Guides
Getting started with Cairn
Short videos, each worked through in the real product with a fictional example. Watch them in order, or go straight to the one you need. Every video has captions and a transcript.
Guide 1 · 1:56
Create and publish a procedure
Write down how your team carries out a piece of work, step by step, with the evidence each step needs. Then publish it, so every record follows the same version. The example is a formal complaints procedure.
Read the transcript
Create and publish a procedure. Worked example: Formal complaint handling.
A procedure is the repeatable work your team follows. You write it once, and every record follows it.
Give it a clear name. Cairn creates a stable code for it automatically.
Say what a record can be about. Here, a complaint is always about a Customer.
It starts as Draft v1. Nothing is live until you publish it.
Each step is something that needs to happen, in the order you'd expect it done.
List the evidence that shows it was done, and the forms it can take.
Required means it should always happen. Nothing is blocked: if it is skipped, the record says so.
Save, and the step joins the draft.
Add the rest the same way.
Some steps need a result as well as evidence.
Outcomes record what a step found. Here: was the complaint upheld?
Four more steps, the same way.
Read it through as your team will see it: every step, the evidence it needs, and its outcomes.
Need sign-off first? Download the procedure report to share it.
When it's right, publish it.
A published version is fixed. Every record started from now on follows it.
Need a change later? Start a new draft. Records already running keep the version they began with.
Formal complaint handling is live. Next: start a record from it, and the steps are there to follow.
Guide 2 · 1:31
Draft a procedure from a document
Already have the procedure written down? Upload the document and Cairn's assistant drafts it as a procedure for you to review, says what it assumed, and changes what you ask. What it proposes in this video is its real output for the example document, a complaints procedure saved as a PDF.
Read the transcript
Draft a procedure from a document. Worked example: an existing complaint handling procedure, as a PDF.
Most teams already have their procedures written down. Start from that document.
Here, Ashby Lane's complaint handling procedure, as a PDF. Word and Excel work too.
Choose Add Procedure, then Draft from a document.
Add anything the document doesn't say, in your own words.
The text is sent to Cairn's AI provider to draft the procedure. Nothing is published without you.
Cairn reads the text of the document. The file itself is deleted as soon as it has been read.
Then the assistant drafts. This one took 47 seconds.
The assistant proposes a whole procedure: steps, evidence and outcomes.
It says what it assumed, so you can check it against how you actually work.
It flags its judgement calls too, like counting a partially upheld complaint as adverse.
Check every step. What you accept is exactly what you see here.
Want something different? Say so in plain words.
It redrafts the whole proposal with your change. This one took 16 seconds.
A full replacement proposal. Only what you asked for has changed.
Accept, and Cairn creates the draft exactly as proposed.
It's an ordinary draft, marked as AI-assisted. Edit it, then publish it as in the first guide.
Your document is now a draft procedure. Review it, edit anything you need, and publish it when it is right.
Guide 3 · 2:40
Run a record
Start a record from a published procedure and work through it: attach evidence, record outcomes, and see what Cairn keeps when a step does not go to plan. The example follows one customer complaint from first contact to final response.
Read the transcript
Run a record. Worked example: a customer complaint, from first contact to final response.
A record is one run of a procedure: this complaint, for this customer.
Choose the procedure, then who the record is about.
Cairn names the record for you. You can change the name if you like.
It gets its own reference, and follows the procedure version it was started from.
Link anything else the record concerns. Cairn suggests what's related to the customer.
The current step is open: what it's for, the evidence it needs, and your team's guidance.
Attach the evidence, and say when it happened, not just when it was filed.
When it's done, complete the step. The next one opens.
Acknowledged the same morning.
Evidence can be a file, a link, or a written statement.
Add a comment for anyone who picks the case up later.
Record what the investigation found.
Choose the outcome. An adverse outcome always needs a note.
Refund and goodwill payment made the next day.
The final response went out by email, but no copy was saved to the record.
Nothing stops the work. Cairn records the exception and asks why.
A step that doesn't apply can be skipped, with the reason.
Root cause recorded, so it doesn't happen again.
Every exception and advisory, in one place, with who recorded it and why.
Every step is completed or skipped, so the record can be completed.
Everything that happened is in the audit trail: who did what, and when.
Generate a PDF report for anyone who needs to see it.
And see the record exactly as it stood on any date.
On 9 October, three steps were done. Anything later is hidden, and nothing can be changed.
The complaint is closed, and on the record. Every step, the evidence behind it, and the reasons when plans changed.
Guide 4 · 1:13
Import subjects from a CSV file
Bring the people, organisations and things your records are about into Cairn in bulk, from a spreadsheet or another system's export. The example imports a month of customers from a CRM.
Read the transcript
Import subjects from a CSV file. Worked example: customers exported from a CRM.
Start from a spreadsheet or an export from another system, saved as CSV: one row per subject.
Name and ExternalIdentifier are required. Description and Active are optional.
The external identifier is how Cairn recognises a subject, so the same export can be imported again.
Imports are under Data.
Every import is listed, with what it did.
Choose Subject, and the type you're importing: here, Customer.
Check the separator and encoding match your file. Cairn remembers your choice.
Add the file. Cairn scans it, then imports it in the background.
The counts update as it runs.
New subjects are added, changes are updated, and unchanged rows are skipped. So re-importing is safe.
Columns Cairn doesn't use are ignored, with a warning.
Every row is accounted for: added, updated, or failed with the reason.
Filter to the failures to see exactly what to fix.
Download just the failed rows, correct them, and import that file.
The new customers are ready to use, each with its own Cairn reference.
Your customers are in Cairn. Import next month's export the same way. Only what changed is updated.
Questions
Stuck, or want a guide we have not made yet?
Write to hello@cairnriver.io. Every message is read and answered by the founder.