The Canvas
The Canvas is the main working surface in Lens. Every engagement has one Canvas — a single structured workspace where you add data, review synthesized summaries, read findings, and refine the document before sign-off.
The Canvas has three columns on desktop.
The three columns
Left — Section Rail
The Section Rail is your navigation and progress tracker. It lists all the audit stages grouped by phase (Acquire, Engage, Service, Retain, Roll-Up). Each stage shows:
- A number that updates live as you include or remove stages
- A checkmark when the stage has been reviewed (notes or a summary exists)
- A warning badge if the stage has high-impact areas that are missing data
At the bottom of the Section Rail, the Total Opportunity chip shows the de-duplicated, dealer-addressable impact total across all findings so far. This updates as you work through stages.
You can remove a stage from the report by clicking the × next to its name. The stage moves to a “Removed” section at the bottom of the rail and can be restored at any time with the ↺ button.
On mobile, the Section Rail is replaced by the Stage Stepper — a sticky bar at the top of the screen with Previous and Next arrows, a stage counter, and a picker to jump to any stage. The Total Opportunity appears inline.
Middle — Section Workspace
The main workspace shows the content for the currently selected stage. Each stage workspace has the same structure:
Upload area — a drop zone where you can upload DMS exports, call logs, MPI reports, inspection sheets, or any relevant file (PDF, XLSX, CSV, PNG, JPG). Lens extracts and processes the content. Suggested uploads relevant to the current stage are listed as hints in the drop zone.
Notes — a free-form text area for your observations, interview notes, and any context that does not come from a structured file. Type naturally — Lens works from your words.
Summary — once you have provided input, Lens produces a structured summary: a narrative paragraph and a list of specific findings from that stage. This appears below your notes automatically.
Digging Deeper — after the first input, Lens may ask one targeted follow-up question to sharpen the key finding for this stage. It asks the question that would move the most uncertain high-impact area forward. You answer in the text box. Lens asks at most a few questions per stage — once there is enough data to proceed, the thread closes.
The Engagement Profile stage — the first stage in every engagement — has a different layout. It has a presenting-problem text area and a Key Indicators block (see below) rather than a drop zone and notes. It is the only stage where you describe the dealership in free-form prose.
The Synthesis stage — the final stage — shows the roll-up metrics, the Total Opportunity, and all findings as expandable cards. It is the roll-up of everything you have done across the other stages.
Right — Feedback Rail
The Feedback Rail shows all the open comments on the current engagement. Comments are created by selecting text anywhere in the workspace and clicking 💬 Add feedback. Each comment stays open until you resolve it.
When you click Resolve → on a comment, the edit is applied back into the document. The comment closes and the document version advances.
When the Feedback Rail is closed, a small tab at the edge of the screen shows the count of open comments.
The Engagement Profile stage
The Engagement Profile is the foundation of every audit. It has two parts:
Presenting problem — a free-form description of the dealership and why you were brought in. Write naturally, the way you would in a briefing note. Lens extracts key indicators from your text automatically.
Key Indicators — a collapsible block showing the facts Lens has extracted from your profile text plus any you add manually. Each indicator has a value and a trust level: verified (backed by hard data) or est. (a consultant estimate). Click any value to edit it. Click the trust badge to toggle between verified and estimate.
Key Indicators serve three roles:
- They are available to Lens when analysing each stage, so findings are contextualised to this specific dealership
- They surface in the executive summary section of the signed report, so the Dealer Principal sees their own operation’s profile
- Indicators with lower trust are flagged so the reader knows which figures are estimates
The bottom toolbar
The bottom toolbar persists across all stages and contains:
- Engagement details — the dealership name and a save status indicator (Saving / Saved / Sync issue)
- Working / Principal toggle — switch between the consultant’s working view and the clean principal view. This toggle controls what you see in both the Canvas and the Report modal.
- View report — opens the full report in a modal, assembled from everything in the current document
Saving
Lens saves automatically as you work. The save status indicator in the bottom toolbar shows whether there are pending writes, a successful save, or a sync issue.
If you lose your connection, Lens queues your changes and retries when the connection is restored. You will see a “Sync issue” indicator if a save fails — it will resolve automatically.