Beside works in the background all day, and you decide how much of it happens without you. There are three controls, and they do different jobs.

Autonomy sets how much Beside can handle on its own, for each part of your business.
Phone permissions, in the same place, name the individual things your agent may do with your line.
The requests under Needs human review are the individual things it needs from you right now.

Set your autonomy

Open Settings from the left menu, then Autonomy. You set a level for each of four parts of your business, not one setting for everything - so you can let Beside run freely on your reviews while keeping a hand on your ads.

The three choices

Choice	What it means
Always ask	Beside asks for your approval before every action. Nothing goes out until you say so.
Always allow	Beside acts without asking for your approval.
Deny	Beside never performs these actions, and stops suggesting them.

The same three choices appear on each area and on the individual actions underneath it. A fourth label, Custom, shows up when the actions inside one area are not all set the same way. It is a read-out of what you have already chosen, not an option you pick.

The four areas, and what each costs

Area	What it covers	Credits when work ships
Customer messages	Texts, emails, follow-ups, nurture, and booking confirmations	20
Reviews & Google profile	Review replies, profile updates, and the updates Beside posts to your Google profile. Applies once Google Business is connected.	50
Ads	Campaign builds, optimizations, and account changes. Applies once Google Ads is connected.	50 to 2,500
Website	Page edits and publication, new pages, and full site builds	25 to 1,500

✅ Ads never runs on its own: Always allow is not offered on the Ads dial at all, because Google Ads asks for your approval on every change to your ad account. Beside still does the work around it by itself: building the plan, auditing, running optimization cycles and writing reports. The moment it would change the account, it comes to you.

Drafts and approvals are free. Credits are only used when completed work actually ships, so a higher autonomy level does not cost you more by itself - it changes who presses the button, not the price. 📖 Understand your plan and credits

💡 A good starting point: Leave Customer messages on Always ask while you get a feel for how Beside writes - it is the one that talks to your customers in your name. Reviews & Google profile is usually the first area people move to Always allow, because an unanswered review costs more than an imperfect reply.

Permissions on your line

Autonomy is the broad dial. In the same Settings → Autonomy section, the three things your agent might do with your phone line are set on their own:

Send proactive texts - agent-drafted texts following up with leads and customers
Update Receptionist - business knowledge, greetings and answering instructions
Adjust line settings - business hours, voicemail and call handling

Each takes the same three choices as the areas above, and shows Custom when the actions inside it are not all set the same way.

📌 These used to sit on a Permissions tab in Text & Call: That page moved into Settings, and the phone permissions moved here, next to the autonomy levels they work with. The settings themselves are unchanged, and older links still open the right section.

📌 These govern your agent, not your Receptionist: They decide what Beside may change or send on its own. Update Receptionist is about whether your agent may rewrite it, never about whether it answers. Your Receptionist keeps answering your calls and texts either way, and your own edits are never blocked by them.

📖 Beside Agentic and your Beside phone line

What Beside asks you for

Whatever your autonomy, some things still come to you. They appear under Needs human review on your Beside Agent page, with Skip and Approve buttons on the right.

There are three sorts:

What it says	What it is
Connect Google Business Profile	A tool Beside needs plugged in before it can work on that part of your business.
Beside wants to use Ads	Permission to work with a connected tool.
Beside wants to run this plan	A specific piece of work, ready to go. Each one is tagged with the part of Beside it belongs to - Website, Ads, Beside Phone.

Open any of them before deciding: a plan shows you what Beside noticed, what it would change, and how it will know the job is done. Where it has proposed a particular value, you can revise it rather than approving or skipping outright.

📖 See what Beside did for you

💡 You can always check afterwards: Every finished task records Who approved it, and says plainly whether you approved it or Beside acted under the autonomy you granted. Nothing Beside does is untraceable.

Connecting a tool is not the same as allowing it

Connecting lets Beside read a tool. Acting with it is asked separately, and your autonomy level then decides how much of that acting happens without you.

You can see everything you have connected, and connect more, from Settings → Connectors. 📖 Connect your tools to Beside Agentic

📌 Not the same as your plan: Your plan, Standard or Pro, sets how many credits you get each month. Autonomy sets what Beside is allowed to do with them. You can see your plan on Plan & Credits. 📖 Understand your plan and credits

FAQ

Can I change my autonomy later?

Yes, at any time, from the same Settings → Autonomy section - in either direction. Nothing about the choice is permanent, and you can narrow one area while widening another.

What does Deny do?

It takes that work off the table. Beside will not carry those actions out, and it stops proposing them, so they no longer reach your approval queue either. Use it for the parts of your business you would rather Beside left alone entirely. Always ask is the choice to make when you still want the suggestions.

My area says Custom. What does that mean?

The individual actions inside that area are not all set the same way, usually because you changed one of them on its own. Open the area to see each action and its own choice. Picking one of the three choices on the area itself sets them all back to the same thing.

Autonomy or phone permissions - which one wins?

The stricter one. Autonomy sets how much Beside handles across an area; the phone permissions name what it may do with your line specifically. If a permission says Always ask, that holds even when the area is on Always allow. Both are in Settings → Autonomy.

Does a higher autonomy level cost me more credits?

Not by itself. Credits are only spent when completed work ships, and a shipped deliverable costs the same whether you approved it or Beside sent it under Always allow. What changes is how much gets done - if you were leaving approvals unanswered, more work will now go out.

I have not answered a request. Is Beside blocked?

No. Beside keeps doing everything it is already allowed to do. Only the work that depends on that specific answer waits, and it stays under Needs human review until you deal with it.

Can Beside spend my money on its own?

Beside spends credits, never money. It pauses new work when your credits reach zero rather than billing you for more. The one place real money is involved is your ad spend, and every change to your ad account comes to you for approval: Always allow is not offered on Ads. 📖 Understand your plan and credits

Will Beside tell me when it acts?

Everything Beside did, is doing, and has planned is listed on your Beside Agent page, each item with its own record of what happened and who approved it. If you would rather be told on your phone, your agent can text you what needs an answer. 📖 Get your agent's updates by text

Choose what Beside can do on its own