# Set up faster with the AI setup assistant Upload the checklists you already use, in PDF, Word, Excel or a photo, and Mays AI drafts your checklist templates, departments and roles for you to review and save. For: Admins · On: Web · [Help Center](https://www.mays.app/help) › [AI & automation](https://www.mays.app/help/ai-automation) · Last updated October 2, 2026 · Mays Team Upload the checklists you already use, in PDF, Word, Excel or a photo, and Mays AI drafts your checklist templates, departments and roles. You review the drafts and save the ones you want. It's for admins, on the web, in every plan. Use a computer: the drafts list only shows on a wide screen. ## Open it - **The first time** an admin opens the web app, Mays takes them to **Mays AI Onboarding**. - **Skipped it?** The dashboard shows **Finish setup with Mays AI**. Click **Continue**. - **Any time later:** go to **Tasks → Templates** and click **Import from Document**. ![The Finish setup with Mays AI banner at the top of the dashboard: Upload your existing checklists and have daily / weekly templates ready in minutes, with the Continue button and a close button](https://mays-uploads.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/site/help__ai-setup-assistant__01-dashboard-banner.051f263195.png) ## Upload your checklists 1. On the left, under **Mays AI**, add your files: click the paperclip, drag them onto the chat, or paste a picture. You can add several. 2. Or skip the files and paste or type a checklist into **Type a message or answer Mays AI…**. 3. **Send a message**, for example *Here are our opening and closing checklists.* Uploading on its own doesn't start anything: the AI reads your files when you send a message. 4. Answer its questions. Some come with buttons to tap, for example how often a checklist runs. ![Mays AI Onboarding: the Mays AI chat on the left with its welcome message and the Type a message or answer Mays AI box, and the empty Drafts list on the right with the Select drafts to approve button](https://mays-uploads.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/site/help__ai-setup-assistant__02-onboarding.d5b5a17590.png) **Files it can read:** PDFs with text in them, Word (DOCX), Excel (XLSX and XLS), CSV, TXT and Markdown files, and photos. Each file can be up to 25 MB. For an old Word **.doc**, save it as DOCX first. For a scanned PDF, take a photo of the page instead. ## Review the drafts As the AI works, drafts appear on the right under **Drafts**: - **Templates**, with how often they run and their task groups and tasks; - **Departments**; - **Roles**. Click a draft to see its details. To change one, tell the AI in the chat, for example *Make the deep clean weekly* or *Split the kitchen tasks into prep and line*. To drop one, hover over it and click the bin. ## Save them 1. Tick the drafts you want, or click **All**. Ticking a template also ticks the department or role it needs. 2. Click **Approve & save** (it shows how many drafts). 3. Mays saves them and takes you to **Task Templates**. The templates are switched on straight away. Departments are under **Locations & Users → Departments** and roles under **Locations & Users → Roles**. **Check each template's locations.** With one location, the AI assigns every template to it. With several, it may leave that to you, and a template with no location never produces tasks. Open each template and check its **Assignments** tab. See [Scheduling and assigning checklists](https://www.mays.app/help/tasks-checklists/schedule-and-assign-checklists). **Check the new roles.** Open each one under **Locations & Users → Roles** and choose what it can do. See [Roles and permissions](https://www.mays.app/help/team-roles/roles-and-permissions). ## Skip, come back or start over - **Skip for now** (top left) takes you to the dashboard. Nothing is lost: your chat, files and drafts are kept, and **Continue** on the dashboard banner brings you back. - There's one setup chat for your whole company. Other admins see the same chat and drafts. - **Start over** (top right) clears the chat, the uploaded files and any drafts you haven't saved. Templates you've already saved stay. - A very long chat eventually fills up (*This conversation has reached the maximum length.*). Save the drafts you want, then click **Start over**. ## AI credits The setup assistant uses AI credits, shown as **Onboarding Agent** under **Usage by Feature**. They come from your company's oldest location. Every message uses credits, and the more files the AI has read, the more each message uses. See [AI credits](https://www.mays.app/help/account-billing/ai-credits). ## Good to know - **It only makes templates, departments and roles.** It doesn't add locations, positions, people or knowledge base articles, and your files aren't added to the knowledge base. - **Duplicates:** the AI checks what you already have and tries to reuse it, but it can't change an existing template. Running it again can give you a second template with the same name; delete the one you don't want. - **Checklists that don't repeat**, like new employee onboarding, are saved as **Custom**: they never appear on their own, and you start one from **Tasks → Tasks → Create Task → From Template** when you need it. An every-other-day checklist is set to the closest weekly days instead; check its **Settings** tab. - **The banner's close button (✕)** hides it for your company in that browser. Otherwise the banner goes away once you've saved drafts, or 30 days after you skipped. - **Nothing happened after an upload?** Send a message. A red line with the file name means Mays couldn't read that file; the message says why. - You can also build templates by hand. See [Creating a checklist template](https://www.mays.app/help/tasks-checklists/create-a-checklist-template). ## Related articles - Tasks & checklists: [Creating a checklist template](https://www.mays.app/help/tasks-checklists/create-a-checklist-template) — Build an opening, closing or cleaning checklist once as a template — groups, tasks and answer types — and Mays turns it into your team's task list in the app. - Getting started: [Your first week with Mays](https://www.mays.app/help/getting-started/getting-started-checklist) — A step-by-step plan for your first week — locations, your team, your first checklist, Square or 7shifts, and the mobile apps — with where to find each in Mays. - Getting started: [Create your Mays account](https://www.mays.app/help/getting-started/create-your-account) — Sign up for Mays in four short steps — owner login, a text-message code, your business and your first location — and start a 30-day free trial with no credit card. - Tasks & checklists: [Scheduling and assigning checklists](https://www.mays.app/help/tasks-checklists/schedule-and-assign-checklists) — Choose which days a checklist runs, the hours staff can see it, whether unfinished tasks carry over, and who does it — a role, a department, specific people or one person per task. - Team & roles: [Departments](https://www.mays.app/help/team-roles/departments) — Group people into departments such as Front of House and Kitchen, then use them to give checklists to the right people, filter the dashboard and compare labor costs. - Team & roles: [Roles and permissions](https://www.mays.app/help/team-roles/roles-and-permissions) — What the built-in Admin, Manager and Employee roles can do, how location access works, and how to build a custom role from individual permissions. - Account & billing: [AI credits](https://www.mays.app/help/account-billing/ai-credits) — Mays's AI features use AI credits from each location's balance. What uses them, how many your plan adds every month, how to check a balance and how to buy more. ## Still need help? Send us a support request and a real person on the Mays team will get back to you. [Contact support](https://www.mays.app/contact?topic=support) · [Call +1 (561) 286-3939](tel:+15612863939) Canonical: https://www.mays.app/help/ai-automation/ai-setup-assistant