AI Overview
TimberCloud has AI woven throughout the product — not a single bolt-on tool you switch on, and not a separately metered add-on. From the moment a customer's paperwork lands on your desk to the day your website goes live, AI helps turn raw inputs into finished work: blueprints and spreadsheets become orders, plain-English sentences become pricing formulas, a supplier's PDF catalog becomes option photos, and your company profile becomes a branded website.
This page is the hub for every AI capability in TimberCloud: what each one does, where to find it, and which plan unlocks it. Use the links to drill into the step-by-step guides.
Important: AI is included in your subscription — there is no "$50/month AI add-on" and no per-document billing. The AI order, pricing, photo, and advisory tools are included from the Commerce plan up, and the Website (Site Builder) AI is included on every paid plan with a monthly allowance that scales by tier. The 14-day free trial is a full-feature demo, so AI is available during the trial too.
The golden rule: Everything AI proposes is a draft. Nothing is saved, priced, published, or added to an order until you review it and click to accept. You can always edit what AI suggests, or reject it and start over.
What AI can do for you
| Capability | What it turns into what | Where it lives | Plan |
|---|---|---|---|
| AI Order Assistant | A PDF, drawing, spreadsheet, photo, or CAD file → a ready-to-review order | Orders → New Order | Commerce and up |
| AI Pricing Assistant | A plain-English pricing rule → a wired step-based pricing formula | Product → Pricing | Commerce and up |
| AI Photo Matcher | A PDF catalog's photos → images attached to the right attribute options | Product → Attribute Builder | Commerce and up |
| AI Advisory Generator | A plain-English warning rule → a product configuration advisory | Product → Advisories | Commerce and up |
| Site Builder AI | Your profile + catalog → website copy, FAQs, SEO, and whole pages | The Website editor | Commerce and up (monthly quota) |
| Global AI Instructions | Your terminology & brand voice → steers all of the above | Settings → Catalog → AI Settings | Build and up |
The sections below cover each one in detail.
Note: The AI features (order, pricing, photo, advisory, and site) start at Commerce. Editing the company-wide Global AI Instructions prompt that steers them — the AI Settings pane — is a Build-tier feature. On Commerce you get all the AI tools; on Build you also get to tune them company-wide. See AI Settings.
AI Order Assistant
Turn an incoming document into a finished order draft. Upload a PDF blueprint, a technical drawing, a cut list or spreadsheet, a photo, or a CAD file, and the AI reads out dimensions, materials, finishes, and quantities, matches them to your catalog, and builds a ready-to-review order with product cards and line items already filled in.
- What you can upload: PDF, DWG, DXF, CSV, XLSX, XLS, and images (PNG, JPG, JPEG, GIF, WEBP, TIFF). DWG files are supported — no need to convert them to DXF first.
- How to use it: Open an order in edit mode (Orders → New Order, or open a draft), click the AI Assistant button on the order's Products panel, drag-drop or browse to a file, optionally add Analysis Instructions to steer the read, run the analysis, then review the suggested product cards. You can edit or replace any match, adjust line items, flag items that look wrong, and drag to reorganize before clicking Add Products to Order. The uploaded file is also attached to the order for reference.
- Plan: Included from the Commerce plan up. It is not a separately billed add-on and it is available during the 14-day trial.
Tip: Hours of hand-keying every order collapse into about a minute of review. The more consistent your catalog naming, the better the matches — and on Build you can fine-tune matching company-wide with Global AI Instructions.
Full walkthrough: AI Order Assistant · step-by-step: Uploading a document.
AI Pricing Assistant
Describe how you price something in plain English and the AI writes the exact step-based formula for you — already wired to that product's fields.
- What it does: Type a rule like "Charge material price per square foot, plus $25 if the finish is Premium" and the AI returns a precise step-based pricing formula, a plain-English explanation of what it built, and any warnings. You can Accept it, Edit Manually (hand it off to the Advanced Formula Builder), or keep Revising it conversationally.
- Create mode vs. edit mode: Start from scratch in create mode, or point it at an existing formula in edit mode and say things like "Add a 10% rush surcharge" or "Change the rate to $60/sq ft."
- How to use it: Open a Product → Pricing tab, then click the AI Assistant button on the Step-Based Formula card (next to Create Formula / Edit Formula). Describe your rule, click Generate, and review.
- Plan: Included from the Commerce plan up.
This is the same step-based pricing model you can also build by hand — the AI just gets you there faster.
Full walkthrough: AI Pricing Assistant · the underlying engine: Pricing and Formula Builder.
AI Photo Matcher
Have a supplier's PDF catalog with a photo next to every door style, profile, or finish? The AI Photo Matcher pulls those photos off the pages and attaches each one to the right attribute option in your catalog — matching by the printed name next to the photo, not by the pixels.
- What it does: Upload a PDF catalog while editing one of a product's attributes. The AI reads the catalog, matches each option in your attribute to a photo by its printed label, and shows you a grid of your option names with the matched thumbnails. You choose which matches to keep, then apply — the photos upload in the background and land on your option rows.
- Helpful controls: A label position setting (where the catalog prints the name relative to its photo — Auto by default) and an optional matching hint (tell the AI how the catalog's names relate to yours, or which pages to focus on) both improve accuracy.
