Advisory

Advisory lets a company run a marketplace of approved advisors. Members can hire an advisor. Members can also apply to become an advisor. Clients pay through Stripe Connect, and the company keeps a fee on each payment. A paid engagement opens a project in the Projects app.

Part of OpenAct Director

Advisory is a paid app. It needs a Director or Producer plan. Without a plan, Advisory is locked: the Apps page shows it with a Director badge and an Upgrade button, and your data stays saved.

Advisory comes with OpenAct, next to Projects and Docs. It has its own icon in the app rail. It needs the Projects app.

Examples

• GTM Matters runs Advisory with the label "Consultant". Paid members hire GTM consultants. Members can also apply to sell their own consulting.
• Orbytt runs Advisory with the label "Coach". VA coaches and mentors sell coaching sessions and mentorship programs.

The code says "advisor" and "offer". Each company sets its own label in Company settings.

Who does what

Role	What they do	Permission
Member	Sees the advisors, books a consult, pays for an offer	Hire advisors (advisory.browse)
Advisor	Writes a profile and offers, connects Stripe, answers requests	Sell as an advisor (advisory.sell)
Manager	Approves advisors, sets each advisor's fee, pauses profiles, sees every engagement	Manage advisors (advisory.manage)
Client in a project	Works with the advisor in the engagement project only	A member of that project

By default, owners, admins and members can hire and sell. Owners and admins manage. Change this in Company settings, on the Permissions tab. Guests do not see Advisory.

Hire an advisor

1. Choose Advisory in the app rail. The panel lists each advisor with their name and role.
2. Choose an advisor. Their profile opens with their bio and their offers.
3. Choose one of two buttons:
   • Book a consult opens a form. Tell the advisor what you need. The advisor accepts with a price, or declines. You get an email either way.
   • Pay in advance shows the advisor's offers. Choose one, then pay with Stripe.
4. On My requests, follow each request. Choose Pay when a request is accepted.

The payment page makes a new Stripe Checkout each time you choose Pay with Stripe, so the link in the email never expires.

Become an advisor

1. Open My advisor page in the Advisory panel. The name follows the company's label, such as My consultant page.
2. On Profile, write your role and your bio. Add a photo if you want: PNG, JPEG or WebP, up to 2 MB.
3. On Offers, add at least one offer. An offer has a name, a description, a price and a type:
   • One-time, such as a one-hour strategy session.
   • Monthly retainer, charged every month until it is canceled.
4. Choose Apply. A manager reviews your profile. You get an email when it is decided.
5. On Earnings, choose Connect Stripe. Stripe asks for your details and your bank. Clients can pay you when Stripe says your account is ready.

When the company turns on Approve new profiles without review, your profile goes live when you apply.

Answer requests

On the Requests tab, choose Accept or Decline.

• Accept: choose one of your offers, or set a custom name, price and type. The client gets an email with a link to the payment page.
• Decline: add a note if you want. The client sees it.

The price and the fee are fixed when you accept. A later change to the offer or the fee does not change an accepted request.

Clients and earnings

• Clients lists each paid engagement, with a link to its project.
• Earnings shows what clients paid, the brand fees and your share. Choose Stripe dashboard to see payouts, every retainer payment and tax forms.

Manage the marketplace

Owners and admins open Manage advisors in the Advisory panel.

• Applications: read each profile and its offers. Choose Approve and set the fee, or Decline with a note.
• Advisors: change an advisor's fee, Pause a live profile, or List again.
• Engagements: every paid engagement, with the price and the brand fee.

Settings

In Company settings, on the Advisory tab:

Setting	What it does
Name for one, Name for many	The label people see, such as Consultant and Consultants
Default fee	The fee for new advisors, from 0 to 50 percent
Currency	The currency of new offers
Approve new profiles without review	Lists profiles when the advisor applies

Engagement projects

When Stripe confirms a payment, Advisory opens a project in the Projects app:

• The name is the client's name and the offer, such as "Acme Inc: Growth retainer".
• The project is secret. Only its members see it.
• The advisor owns the project. The client joins it as an editor.

When a retainer ends, the engagement shows Ended. The project and its data stay.

Set up payments

The company's Stripe account is the Stripe Connect platform. Each advisor has a connected Express account. Advisory uses destination charges: the client pays the platform, Stripe sends the advisor's share to their account, and the platform keeps the fee.

1. In Stripe, turn on Connect for the platform account.

2. Set these secrets with npx wrangler secret put NAME:

   Secret	Value
   ADVISORY_STRIPE_SECRET_KEY	The platform's Stripe secret key
   ADVISORY_STRIPE_WEBHOOK_SECRET	The signing secret of the webhook in step 3

3. In Stripe, add a webhook endpoint at https://<your site>/api/apps/advisory/stripe-webhook. Send these events: checkout.session.completed, checkout.session.async_payment_succeeded, customer.subscription.updated and customer.subscription.deleted.

Advisory uses its own Stripe key. Plans use STRIPE_SECRET_KEY, so the money for plans and the money for advisors never mix.

Without the key, members can still send consult requests, and advisors can still accept them. Nobody can pay until the key is set.

How it works

• Data: five tables, all with a company_id: advisory_settings, advisory_advisors, advisory_offers, advisory_requests and advisory_engagements. Photos are in R2 under advisory/<company id>/.
• Fees are stored in basis points (1,500 is 15%). A one-time payment sends a fixed application_fee_amount. A retainer sends application_fee_percent.
• Payment confirmation comes from the webhook, and from the payment page when the client comes back from Stripe. Both are safe to run twice. Only the first one opens the project.
• A person who leaves the company: their profile is paused, and their open requests close. Paid engagements stay as records.
• Booking: a separate Booking app is planned. When it is installed, Advisory will add a Pick a time step. Advisory lists Booking in optionalApps.

Open questions

• Can a client hire advisors without a paid membership?
• How do refunds and disputes work? Today, refund in the Stripe dashboard.
• Do clients rate or review advisors?
• Does Booking need more calendars after Google and Microsoft?