How to ask Canopy Coworker for what you need, check what it gives back, and fix a request that didn’t work — it follows what you write, not what you meant.
Available in the open beta on the Standard, Plus, and Premium plans, to anyone with the Coworker permission.
👉 Beta: Coworker is in open beta. Turn it on in Settings > Experimental Features > Canopy Coworker.
Why It Matters: The difference between a useful answer and a wasted session is usually the request. A few habits — naming the client and tax year, asking for a table, checking the count against a Canopy screen — get you results you can act on during busy season instead of results you have to redo.
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Brief Coworker Like a New Team Member
Write your request the way you'd explain a task to a new staff accountant on their first day. Say what you want, which records it covers, and what the result should look like.
What you want done: find, list, count, draft, create or update.
Which records: the client, tax year, status, service item, team member or date range.
What you want back: a table with the columns you need, a count, a short email draft, or a CSV.
Instead of | Try |
Open tasks for Smith. | Show open tasks for client John Smith for tax year 2025, with due dates and assignees, as a table. |
Who still owes us documents? | Which clients have a 2025 tax task in "With client" status and an incomplete document checklist? Show the client, the in-charge and the due date. |
Help me do renewals. | Draft 2026 renewals for my monthly bookkeeping clients with a 5% increase. I'll review each draft before anything goes out. |
👉 Best practice: Plain sentences work. You don't need special wording or a formula, just one clear goal per request.
Give It the Details It Can't Guess
Coworker only knows what's in your request and in Canopy. When something is left out, it fills the gap with its own assumption instead of the one you had in mind.
Name the client, engagement or task. Coworker doesn't use the page you opened it from, even when you open it from a client record.
Name the team member, even when it's you. "Reassign Sarah's open tasks to Mike Torres" works better than Reassign these to me.
Say which tax year and which entity. For multi-location firms, name the location; for a client with several entities, name the one you mean.
Use the words Canopy uses. Name the status, field or column as it appears on screen, such as Not Tax Ready - with client, rather than waiting on the client.
Pin down vague time frames. Clients added in the last 30 days works better than recent clients.
Treat the First Answer as a Draft
A first answer that's close but not right is normal. Fix it in the same session: Coworker keeps the earlier request and results, so you only have to say what to change.
Add a column for the in-charge.
Only show clients with no tags.
Leave out completed tasks.
Make the email shorter and more formal.
👉 Canopy Tip: Start a new session when you switch to a different goal, so the earlier request doesn't shape the new one.
Check the Results Before You Use Them
Coworker uses AI, and it can be wrong while sounding sure. Before you share a list or a number with a partner or a client, check it against something you already know.
Say exactly what you're counting. Coworker's idea of a "task" may include questionnaires, document checklists and client requests. Ask for tasks only, not checklists or questionnaires if that's what you mean.
Ask how it got the number. How did you count these? shows you what it included, so you can narrow the request.
Compare with a Canopy screen, such as the Tasks list or a report, or with a count you made yourself.
Check names and amounts on anything that will reach a client. Look at the Clients seen in this session before you approve an email.
👉 Good to know: You are still the professional. Review anything Coworker drafts before it goes to a client or a taxing authority, and follow your firm's AI policy.
Choose the Right Mode
The mode button below the task box sets whether Coworker shows you its plan before it makes changes. Plan mode shows you the plan first; Auto execute goes straight to work.
Either way, Coworker still asks before any taking action on tasks you set to Review required in your Trust settings.
Use Plan mode when | Use Auto execute when |
The change touches many clients or records, such as renewals or bulk task updates | You're asking a question or pulling a list |
It's the first time you're asking for this kind of change | It's a routine change to one record that you've made before |
It involves client communication or billing | You've already run the same request in Plan mode and it did what you expected |
You're setting up an automated job | The task is a one-off simple request and you've run it in Coworker before |
You're not sure how Coworker will read your request |
|
Review Plans and Approvals Carefully
In Plan mode, Coworker looks up what it needs, then stops and shows its plan in the Review Plan panel above the task box. Nothing changes until you approve it.
Read each step under Plan steps. Check the clients, dates and amounts.
To change the plan, edit the steps in the Plan steps box, such as removing a step you don't need.
Click Approve plan and start actions to let Coworker carry out the plan.
To change direction instead, click Tell coworker what to do instead and type what you want. Coworker skips the steps you didn't approve.
👉 Canopy Tip: The same care applies to each Security review required card. It explains in plain English what Coworker wants to do; read that and the Clients seen in this session before you click Allow once.
Coworker no longer asks again for each repeat of an action you've approved. If you still approve the same safe action in every session, ask an admin about setting it to Always allow rather than clicking through without reading.
Ask Coworker What It Can and Can't Do
Coworker gives a straight answer about itself, and it's the fastest way to find out whether a task is worth starting.
What can you do? lists the kinds of work it handles across clients, tasks, files, billing and automations.
What can't you do? lists what it won't do, what it does only with your approval, and its practical limits, such as working only with your Canopy data.
Can you [draft engagement letters for my new clients]? What would you need from me? checks a specific task before you invest time in it.
👉 Best practice: Ask before a long or multi-step task, not halfway through it. Then try a small version to confirm.
Start Small and Build Up
Complete Coworker Onboarding first. What you tell Coworker about your role and your firm shapes every answer after it, and onboarding doesn't use credits. See How do I set up Canopy Coworker with Coworker Onboarding? ⚠️ Link once published.
Start from a suggested task, such as Pre-Call Prep or Workflow Status, on the Coworker page. They're built for common firm work, so they're a reliable first request.
Keep one goal per session. A focused session is easier for Coworker to follow and easier for you to find later.
Try a request on one client before many. When it works, widen it, and make it an automated job only after it has run well by hand.
Save requests that work. Keep a shared list of your firm's best requests so the whole team starts from what already works.
👉 For requests to start from, see Prompt Bank: What Can I Ask Canopy Coworker?
Troubleshooting
Coworker seems stuck:
Thinking and a running time mean it's still working, and requests across all of your firm's data can take a few minutes. If it stopped without finishing, type continue. If that doesn't help, start a new session with a narrower request.
Coworker says it can't do something you expected it to:
Rephrase once with the specifics, such as the client, the field and the result you want. If it still can't, ask What would you need to do this?
The count doesn't match what you see in Canopy:
Ask How did you count these? Then repeat the request with exactly what to include, such as open tasks only, no checklists or questionnaires.
Coworker keeps asking follow-up questions:
Answer them, or tell it what to assume: Use the 2025 tax year for all of these. During onboarding, you can skip a topic and come back to it later.
The list is too big to work with:
Narrow the date range, such as one month instead of a year, or filter by status, team member or client group.
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Summary
Tell Coworker what you want, which records it covers and what the result should look like, then refine the answer in the same session. Check counts and client-facing work before you use them, and use Plan mode for changes that touch many clients, communication or billing.
Need help?
Contact Support or ask Penny, our AI Support Bot, for assistance.