A step-by-step guide, plan by plan

1. Sign up. Go to Sign in. Type your company email address. We email you a link. Press the link to sign in. There is no password.

2. Or use Google or Microsoft. On the same page, press Sign in with Google or Sign in with Microsoft and choose your work account. We only ask for your email address. It works just like the emailed link.

3. Or start from our homepage. Type your work email and website into a Build my briefing box. We build your first briefing straight away, email you a link to it, and set up your Home at the same time, in the background, so it is ready when you first sign in: the public record of your company, the licences, government data, all-party groups and open tenders that fit you, and on Briefed and Engaged your company profile and your first Who Matters map. We do this once for your company, and it does not use any of your monthly allowances. On Track the company profile and maps come with Briefed, and Home says so.

4. Check your website. We work it out from your email address and ask, for example, “We think your website is acme.com. Is that right?” Press Yes and we read it and build your briefing from it. If it is a different site, press No, it’s a different site and type it.

5. Pick your competitors. Once your profile is ready, we suggest up to five companies that won public contracts or grants for the things you make. Press Add on any you want to watch. Nothing is added unless you press. On paid plans.

6. Say how many people work for you. One question, asked once: pick a band, or press Skip this. Some new legal duties start at a certain size, so it tells us which apply to you. It is the same answer as on New rules: start dates, so you only give it once.

7. Kept up to date. On a paid plan we read your website again once a month. If it now mentions a new product, sector, market or regulator, Home asks “Your site now mentions X. Add it to your briefing?” Press Add and your briefing and alerts look for it from then on, or Not now and we will not ask about it again. Nothing changes unless you press.

1. Read the top three. Each week you get the three updates from government and lawmakers that matter most to you. Each one has a line on why it is there. To change the day and time, go to your account.

2. See what else there was. Underneath, greyed out, are the titles of up to five more items we found for you that week. Press Unlock this week’s full briefing to read them all.

3. Upgrade in one press. That button opens the Briefed plan with your email address already filled in. Tick the box to start today, then pay on Stripe’s page. The link works for seven days. It does not sign you in.

1. One list. Home shows everything Seam has ready for you, soonest first: consultations to respond to, drafts to approve, letters and FOI requests due a chase, meetings to follow up, new legal duties starting within 30 days, changes on your Who Matters maps, what the government decided on a consultation you responded to, committee evidence of yours that has been published, the tenders, grants and consultations you track, introductions worth sending before a tender, questions your MP has asked on your subjects, and once a quarter an invitation to your MP to visit. Which of these you see depends on your plan.

2. Do it. Each line has one button. It opens the draft or the screen, ready to go. Nothing is sent until you press send there.

3. In your Monday email too. Your weekly briefing carries the same list, up to six lines, under To do this week. Each line has its due date and a link that opens the right screen. On Engaged it also suggests up to two letters, such as “Write to the minister about this?” on the week’s biggest announcements. When there is nothing to do, there is no list.

1. Found for you. We take your registered office postcode from Companies House and find your MP. You do not need to type anything. Have other UK sites? Add up to three more postcodes in Settings › Your MPs and we find the MP for each.

2. On Home. Each MP’s party, seat and the committees they sit on, and the written and oral questions they have asked in Parliament on your subjects in the last 90 days. On Briefed you also see their roles in all-party groups on your subjects.

3. Watched every weekday. When your MP asks a question on your subjects, it goes on your To do list for a week and into your Monday email. We read Parliament’s written and oral questions. We cannot see who spoke in a debate, so speeches are not included.

4. Invite your MP to visit. In the first month of each quarter your To do list suggests it. Press it and the letter builder opens with your MP and the invitation filled in. Nothing is drafted until you press Draft, and nothing is sent until you approve it. Press Not now and we ask again next quarter. Letters come with Engaged.

5. Kept up to date. After a by-election we show the new MP by ourselves. In Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland we say who else represents you, but we do not hold their parliaments’ lists of members yet, so we cannot name them.

6. The same for everyone. We show every MP the same way, whatever their party, and we never say what we think of them.

1. See every email we send. The weekly briefing, the afternoon meeting email, consultations to respond to, draft reminders, letters due a chase, FOI requests due a chase, changes on your maps, letter suggestions, opportunities you track, usage notices, big-moment notes, what the government decided on your responses, your committee evidence once published, your MPs in Parliament, and “Is this still right?” check-ins.

