How to do specific things in Counsel.day.
A working set of task-based answers for the most common things people need to do inside Counsel.day. Each section is one job. Each job is a numbered set of steps. If the article does not cover what you need, the last section tells you how to reach a person who will read your message and reply.
How to start a decision.
Every Counsel.day decision begins with two choices: the question, and the duration. The question is the single sentence you and your partner will vote on every evening. The duration is the number of days the question runs before the verdict opens. You set both at the start; you can extend the duration later, never shorten it.
- Open the evening vote from the main navigation or from your account dashboard.
- Select Begin a new decision. If you have not signed in, you will be asked to create an account or sign in first.
- Write the question as a single sentence in the form Should we ...? Aim for one decision, not a cluster of related ones.
- Choose a duration. A fortnight suits a deadline-bound question; a month suits most career and home questions; sixty to ninety days suits partnership, family, and reproduction.
- Confirm the question and duration. The decision is now live; you will be prompted to cast your first vote that evening.
How to invite a partner.
A Couple or Family decision needs a second voter. The invite is sent from inside the decision; it expires after seven days; you can resend it as often as you need.
- Open the decision from your dashboard and select Invite partner.
- Enter your partner's email address. The address is checked against the active account list; new addresses receive a sign-up link.
- Your partner receives an email with a single-use link valid for seven days; the link is bound to the email address it was sent to.
- When your partner accepts, the decision flips to active for both and the first joint evening vote opens at the next 19:00 local time.
- If the invite expires, open the decision and select Resend invite. You will not lose the votes you have already cast.
How to pause or cancel a decision.
You may pause a decision for up to fourteen days at a time. You may cancel a decision at any point before the verdict day. A cancelled decision is permanently destroyed; a paused decision resumes from where it stopped.
- Open the decision and select Pause or Cancel from the decision menu.
- Confirm the action. A pause keeps every vote already cast; a cancel destroys every vote, every note, and the question itself.
- If you paused, resume by opening the decision and selecting Resume; the verdict date moves forward by the number of paused days.
- If you cancelled by mistake, contact help@counsel.day within seven days; we can sometimes restore from the encrypted nightly backup, never from the live database.
How to export a verdict.
Once a decision reaches its verdict day, you can export the full record (votes, notes, analysis, synthesis, prompt) as a single PDF, or download the underlying data as JSON. The export is generated on demand; we do not store the exported file.
- Open the closed decision from your dashboard.
- Select Export in the verdict view. You will be offered PDF (formatted) or JSON (raw).
- The export is generated and streamed to your browser; it is not saved on our servers. Save the file to a place you trust.
- If you ever want a clean copy again, return to the same decision and re-export; the data does not change.
How to switch plans.
Solo, Couple, and Family are the three editions. You can move up or down at any time. Upgrades take effect immediately; downgrades take effect at the end of your current billing period. All pricing is in USD.
- Open Billing from your account menu.
- Select Change plan and pick the new edition. The new amount is shown as, for example, $99 USD per year, never bare.
- Confirm the change. An upgrade is charged a pro-rated amount immediately; a downgrade keeps you on the higher tier until the period ends.
- Active decisions are preserved across plan changes; the only thing that changes is what you can start next.
How to recover from a missed vote.
If you miss an evening, the decision does not break. The missed evening is recorded as no vote, the trajectory carries forward from the last vote you cast, and the verdict analysis treats absences as part of the pattern. You cannot back-fill a vote for an earlier day; the design is deliberate.
- Open the decision the next evening. The dashboard shows the previous day as no vote.
- Cast tonight's vote as normal. The decision continues; the verdict day does not move.
- If you missed several evenings in a row, consider pausing the decision for a few days while life settles; resume when you can return to the rhythm.
- If a partner has missed many evenings, the verdict still publishes; the analysis is honest about how many evenings each of you contributed.
How to reach a person.
Email is the only support channel and the only one we want. We reply within one business day on weekdays, two on weekends. There is no phone line and no chat widget; the email inbox is read by a person, not a queue.
- For product help, write to help@counsel.day. Include the decision name if your question is decision-specific.
- For privacy and data requests, write to privacy@counsel.day. Subject access requests are processed within thirty days.
- For security concerns, write to security@counsel.day. See the security page for the responsible-disclosure policy.
- For press, write to press@counsel.day. See the press kit first; most journalist questions are answered there.
How to delete your account.
Account deletion is a one-step destructive action. Every decision, every vote, every note, every verdict is destroyed across both the live database and the encrypted backups within thirty days. There is no recovery once the action is confirmed; export anything you want to keep first.
- Open your account and scroll to Delete account.
- Read the warning. If you have shared decisions, your partner's record of those decisions is also destroyed.
- Type your email address to confirm. The deletion runs immediately; the email receipt is the only artefact that remains.
- If you change your mind, contact privacy@counsel.day within seventy-two hours; we can sometimes recover from backup before the thirty-day purge completes.
How to change your evening-vote reminder time.
The default evening reminder lands at 19:00 in your local time zone. You can set a different time per device, between 17:00 and 22:00; we will not deliver reminders outside that window.
- Open your account and select Notifications.
- Set the new reminder time. Times are in your device's local zone; we do not track or store your zone, only the offset.
- Save. The change applies to every active decision on this account from the next evening onward.
- To stop reminders entirely, set delivery to off; you can still cast votes manually any evening from your dashboard.