- How to use it: Open a product, edit a saved dropdown-style attribute in the Attribute Builder, and click Import Photos from PDF. (The attribute must be saved first, so its options exist to match against.)
- Plan: Included from the Commerce plan up.
Full walkthrough: Match option photos from a PDF catalog · related: Attributes.
AI Advisory Generator
An advisory is a rule that watches how a product is being configured and speaks up when something's risky — for example, a warning that a tall single-panel door may warp. The AI Advisory Generator writes those rules for you from a plain-English sentence.
- What it does: Inside a product's Advisories tab, describe when the rule should fire and what to suggest ("If a door is over 48 inches tall with only one panel, warn about warpage and suggest adding a second panel"), and the AI returns a validated advisory — a name, a severity level, a title-and-body message, and one or more suggested fix actions. You review the preview and click Add to advisories, or keep revising.
- How to use it: Open a product → Advisories tab → Generate with AI.
- Plan: Included from the Commerce plan up.
Full walkthrough: AI Advisory Generator · related: Advisories.
Site Builder AI
The hosted Website (Site Builder) ships with an AI writing peer and a full-site generator.
- Full-site auto-generation: At signup, AI reads your company profile and catalog and writes a complete, branded starter home page (hero, value props, About, process, gallery, placeholder testimonials, CTA, FAQ, and SEO metadata). It picks a coordinated brand palette + font and generates a text wordmark logo — but only fills in branding you haven't already set, and never overwrites your colors or logo. Existing customers with no pages can trigger it with Generate my site with AI (lands as a draft to publish), and the home page has a Regenerate from my catalog button.
- In-editor writing assistant: Type
/for AI commands (Write, Rewrite, Shorten, Lengthen, Plain English, Fix grammar, More formal / casual / punchy, Make a list), press Cmd/Ctrl+J to run those on a selection, and use the Inspector Generate buttons for SEO title/description, FAQs, an About section, and polishing a real customer review into a quotable testimonial. - Draft a page from a prompt: When adding a new website page, choose Draft with AI and type a one-line description to get a fully designed draft page.
- Nothing publishes automatically: Every AI suggestion lands as an editable draft via an accept/reject review. AI testimonials are clearly marked as synthetic placeholders to replace, and the AI won't invent specific numbers, names, awards, or a location it doesn't know.
- Plan & quota: Commerce and up. It's off on Free. There's a monthly generation allowance that scales by tier:
| Plan | Monthly AI generations |
|---|---|
| Free | 0 (AI off) |
| Commerce | 50 |
| Build | 100 |
| Production | 500 |
| Enterprise | Unlimited |
During the 14-day trial you get the Build-tier allowance (100). When you pass about 80% of your monthly allowance the editor shows a low-key warning; at the limit you'll see an upgrade prompt. Failed generations don't count against your allowance, and the count resets at the start of each calendar month.
Full walkthrough: AI Website Assistant · overview of the site builder: Your Website.
Global AI Instructions
A single company-wide guidance prompt teaches every AI feature your terminology, brand voice, product mappings, and defaults. Set it once and it steers the AI Order Assistant, AI Pricing Assistant, AI Photo Matcher, AI Advisory Generator, and Site Builder AI.
- Where: Settings → Catalog → AI Settings.
- What to write: Things like "We call drawer fronts 'DF'", "Default species is white oak", or "Always price slab tops in board feet."
- Plan: Editing this prompt is a Build-tier feature. The AI tools it steers work at Commerce — Commerce shops simply give the AI context per task (for example, the per-upload Analysis Instructions on the Order Assistant, or the matching hint on the Photo Matcher) instead of setting it once company-wide.
See AI Settings for tips on writing an effective prompt.
Plan & permission matrix
| AI feature | Free | Commerce | Build | Production | Enterprise |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AI Order Assistant | — | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| AI Pricing Assistant | — | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| AI Photo Matcher | — | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| AI Advisory Generator | — | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Site Builder AI (monthly generations) | — | 50 | 100 | 500 | Unlimited |
| Edit Global AI Instructions (AI Settings) | — | — | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Notes:
- The AI features start at Commerce; editing the Global AI Instructions prompt requires Build. A Commerce shop uses all the AI tools but can't open the AI Settings pane to tune the company-wide prompt.
- Beyond the plan, the order and product AI also require the user's role permission (set in Settings → Company → Permissions) — having the plan isn't enough on its own.
- On Free, payments and the Site Builder website are off, so AI features are not available; upgrade to Commerce to turn them on. See Subscriptions & Plans and The Free Plan.
Privacy
- Your uploaded documents and content are processed per request, for your company only — they are isolated from other tenants on the platform.
- Your content is not used to train AI models.
- You never choose a model. TimberCloud picks the right AI for each task behind the scenes; it's all built in and billed as part of your plan.
- Nothing is autonomous. Every AI feature proposes a draft you review — nothing commits, prices, publishes, or charges on its own.
Where to go next
- AI Order Assistant — turn documents and blueprints into orders.
- AI Pricing Assistant — plain English to a pricing formula.
- AI in the Product Builder — the photo matcher, pricing, and advisory AI while you build a product.
- AI Advisory Generator — write product warning rules from a sentence.
- AI Website Assistant — generate and write your hosted website.
- AI Settings — set company-wide Global AI Instructions (Build).
- Subscriptions & Plans — see exactly what each tier unlocks.