Concepts
This guide explains the core concepts in Claras to help you navigate the platform and understand how different features work together.
Overview
Claras is organised around a simple hierarchy: your practice contains clients, and clients have meetings that generate file notes and documents. Understanding how these elements connect helps you work more efficiently and get the most from the platform.
The workspace is designed to mirror your existing advice workflow. You record conversations with clients and generate compliant documentation. Each step builds on the previous one, creating a complete record of your client relationships that becomes more valuable over time.
Practice Organisation
Your Practice
Your practice is the top-level container in Claras. It holds all your clients, meetings, templates, and team members under a single account. Practice-level settings flow through to all your documentation automatically, ensuring consistency across everything you produce.
Your business name, AFSL details, and team member information appear consistently across file notes and documents without manual entry. You manage these details through Settings → General, and changes apply immediately to new documentation.
Team Members
Team members in your practice have different roles that control what they can access and modify. Each role serves a specific purpose in your workflow:
Advisers create and manage client meetings, generate file notes, and produce documents. They have full access to all client features but cannot modify practice settings or billing.
Practice Managers configure templates, manage practice settings, and oversee documentation standards without incurring additional costs. They ensure consistency across your practice but don't typically create file notes themselves.
Assistants support advisers by managing client information, uploading recordings, and preparing meetings. They are perfect for support staff who help with meeting preparation and administration.
Account Owners have full adviser capabilities plus complete control over practice settings, billing, and team management. There's always at least one owner per practice.
Templates
Templates define the structure and content of your file notes and documents. They ensure consistency across your practice while adapting intelligently to each meeting's specific content. Every file note and document starts from a template, whether you use Claras defaults or create your own.
Meeting templates control what information gets captured in your file note and how it's presented. You can have different templates for initial meetings, review meetings, strategy sessions, or any other meeting type your practice conducts. Each template also includes a customisable agenda, and optional instructions on how Claras drafts your post meeting email.
Document templates work similarly but pull information from multiple meetings and sources to create comprehensive advice documentation. These templates include conditional logic that adapts content based on client circumstances, ensuring documents remain relevant without unnecessary sections.
Templates can be ordered to reflect your specific advice workflow, with different templates for each stage of the client journey from initial meetings through to ongoing reviews.
Client Management
Clients
Clients are the foundation of your work in Claras. Each client profile contains their meeting history, generated documents, uploaded attachments, and Clarity+ insights. Client information stays private and secure, with all personally identifiable information automatically redacted when processing occurs.
You can create clients individually or as couples. The way you name clients affects how Claras identifies speakers and processes information. Clear naming like "John Smith" or "John & Jane Smith" helps Claras accurately attribute conversations and maintain consistency across documentation.
Clarity+
Clarity+ provides intelligent insights about each client by analysing their meeting history and attachments. It automatically updates after each finalised meeting, building a comprehensive understanding of your client's situation, goals, and progress over time.
These insights appear on the client profile page and when you have a draft meeting, helping you prepare for meetings, identify opportunities, and maintain context across long client relationships. Clarity+ remembers important details so you don't have to, surfacing relevant information exactly when you need it.
Attachments
Attachments let you provide Claras with additional context about your clients. You can upload fact finds, previous statements of advice, email correspondence, or any other relevant documentation. Claras processes these files to extract key information while maintaining privacy through automatic PII redaction.
Uploaded attachments enrich Clarity+ insights and provide valuable reference material when generating documents. The more context you provide through attachments, the more accurate and comprehensive your generated documentation becomes.
Meetings & File Notes
Meetings
Meetings are the primary way you capture client interactions in Claras. Each meeting belongs to a specific client and follows a structured workflow from scheduling through to final documentation. You can create meetings in advance with agendas, record them live, or upload recordings afterwards.
Meeting status moves through several stages:
Draft indicates an upcoming or incomplete meeting
Processed means the file note has been generated and is ready for review
Finalised confirms all actions are complete and triggers updates to Clarity+
Recording Methods
Claras offers multiple ways to capture meeting audio, each suited to different scenarios:
Live recording captures audio directly through your browser during in-person meetings or when recording system audio from virtual meetings. You can pause and resume as needed, with real-time transcription showing you exactly what's being captured.
