How to set up a Bot Team

1. A team of bots, with one in charge

Most people meet AI as one chatbot that tries to do everything. A Bot Team works the way a good office already does: a few specialists, each good at one job, and one coordinator who hands out the work and keeps track. Quote Desk only drafts quotes. Invoice Desk only drafts invoices. Chase List only writes the reminders. The Projects Manager makes sure each job moves from one to the next, and shows you where every job is up to.

Each bot is small enough to set up in minutes and check in a day. Put three or four together and the job walks itself from the booking to the money while you approve the bits that matter. Add a bot when you want another step covered; the rest of the team does not change.

Why one bot is not enough

Most people start with one bot in one chat. That works until the work has more than one step, or you have more than one job on the go. You ask it about a new job, then an open quote, then a supplier bill. The thread fills with half-finished jobs, you lose track of which bot does which step, and when the quote is ready someone still retypes the details into the next system.

The Bot Team fixes the retyping. The directory bots are rebuilt so they pick the job up where the last one left it, with the same customer, the same job id and the same figures.

The team pattern fixes the mess. Each flow gets its own channel. The specialist bots for that flow sit in it with you, and a manager bot keeps the board current. Money decisions stay with a person.

2. The three pieces of a team

1. A channel. One per flow or project in the Grok Bot sidebar. The channel is the room where you and the bots talk.
2. A roster. The specialist bots that do the work, plus one manager (or coordinator) bot that watches the board. Reuse bots from the directory first, and keep it small: up to four specialists plus the manager.
3. A board. One shared table every Bot can read and write, so you see progress without reading every message. A Google Sheet with two tabs, Projects and Tasks, is the easy start; Notion or another tool works too, as long as every Bot can reach it.

On the path from the job to the money, one rule keeps the same job number on the job through every step (the hops), so no bot starts a second copy: the Cash Seam. Every bot on that path is tested against it.

3. How to set it up

Step 1. Get Grok Bot running

Check your plan includes Grok Bot, download the app from x.ai/bot, sign in, and make one Bot per job you already run. The full install steps are in how to use Grok Bot for business.

Then connect your systems once with a Bot Starter key (A$19 + GST a month): sign in to Xero, ServiceM8 or Simpro, and every bot on the team reads the same records through it. Each bot that needs the key asks for it the first time, in a secure card, never typed into the chat. The key reads and writes drafts and notes; it can never send, approve or pay.

Step 2. Add the bots you need from the directory

Every bot in the Bot Team directory (153 bots today) has an Add to Grok Bot link. Click it and the bot arrives already written to the same rules and tested on sample records. For a first team, start with the Cash Path from the quote on:

The directory also has standalone bots for reporting, inbox triage, compliance, timesheets and stock.

Step 3. Create a manager bot

Make a new Bot called something like “Projects Manager” or “Flow Coordinator” and give it a standing job:

You coordinate projects and tasks. You do not do the specialist work.

When I ask for a new project or flow, create the channel, propose a roster of existing bots (at most four specialists), write the first tasks, and keep the board (a Google Sheet with Projects and Tasks tabs) up to date.

Reuse bots already in the account. Ask me before you create a new one.

Once it works, ask the Bot to save it as a skill (say, Project Ops) so setting up a new team is one command.

Step 4. Set up the board

Each Bot’s memory and chat are private to that Bot. The board is the one place they all share, so it has to be somewhere every Bot on the team can reach through a connection. Start with a Google Sheet: it is free, and you can move to Notion or anything else later. Give it two tabs:

• Projects: one row per flow or project (Cash Path: Plumbing, Quote Follow-up: Roofing), with its status and the Bots in it.
• Tasks: one row per job per step, with the job id, the step, the Bot that owns it, its status (Backlog, In progress, Blocked or Done), a short note and when it last changed.

Each Bot updates its own row when it picks up or finishes a step. The manager makes the sheet, adds the rows for each new job, and chases anything that sits still. You read it.

