Getting started with Smartie AI

Smartie AI gives you instant, grounded answers to technical SMSF questions — drawn from authored Smarter SMSF content and approved reference material, available whenever you need it. This article covers everything you need to start using it well in about five minutes.

What Smartie is (and isn't)

Smartie is a technical support tool. It helps you resolve technical SMSF questions faster, draft file notes and client communications, and sanity-check your thinking against maintained Smarter SMSF material.

Smartie is not a replacement for professional judgement, and it does not provide licensed financial advice. Every answer is a starting point for your own analysis, not a substitute for it. You remain responsible for the advice and compliance work you deliver.

The two ways to ask

Everything in Smartie flows from one of two starting points. Both work; they suit different situations.

A quick tour of the Dashboard

• Dashboard — your home screen: the Ask bar, the six Smartie Squad agents, and your recently used and favourite prompts
• Chat History — every conversation you've had, saved and searchable
• Playbook — the full library of expert-written prompts, organised by topic
• Settings — your account and preferences
• Smartie Squad — shortcuts straight to each of the six specialist agents
• Your Library — a running count of the topics, prompts and reference documents available to you

Across the top you'll find Search (or press Ctrl+K) for jumping to any prompt or past conversation, a usage meter showing how much of your monthly Ask allowance you've used, and notifications.

Asking a good question

Smartie handles plain English well. You get materially better answers when you include the facts that change the answer. Four habits do most of the work:

1. Name the financial year. Caps, thresholds and reporting obligations are date-sensitive. "In 2026–27…" removes the ambiguity.
2. Give the numbers that drive the rule. Total super balance, member age, existing pension balances, transfer balance account usage — whichever apply.
3. Say what you actually want back. "Explain the rule", "give me the steps", "draft a file note", and "list the risks" produce very different responses.
4. Ask one scenario at a time. Two unrelated questions in one message produce a shallower answer on both. Ask, then follow up.

Weak: "Can my client make a downsizer contribution?"

Strong: "Client is 62, sold their main residence in March 2026 held for 12 years, TSB $2.1m. Can they make a downsizer contribution in 2026–27, and what documentation and timing do I need to get right?"

Follow-up questions work in the same conversation — you don't need to restate the facts. Just ask "and what if she were 54?"

Using the Playbook

The Playbook holds a library of expert-crafted prompts, written by the Smarter SMSF technical team and grouped by topic under each agent. They're the fastest way to get a well-structured answer, and a useful model for how to phrase your own questions.

1. Open Playbook from the sidebar, or select an agent and browse its topics
2. Choose a prompt — it loads into the Ask bar
3. Edit it to match your client's facts before sending (this is the step that makes the difference)
4. Star any prompt you use often; it pins to Favourite Prompts on your Dashboard

Prompts you've used recently also appear on the Dashboard under Recently Used Prompts, so returning to yesterday's line of enquiry takes one click.

Working with the answer

Smartie's answers include the regulatory references behind them, so you can follow the reasoning to source rather than taking the conclusion on trust. They also carry a reminder to verify against current legislation — worth doing, particularly around recently amended provisions.

You can copy or export any response straight into:

• File notes and workpapers
• Statements of Advice and other client documents
• Emails and client correspondence

Treat exported text as a well-informed draft. Check the facts against the client's actual circumstances, confirm currency of the law, and apply your own judgement before it leaves your firm.

Chat History

Every conversation is saved automatically and stays searchable. That makes Chat History genuinely useful for practice management, not just convenience:

• Pick up a client matter where you left it, days later
• Find the reasoning behind a position you took last quarter
• Reuse a strong line of questioning on a similar fund

Ask units and your allowance

Smartie is priced by Ask units, not per seat — your whole team draws on one shared monthly pool, so there's no cost to adding a staff member. Your usage meter sits in the top right of every screen.

When Smartie can't answer

Smartie is built to escalate rather than guess. If a question falls outside its curated knowledge base, or it can't ground an answer in approved source material, it tells you — and logs a support ticket to the Smarter SMSF technical team automatically. You don't need to raise it separately; someone will come back to you.

This is deliberate, and it's the behaviour to expect on genuinely novel or unsettled questions. How Smartie stays accurate explains the reasoning in full.

Next steps

• The Smartie Squad: choosing the right agent — what each of the six specialists covers, and how to pick
• How Smartie stays accurate — how answers are grounded, and what that means for your obligations

Questions about your account or access: team@smartersmsf.com