Business Instructions

Business Instructions are the operating playbook of a business inside Comers.

They let you record recurring policies, procedures, communication standards, exceptions, and decision rules so the same guidance can be used consistently by people and supported AI capabilities.

flowchart TD
    B[Business policy or procedure] --> I[Business Instruction]
    I --> P[Published instruction]
    P --> H[Staff guidance]
    P --> A[Agent Comers]
    P --> W[Supported workflows]

What belongs in Business Instructions

Business Instructions are useful for knowledge that should influence recurring operational decisions.

Examples include:

• customer-service tone and communication standards,
• shipping procedures,
• marketplace-specific policies,
• internal SOPs,
• return or complaint handling rules,
• approval thresholds,
• escalation paths,
• response guidance,
• instructions for using Comers in a particular process.

They are not intended to replace transactional records such as Orders, Support cases, or individual customer conversations.

Seller instructions as the default

The main instruction level is the Seller.

Instructions created for a Seller act as the default guidance for that Seller’s sales channels.

For example, a Seller can define a default customer-service policy that should normally apply to its eBay, Amazon, and WooCommerce activity.

Channel-specific versions

A specific sales-channel account can have its own version of an instruction when the channel needs different handling.

The user-facing rule is:

Seller instructions apply to the Seller’s channels unless a separate version exists for a specific channel.

flowchart TD
    S[Seller instruction] --> E[eBay uses Seller version]
    S --> A[Amazon uses Seller version]
    S --> W[WooCommerce uses Seller version]
    C[Own Amazon version] --> A

A channel-specific version replaces the corresponding Seller-level instruction for that topic in that channel. It does not combine the two documents into one merged instruction.

Use a channel-specific version only when the actual business rule is different for that channel.

Instruction topics

A Seller can have more than one instruction of the same general type.

For example, separate internal procedures can cover:

• damaged shipment,
• late delivery,
• return request,
• invoice request.

This keeps instructions focused instead of forcing every procedure into one very large document.

Languages

Instructions can be maintained in the language appropriate for the business process.

Treat each language version as intentional content. Do not assume that editing one language automatically rewrites another.

Draft and published content

Business Instructions use a publication workflow.

A document can be prepared and reviewed before it becomes the active instruction.

Only published content should be treated as the active instruction used by supported operational and AI workflows.

This allows a team to prepare a replacement without immediately changing the guidance used in daily work.

Replacing an active instruction

Publishing a newer version for the same instruction topic replaces the previous active version.

The older version remains useful as history rather than being silently overwritten.

This gives the team a clearer record of how the operating rule changed over time.

Business Instructions and Agent Comers

Agent Comers can use published Business Instructions when the relevant capability and context support them.

This lets the Agent follow organization-specific guidance rather than relying only on generic behavior.

For example, a published instruction can specify:

• how a particular type of customer issue should be handled,
• when a case should be escalated,
• what tone should be used in a response,
• which exceptions require approval.

The instruction guides behavior but does not grant extra permissions.

Business Instructions do not override permissions

A Business Instruction can say what the organization wants done, but it cannot authorize an operation the current user is not allowed to perform.

Effective access still comes from the user’s membership, scope, and permissions.

This separation is intentional:

• permissions determine what may be done,
• Business Instructions describe how the organization wants permitted work to be handled.

Good practice

Keep instructions specific enough that a person or supported AI capability can apply them consistently.

Prefer several focused topics over one document containing unrelated rules.

When a channel truly needs different handling, create a channel-specific version. Otherwise, keep the Seller-level default so the same policy remains consistent across channels.