Upload recording accepts audio or video files from any source. Record using your phone, meeting platform, or dedicated recorder, then upload the file for processing. This method works well for phone calls or when you prefer using familiar recording tools.
Microsoft Teams integration imports recordings directly from your Teams meetings. Simply select the meeting from your calendar and Claras retrieves the recording and transcript automatically.
Upload transcript processes existing transcripts from other sources. While less common, this method helps when you already have meeting transcripts from other transcription services or AI meeting assistants.
File Notes
File notes are the structured documents Claras generates from your meeting recordings. They transform conversational transcripts into professional documentation that meets compliance requirements while remaining useful for both you and your clients.
Each file note follows the structure defined by its template but adapts to the actual meeting content. Claras identifies key discussion points, extracts relevant information, and organises everything into clear sections. The result is comprehensive documentation that captures what matters without unnecessary detail.
File notes remain editable after generation. You can refine specific sections with AI assistance, make manual corrections, or regenerate portions that need different emphasis. The refine tool lets you improve content with natural language instructions while maintaining template structure and formatting.
Client Emails
Alongside each file note, Claras generates a corresponding client email that summarises the meeting in accessible language. These emails follow your email template structure but focus on key outcomes, action items, and next steps rather than comprehensive documentation.
Email generation happens automatically with file notes, but you can regenerate emails separately if you make significant changes to the file note.
Documents
Documents combine information from multiple meetings and attachments to create comprehensive advice documentation. Unlike file notes that capture single meetings, documents like statements of advice or fact finds require information gathered across your entire client relationship.
The document generator works through an interactive process. You select relevant sections, provide specific instructions, and review generated content section by section. This approach gives you precise control while leveraging Claras' ability to synthesise information from multiple sources.
Working with AI
Claras provides AI tools that enhance your workflow while keeping you in control. These tools help you create, improve, and refine your documentation without replacing your expertise or judgment. The philosophy is simple: AI should accelerate your work and maintain consistency, but you always have the final say.
Every AI interaction in Claras is designed to be transparent and reversible. You see exactly what changes are being proposed before accepting them, and you can always revert or adjust the results. This approach ensures AI remains a powerful assistant rather than an opaque system making decisions for you.
Template Generation & Improvement
The template generator creates custom templates from natural language descriptions or existing documents. Describe the type of meeting and information you want to capture, and Claras will generate a structured template optimised for that purpose. You can also paste existing templates from Word or PDF files, and Claras will recreate them in the correct format while preserving their structure.
The template improver refines templates based on your feedback from actual file notes. When reviewing a processed meeting, you can suggest improvements directly from the file note. Claras analyses your feedback and shows a side-by-side comparison of the current template versus the improved version, plus a preview of how your file note would look with the changes applied. This iterative approach lets you perfect templates through natural feedback rather than manual editing.
Refinement Tools
The refine tool helps you improve specific sections of file notes after generation. Select any portion of text and provide instructions in plain language about what needs changing. Claras will generate new content while preserving your template's formatting and structure. You can preview proposed changes before accepting them, try different instructions if needed, or discard suggestions that don't meet your needs.
This same regeneration capability extends to client emails. After making changes to a file note, you can regenerate the email with updated information or adjust the tone while maintaining accuracy.
Version Control & Safety
Every change to templates are tracked automatically through comprehensive version history. You can see who made changes, when they occurred, and exactly what was modified through line-by-line comparisons. Previous versions can be restored instantly if you need to revert changes or recover earlier sections.
When using the template improver, you see green and red highlighting that shows exactly what will change before applying updates. The system asks for confirmation at each step, preventing accidental modifications.
Templates improved through AI retain compatibility with manual editing. You can use the advanced editor to make precise adjustments, then continue using AI improvement tools without conflict. This flexibility means you're never locked into one approach and can use the right tool for each situation.
Last updated 21st August 2024 by Connor