spend, so there will be no figure here.
- Stock levels and stock-outs. Ask Root will not hold Shopify inventory, so there will be no figure here.
- Payouts. Ask Root will not hold Shopify Payments payouts, so there will be no figure here.
- Supplier balances. Ask Root will not hold supplier balances, so there will be no figure here.
- Customer acquisition cost. That needs new customer counts, and Ask Root will not hold them, so there will be no figure here.
- Lifetime value, repeat rate and payback. Those are cohort figures, not yet in Ask Root, so there will be no figure here.
- Site traffic and conversion rate. That needs site traffic, which ProfitRoot does not read, so there will be no figure here.
- Returns handling costs. Ask Root will not hold returns handling costs, so there will be no figure here.
- Email tool costs. Ask Root will not hold email tool costs, so there will be no figure here.
- App subscription costs. Ask Root will not hold app subscription costs, so there will be no figure here.
- Tax owed. That needs your tax filings, which ProfitRoot does not read, so there will be no figure here.
- Why a customer returned an order. ProfitRoot does not read return reasons, so there will be no figure here.
- Sales on Amazon. ProfitRoot reads Shopify orders and not Amazon sales, so there will be no figure here.
- Sales in a retail store. ProfitRoot cannot separate retail sales from your Shopify orders, so there will be no figure here.
- Competitors. That needs competitor data, and ProfitRoot holds no outside data, so there will be no figure here.
- Industry averages. That needs industry benchmarks, and ProfitRoot holds no outside data, so there will be no figure here.
- Costs you added only in this browser, such as carrier and fee files. Ask Root will read what this store has saved to ProfitRoot, and a figure not among it will not be shown, so there will be no figure here. If you added it in this browser, it is still on its own view.
What it will not do
The model will never compute a figure, so a question that needs one computed will be refused.
- Forecasts. Ask Root will report what happened: forecasts are out of scope, so there will be no figure here.
- What-ifs. Ask Root will report what happened and will not compute a what-if, so there will be no figure here.
- Advice. Ask Root will report what happened: advice is out of scope.
- A figure for a time it does not hold. Ask Root will hold figures for the period it names, and none for that period, so there will be no figure here.
- A currency conversion. That needs a currency conversion, which ProfitRoot does not compute, so there will be no figure here.
- A score for your business, or for itself. Ask Root will not give a score, for your business or for itself. It will word figures ProfitRoot computed.
- Confirming a figure from elsewhere. Ask Root will not confirm a figure from elsewhere. It will word figures ProfitRoot computed.
For how the figures themselves are checked, see the methodology.