2. Pick one of three for each. As it happens sends it on its own, as now. In Monday’s email holds it for the To do this week list in your weekly briefing, so you get fewer emails. Off stops it. Some emails only offer two of these. Your choice saves when you press it.

3. Some always come. Sign-in links, receipts, legal notices and replies to emails you forward to Seam cannot be turned off. The “Stop” link at the foot of an email still works too.

4. Two switches under the list. Use what I open to improve my briefing is on unless you turn it off: we count which items you open from our emails and show you a little more of the same kind. Fewer items in my weekly briefing keeps it to the five strongest each week.

5. If you go quiet. If you have not used Seam for about a month, we send one email showing how we read your company, with a link to fix each part. It comes at most once every two months, and never in your first month.

1. Press Track this. It sits under every tender, planned contract, funding call and open consultation in your briefing, and beside those dates under Coming up on Home. Press Untrack to stop.

2. It goes on your list and your calendar. A tracked item joins your To do list with its closing date, and your Seam calendar under Opportunities you track. That box is ticked unless you untick it in Settings.

3. We remind you twice. About a week before it closes, and again two days before. Choose in Settings › Emails whether the reminder comes on its own, in your Monday email, or not at all.

4. We watch it each morning. We tell you if the closing date moves, if a newer notice for the same tender appears, if a planned contract’s tender comes out, if a funding call stops being listed before its deadline, or if a consultation closes early, gets new documents or has its response published.

5. What we cannot see. A tender being cancelled or withdrawn, the questions and answers on a buyer’s own tender portal, or a consultation being withdrawn. Our data does not show them, so check the notice itself before you rely on a date.

1. Which consultations. The ones your company responded to through Seam, is drafting a response to, pressed Track this on, or saw in its weekly briefing in the last six months. Once a consultation has closed, Seam works out when the government is likely to publish its response.

2. Where you see it. Under Coming up for you in your Monday email, in your briefing in Seam and on Home. Four at most, the ones you answered first.

3. How to read it. Each line gives the chance in words, such as “about a 1 in 4 chance by late January, and about a 2 in 5 chance by late April”. It also says what that rests on: the department and how many of its past consultations we counted.

4. When we say less. Where our past forecasts of a given size were not reliable, the line says the timing is uncertain instead of giving a figure. We say nothing when a consultation closed more than two years ago, or its department has too little history. How good are these forecasts?

5. When the response comes. The line goes. If you responded through Seam, we then show what the government did with each of your points.

1. Open the platform. Sign in, open the Ask menu and choose Ask a question. Or type in the search box at the top of any page.

2. Type a question in plain English. For example “What is government doing about grid connections?” Press Enter and wait a few seconds.

3. Read the answer and its sources. The answer comes as short bullet points. Each source is a link to the original document.

4. See what is left. Once you have used half of a monthly allowance, a small note beside the button says how many are left, such as “2 of 5 left this month”. The same goes for tender searches, licence checks, data suggestions, FOI requests and Who Matters maps.

5. When none are left. The note says when more arrive, and offers the next step beside it. On a paid plan you can press Buy more questions to add a pack straight away. Otherwise the button names the plan that gives you more, and how many.

1. Search the tenders. In Ask a question, choose List the records and type what you sell. It shows open contracts you could bid for.

2. Already done for you. On a paid plan we run this search once for your company’s own words, when your company profile is first built. It does not use any of your tender searches. The open tenders it finds are on your Home screen under Show more, as Open tenders for you, leaving out any already under Coming up.

1. Open it. Go to Licences you may need. In the platform it is under Ask.

2. Describe your company, or paste your website. Say what you sell or make, who your customers are and where in the UK you work. A few sentences is enough, or paste your website.

3. Read what may apply. Each licence, registration or regulator sandbox shows the regulator, the fee, how long it usually takes and a link to apply. This is general information, not legal advice. Check with the regulator before you rely on it.

4. Already done for you. On a paid plan we run this check once, when your company profile is first built. It does not use any of your monthly checks. You see the top results in Get started, and the full answer when you open the page.

1. Open it. Go to Government data you can use. In the platform it is under Ask.

2. Describe your company. If Seam already has your company profile, we fill in the box for you. Press Suggest data.

3. Already done for you. On a paid plan we make these suggestions once, when your company profile is first built, free of your monthly allowance. They are waiting when you open the page.