The sheet holds where each job is up to, not the job itself. The customer, the address and the figures stay in ServiceM8, Simpro or Xero, found by the job id. That way the sheet can never disagree with the job.

Step 5. Open a channel and staff the team

1. Create a new group chat (channel) in Grok Bot.
2. Move it into a “Projects” or “Flows” section in the sidebar.
3. Add the manager bot and the specialist bots for that flow.
4. Post the first message that scopes the work, or let the manager write it.

An opening message for a Cash Path channel:

This channel is the Cash Path for the plumbing business.

Roster: Quote Desk, Invoice Desk, Chase List, Projects Manager.
Shared id: job_id from the Cash Seam.

Rules: bots draft only. I send quotes, approve invoices and send reminders. Ping the channel when a task is Blocked.

Step 6. Run it and check

Put one real or sample job through and watch the hand-offs. Each bot finishes by posting a signal the next one wakes on, such as quote.sent when the quote is out:

• Job booked in ServiceM8 → job.created → Quote Desk drafts the quote.
• Quote accepted or job done → Invoice Desk drafts the invoice.
• Invoice overdue → Chase List puts it on the morning list with a reminder written.

Watch the rows move on the sheet as each Bot picks up its step. If something is stuck, the manager marks the task Blocked and pings you in the channel. Check the first week against your own systems: the directory bots are tested on sample records, and your jobs are the real test.

4. Example: a trade quote-to-cash team

Channel: Cash Path: Plumbing. Roster: Quote Desk (drafts from the price list), Invoice Desk (raises the draft invoice), Chase List (writes the morning list of who owes, with a reminder for each) and Projects Manager (keeps the board current).

1. You or the office book a job into ServiceM8 or Simpro, the way you do now. That is the job.created the team wakes on.
2. Quote Desk picks it up and drafts the quote. If a line is not on the price list it parks the quote; otherwise it tells the channel the quote is ready for you to send.
3. You send the quote. When it is accepted, Invoice Desk drafts the invoice in Xero and holds it for your approval.
4. When the invoice is overdue, Chase List puts it on the morning list with a reminder written. You send it.

You stay in one channel. The job id never changes. Nobody retypes the address or the figure.

5. Staffing rules that keep it clean

• Reuse an existing bot before making a new one. The directory already covers most common office hops.
• Six or fewer in a channel: you, the manager and up to four specialists.
• Create a new bot only when nothing on the bench fits, and only after you say yes.
• One bot, one job. The Quote Desk does not also chase invoices.
• Money, sending and deleting stay with a person. Put that in every bot’s description.

6. Safety, and what the bots never do

• No bot pays a bill, sends a quote, sends an email or SMS, or changes a status on a schedule.
• Use keys, not passwords, with the least access that still does the job. Why is in is Grok Bot safe.
• Test every new bot or routine against a figure you can check: a total from Xero, a job count from ServiceM8.
• If the check fails twice, or nobody reads the output for three weeks, pause the routine.
• On the Cash Path, every bot carries the Cash Seam id. If it cannot, it stops and reports.

7. Start with one flow

Pick the step that is leaking the most money or time:

• Quotes sitting quiet → Quote Out, plus Quote Keeper on the Follow-up standard to chase the quiet ones.
• Invoices nobody chased → Invoice Out and Debtor Chasing.

Add the bots from the directory, open one channel, put the manager in it, and run it for a week.

The directory is the bench. The channel is the team. The board is how you see the work move. Everything here is free to build yourself: the standards behind each bot are open, and the directory links drop a bot written to the same rules straight into Grok Bot or Claude. The team pattern follows the video How To Run Multiple Grok Bot Teams by Moritz | AI Systems, based on Eric Zakariasson’s guide.

8. Later: put it on the phone

Leave the phone until the first team is running. When missed calls or slow payers are where the money leaks, the same team takes a phone step at either end: a bot that answers and books the job before Quote Desk, or one that rings the overdue invoices after Chase List. Nothing you set up here changes.

How, and what the calls cost, is in add phone calls to your Bot Team.

9. Questions