Ask Chief
Chief is the round button with the whistle in the white hat. On a phone it sits at the top of the page, beside the speech-bubble button (Feedback); on a computer it sits at the bottom right. Tap it and ask about your own records in plain words. On a computer the chat sits in the corner while you keep working; on a phone it slides up from the bottom. It stays put while you move between pages, and signing out clears it.
What Chief calls you
The first time you open Chief after this update, it asks: "What should I call you? First name, initials or something else?"
- First name uses the first name in Settings → Your name.
- Initials fills in your initials, and you can change them before you save.
- Something else keeps a name or nickname you type, up to 30 characters (not a web address or an email address).
- Not now asks again in a week. Don't ask again means no name, and Chief won't ask again.
Chief only asks when the chat is empty, never in the middle of a conversation. After that it greets you by that name ("Hey Eric — …"), and so does the setup meter on Home. Change it any time in Settings, under You (What Chief calls you); save the box empty for no name. It's kept in your account and deleted with it.
Chief's setup suggestions
Now and then Chief pops up beside its button on Home with the one setup step that's next on the setup meter, like "Hey Eric — you haven't set your arrival times yet. Want me to take you there?" It uses your name only if you chose one (see above); otherwise it just says "You haven't…".
- Take me there opens that step's page.
- Not now puts that step off for a week. Another step may come up another day.
- Stop these turns the suggestions off. Turn them back on in Settings, under You (Chief's setup suggestions).
- Escape on a computer puts it away for the day.
It's never more than one a day, never on your first day, never while Chief's chat is open, and never while Home is still showing Finish setting up. When everything on the setup meter is done, Chief says "You're all set" once and stops. These choices are kept on this device for your account and never sent anywhere.
Telling RefTraq something
Type feedback to Chief, like "I have an idea: …", "Something's wrong with …" or "Feature request: …", and Chief offers Open Send feedback. The Feedback sheet opens with what you typed already in the box, on An idea or Something's wrong. Change anything you like: nothing is sent until you press Send there.
Where the answers come from
Chief works out every answer about your records on your device, from the same numbers your tabs show. Those answers send nothing anywhere, and it never makes up a number it does not have:
- A game with no fee set is counted and said ("1 game has no fee set"), never treated as $0.
- A canceled, declined or removed game only counts if money actually came in.
- Money you were paid is counted on the day it arrived.
- A drive nobody measured gets "I don't know the drive time from home yet", never a guess.
Every answer has a Show me link to the page it comes from.
Two things ever leave your device. One is a question about how RefTraq works that Chief can't answer from your records (see the next section). The other is Chief's reader, the one way RefTraq reads a picture: Read the check on a check's photo in Quick add → Payment, Read the receipt in Add an expense, and Read the picture or Have Chief read it on the Import screen. Only when you tap it, and only after you agree the first time, the one file, picture or pasted text you chose goes to Anthropic to be read. In Quick add → Payment, a check's bank line is blacked out on your device first; a payment screenshot, a stub with no bank line, or a picture you tell the Import screen isn't a check goes as you cropped it. See "Having Chief read it" on the Importing page.
Questions about RefTraq itself
Ask how something in the app works, like "what is a travel fee band?" or "can RefTraq track hotel stays?". When Chief can't answer from your records, it looks the answer up in this guide with the help of an AI model (Cloudflare's Workers AI):
- Only your question is sent, with the parts of this guide that match it (whole answers, and What's new from the last two months). Before it goes, your venue, team, group and crewmate names, your own name, and anything that looks like an amount, an email, a link or a long number are taken out. Your games, pay, miles and everything else you've recorded never go.
- The model may only answer from those guide sections. The answer is marked AI answer, from the guide, names the section it came from (tap it to read the whole page), and offers Take me there when there's a page where you do it.
- If the guide doesn't cover your question, Chief says it doesn't know and offers Help and Send feedback, so a person can answer. It never guesses.
- When your question or the answer touches money or tax, the answer ends with "Your preparer decides what applies to you." The AI gives no tax or money advice beyond what this guide says, and never repeats a number you typed unless this guide says it too.
- Chief can look up as many as 20 questions a day this way, its own 20: using Quick add's AI helper doesn't use them up. Past that, or when the AI isn't available, it shows what the guide says in its own words, when one section answers the question.
What you can ask
Your pay. "What did I make in September?" "What have I made since September 1?" "What did I make in Q3?" "Who still owes me?" "How much has Dillon ISD paid me this year?" "What's my average per game?" "How much is booked for next month?" "How much meal money did I get this year?" Meal money is what's set on the games you've worked, and it's already part of what you made. What you made is what your games pay by their fees, and Chief says how much of it is recorded as paid. A game counts as worked from the day after, as on Stats and the Pay sheet, so tonight's game is on your schedule until tomorrow. Stats leaves out camps, clinics and meetings, so when its figure is different Chief says what Stats shows. Your average per game is the one Stats shows: what you were paid for the games you've worked, once every one of them is marked paid. Until then Chief gives what their fees come to and says how many have no payment yet. When Chief tells you what you made and from how many games, that's the same count as "How many games have I worked?". A paid clinic or a canceled game that still paid is in the money, and Chief names it beside the count. "Who still owes me?" counts this year's games, and last year's too until tax day. Unpaid games older than that get a line of their own, because an imported history often has no payments written down; ask "How much am I owed in 2023?" to see one year.
Your games. "What's next?" "When is the Laribee game?" "Was the Laribee game canceled?" "What time is my game Friday?" "How many games have I worked this year?" "How many games in the last 30 days?" "How many games in the next two weeks?" "Where do I work the most?" "Who do I work with most?" "How many games with Matt Saracen?" "How does this year compare to last year?" "What needs attention?" "Which games are missing a fee?" A question about one game is answered from your schedule as of the last sync: its day, time and place, and whether it's marked canceled or dropped out of your feed. Two games that day are both listed. "Was I paid for Friday's game?" and "Did I get paid for the Gatlin game?" say where that game's payment stands: how much came in and when, what is still owed, no fee set, or not played yet. A day of the week, like Friday, last Friday or next Friday, is said back as its date, so you can see which one Chief took. A number of days, weeks or months counts from today: the last 30 days run back from today, and the next 7 days are today and the seven after it, the same days Home's This Week shows. Last week and last month are still the calendar week and month. A count of days still to come, like "How many games tomorrow?", is answered from your schedule. What needs attention counts the same games as the Schedule's Needs attention review and says what each one is missing. Name a kind of game and the answer counts only those: "How many playoff games have I worked?" "What did I make in the playoffs last year?" "How many scrimmages did I work this year?" A playoff game is one whose level names a round, like Area or Regional Quarterfinal, the way Stats counts them. "What was my busiest month?" and "What was my best year?" name a month and a year; a best year is counted across every year you have. "What was my last game?" "When did I last work at Dillon?" "What was my first game ever?" A last or first game is one you worked, counted the way Stats counts. "Show me my 2025 season" counts that year's games the same way, with what they pay and what is recorded as paid. A game in another year is said with its year.
Your miles, spending and deductions. "How many miles have I driven this year?" "How much did I spend on gas this year?" "What are my deductions so far?" What you spent comes from the Track tab, and the part that counts toward your deductions is shown separately; your preparer decides what applies. Your miles are the ones you drove, as on Track and Taxes; a ride you logged as a passenger is named, not counted. "How many miles did I drive to Gatlin?" counts only the drives there, and "Did I log the drive to Gatlin?" lists the ones in your log, so nothing is logged twice. Over more than one year, a year you used the actual-expenses car method is named and left out of the mileage figure.
Plans. "When do I need to leave?" "What does next weekend look like?" "How far is Dillon HS?" "How far is Laribee HS from work?" "When do I leave work for Friday's game?" Name a place you saved on Leaving from and Chief uses the drive timed from that place. If that drive hasn't been timed yet, Chief says so and shows you where to time it; it never uses the drive from home instead.
What if. "What if my fee went up $10?" "What if I work 5 more games?" "What if I drove 500 more miles?" A what-if uses your own numbers and is always marked as an estimate. If you leave out the number, Chief asks for it. "What if I switched to actual expenses?" and "What if I took the home office deduction?" open the screens that work those out with your own numbers.
Reports. "Unpaid games by assigner." "What did I make by month?" "Games by site this year." "Games by year." A report comes back as a small table with a total, grouped by assigner, site, level, sport, month or year. A report by year covers every year you have unless you name one. Download spreadsheet saves every game behind it, in the same file the Pay sheet makes.
Where things are. "Where do I change my fees?" "Take me to stats." "Where do I send feedback?" "How do I print a game card?" "How do I mark a game paid?" "How do I delete an expense?" "How do I change a drive?" "How many points do I have?" Chief deletes and changes nothing itself: it says where the button is, or what to tell Quick add.
Tax questions
Chief is not a tax advisor. Ask "is my whistle deductible?" and Chief shows you what this guide says about it, word for word, with your own figure beside it where there is one. Your preparer decides what applies to you. When the guide does not clearly answer the question, Chief points you to the page to read instead of guessing. Ask "what do I owe in taxes?" and Chief opens Taxes, which estimates the self-employment tax on your officiating profit; what you owe in all depends on your whole return, so your preparer works that out.
Something to record
Type something that happened, like "Dillon paid me $85", and Chief offers Open in Quick add, which opens with your sentence already in the box. Nothing is saved until you check the card and tap Save. Meal money you're paid is the one thing Chief won't hand over: it goes on the game (open it and set Meal money paid), never in your expenses as a meal you bought. It works the other way too: ask Quick add a question and Chief answers it there. Neither one ever deletes anything: "delete the Gatlin game" gets where the button is, and Quick add leaves the sentence alone rather than adding the game.