1. Open it. Open Monitor at the top of the platform, or go to Funding and support. Your Home screen shows the first few under Show more, and founders see the best two under Money on the table.

2. Two lists. Fits your company shows only the schemes nothing rules you out of. All schemes has every one, to search and filter by type of support, region and stage.

3. Read why each is there. Each one is a government-backed loan, equity scheme, grant or advice service from GOV.UK’s business support finder. The line above it says what kind of support it is, and whether it is for your industry or your region.

4. Check it fits. We match GOV.UK’s own labels for each scheme (region, size, stage and industry) against your Companies House record and company profile. Press a scheme to read GOV.UK’s page, which links to the provider.

5. Should we apply? Press it under a scheme on Home, or under a funding call or Innovate UK competition in your briefing. You get one short check: company size, age, where you are, the kind of organisation, whether you need a partner and how much of the cost you must cover. Each says Likely meets, Check, Does not meet or Not stated, with the reason, then an overall answer. It uses fixed rules, your Companies House record and your staff and turnover answers on New rules. Many calls say little in their summary, so read the call before you decide. On a funding call, Track this puts its deadline on your To do list.

6. New this week, in your email. When a scheme new to GOV.UK’s finder fits your company, your weekly email says so under Funding: up to three, each with its name, the type of support and a link to GOV.UK. Weeks with nothing new have no Funding section.

1. Open it. Go to Freedom of Information request.

2. Say what you want to know. Write it in your own words, for example “how many drone licences the CAA approved last year”. Then press Write my request.

3. See if it has been asked before. Before writing anything, Seam looks on WhatDoTheyKnow, the public archive of Freedom of Information requests. If someone has asked much the same thing, you see up to three links. The answer may already be there. Press Write my request anyway to carry on. Looking does not use up your monthly request.

4. Check and send. Seam picks the public body and writes the Freedom of Information request. Edit it if you like. Then send it from your own email, or download it as a letter. Seam counts the 20 working days. If the answer is late, Seam drafts a chase.

5. Let Seam keep track. If you use Outlook, connect it and switch on Look for replies. Seam then spots the request in your Sent Items and starts counting the 20 working days, and spots the answer when it comes. It sees only who sent a message, when and its subject, never the text. With Gmail or anything else, forward the answer to the Seam address shown on your request, and Seam marks the request answered. You can still tell Seam yourself.

6. If they say no. When the answer comes, Seam asks whether you got what you asked for. If it was refused or only partly answered, press the button and Seam drafts a request for an internal review.

1. Set it up once. Go to Settings › Your briefing. Answer the set-up questions about your company, what you do, the subjects you care about and anything you already watch.

2. Build it. Press See my briefing. Every item has a plain-English line saying why it is there.

3. Teach it. Press Useful or Not relevant on any item. Not relevant asks if you want to remove the item. Your next briefing then shows fewer like it. Useful does the opposite. Opening an item from your email counts too, a little less than Useful.

4. Look back. We list past briefings under the current one.

5. Pass an item on. Press Pass to… under any item and pick a colleague, or type their address. We email them that one item, with why it is in your briefing and the link to the source, and say it came from you. Only people at your own company.

1. Email. It goes to your address by default. Press Change to send it somewhere else, such as a shared policy inbox.

2. Slack or Microsoft Teams. Press Connect a channel and follow the three steps. We send a test message so you know it worked.

3. Act on an item from the channel. Each item posted to Slack or Teams has five buttons: Useful, Not relevant, Pass to…, Track this and Write to the minister. Useful and Not relevant teach your briefing, as the same buttons in Seam do. Pass to emails the item to a colleague at your own company, after you press Send. In Slack, with Seam added through Add to Slack, the buttons work in Slack and only you see the reply. You need to be on the Seam account that connected the channel. In Teams, and in Slack without the Seam app, each button opens Seam with the item ready.

4. Your calendar. Press Add to Google Calendar, Add to Outlook or Add to Apple Calendar. That adds one Seam calendar, which stays up to date by itself. Underneath, tick what it includes: closing dates from your briefings, every consultation or tender, new legal duties that apply to you, the next sittings of bills you follow, and more. The same link changes when you change the ticks, so you never add it twice. The New rules: start dates and Laws in progress pages add the same calendar.

5. Your podcast app. Turn on your own Seam Daily on the Seam Daily page. