About Ask Astro

1. What is Ask Astro?

Ask Astro is the AI workspace for small business teams. It connects the systems your business runs on, gives your whole team the same picture, and helps you get the work done: the reports, the dashboards, the documents and the regular processes that eat up your week.

The result is that you know where your business stands, and the work comes off your desk.

And because we are a small team too, you get real people beside you from the first conversation on.

2. Is Ask Astro for me, or for my whole team?

Both. Ask Astro is built for teams, so you can use it on your own, but it gets more useful when your people join you.

• Work together in one place. Co-edit a report, a plan or a proposal in the same chat, with AI helping and everyone in the same place.
• Share the same picture. Your team shares the same business context, so nobody is working from a different version of the truth.
• Keep control. Permissions decide who sees what.
• Make standard work the same every time. Playbooks keep regular work running the same way for everyone.

The more your team uses it, the more it knows about your business, and the more useful it gets.

3. What does Ask Astro actually do?

You ask for what you need, and Ask Astro does the work. Think of it like asking a Chief of Staff.

• Build dashboards. Say "show me monthly revenue and expenses" and Ask Astro builds it.
• Run reports. Get a regular report with comments on what has changed since last time.
• Draft and finish documents. Start a draft, bring in your team to review it, and have it ready to send once you approve it.
• Research leads and write outreach. Build a prospect list and draft the emails.
• Repeat a process. Turn something you do the same way each time into a playbook, then share it with your team.
• Keep an eye on things. Ask Astro watches your key numbers and flags what needs your attention.

You stay in charge. Ask Astro prepares the work and you approve it.

4. Do I need any technical or AI skills?

No. You do not need to write prompts, learn special commands or involve IT. Ask the way you would ask a colleague.

Most customers have a useful result in their first hour. If you are not sure where to start, type "how do I get set up?" and Ask Astro walks you through it. And if you would rather talk to a person, we are happy to help.

You already know your business. Ask Astro takes care of the rest.

How it is different

5. How is Ask Astro different from ChatGPT, Claude or Copilot?

Those tools are good for many things, and you may already use them. Ask Astro is built for something more specific: a small business team getting its work done together.

Ask Astro gets the work done. It carries the job through to the end, from the dashboard to the finished report to the email ready to send.

Here is what is different:

• Made for teams. Your whole team works on the same thing together, with the same context. Most AI tools give each person a private thread, so the work ends up scattered.
• All your data, connected. Ask Astro connects to systems like Xero, HubSpot and Shopify, and to the niche systems that other tools do not reach, such as industry-specific software and your master spreadsheet.
• Not just chat. Dashboards, workflows and tasks get done just by asking. The more you use it, the more it knows your business.
• Built for small business. The setup is quick, there is nothing technical to learn, and the Ask Astro team works alongside you.
• Your data stays yours. Your information is kept in its own secure environment and is never used to train AI models.

General AI gets you some of the way. We cover the specific parts that make your business yours.

Getting connected

6. How does Ask Astro connect to my business systems?

Most connections take a few minutes. Choose your tool, sign in, and your data comes in.

• Ready-made connections include Xero, HubSpot, Shopify, Google Drive, Notion, Google Ads and Meta Ads, plus email and calendar.
• Drag and drop anything that is not in a system, such as a spreadsheet, PDF or policy document.
• Niche and industry systems. If your business runs on specialist software, tell us. We build new connections as part of the service.

You do not need an IT team. If something you rely on is not on the list, let us know and we will look at connecting it for you.

7. What does the Ask Astro team do for me?

We work alongside you. You will not be handed to a bot or a call centre.

• Setup with you. We help you get connected and get your first result fast, although this usually takes less than an hour!
• Help when you are stuck. You can talk to the Ask Astro team, a real person, by email or in a call.
• New connections and tools. If your business needs something that is not there yet, we will help you get it.
• Listening. Tell us what matters to your business and we shape how Ask Astro helps.

We are a small New Zealand team but our customers are everywhere, and we want Ask Astro to be as useful to you as we can make it.

For advisors

8. How do advisors benefit from Ask Astro?

If you advise small businesses, Ask Astro helps you be there for your clients more often, and at the moments that matter.

Your knowledge often reaches clients in short bursts: a monthly report, a quarterly review, a call when something goes wrong. Ask Astro puts your knowledge in front of your clients when they need it, not only when a meeting is booked.

• Share your approach. Build your own methods and questions into playbooks, so your clients get your thinking every time.
• Work from the same picture. You and your client see the same numbers in a shared workspace.
• Step in early. Monitoring and alerts show you when something needs attention, before it becomes a problem.
• More touchpoints, without more hours. Support more clients without adding to your own workload.
• Share market research that shows your clients you are thinking about their business.

One accountancy cut a strategic planning process from more than 10 hours to 30 to 60 minutes, with a better result for the client.

Several of our partners uses this model: the advisor and the small business work in the same system, and the advisor can give more pointed advice because the basics are already visible.

Whether you are an accountant, business coach, consultant or board advisor, you can get started without any technical skills. Data is kept secure and separate for each client.

9. How do advisors and small businesses work together in Ask Astro?

Same information, different perspectives. You work in a shared space, and each of you is notified about what matters to you.

For example, one business coach has his own process and rhythm for working with clients. His playbooks are shared with his clients only. His clients use Ask Astro to see how their business is doing, and when it is time to update their coach, they do it in the same place.

When they meet, Ask Astro can help with supporting information and meeting notes. Actions and outcomes go into Ask Astro so it stays up to date, and it can remind both of you about tasks before you next meet.

Others have opted for a fully white labelled and customised advisory model on top of Ask Astro.

Price and security

10. How much does Ask Astro cost, and can I try it first?

One price for each plan, with unlimited AI usage included. There are no tokens to count and no usage surprises.

Plan	Price	Who it is for
Individuals	$70 NZD per month	One person, one organisation
Teams	$250 NZD per month	Up to 5 people, one organisation
Growing businesses	$700 NZD per month	Up to 15 people, one organisation. Extra people $45 a month each. Extra organisations $25 a month each
Bigger business	Talk to us	15 or more people, several organisations, custom pricing

All plans include all the core Ask Astro features, unlimited usage and email support. Growing businesses and bigger businesses also get unlimited viewers and commenters, white label options, customisable playbooks and dashboards, and priority support. Bigger businesses also get custom integrations, dedicated account management, and tailored onboarding and training.

Want to try it? Take half an hour with us to see what Ask Astro could do for your business, then try it for 30 days to see for yourself. There is no fixed term and no spam. We only ask that if it is not right for you, you tell us why, so we can make Ask Astro better.

11. Can you build something custom for us?

Yes. If the out-of-the-box tools do not fit, we will do the hard work to get you what you need, without massive costs.

• Custom connections to the specialist systems your business uses.
• Custom features and workflows that are impossible to find off the shelf.
• Custom AI solutions for a specific business problem, built on the same foundation as Ask Astro. We handle the technology, the setup, the training and the ongoing improvement.

You get fast results, no massive project, and no "not quite there" solutions. Talk to us about what you need and we will give you a proposal.

12. How secure is my business data?

Your data is kept in its own secure space, separate from everyone else's.

• Separate and encrypted. Each organisation has its own database, with its own encryption keys.
• Only you see your data. The system is built so each customer can only reach their own information.
• Never used for training. Your data is not used to train AI models. We use OpenAI and Anthropic models through their business interfaces, under terms that say so.
• Deleted when you leave. If you stop using Ask Astro, we delete your documents and everything we created from them, and we can remove them from backups on request.
• Test it yourself. You can run your own security review of Ask Astro.

Our security policies, data protection assurance and other supporting documents are available on request. You can also contact us at security@askastro.ai.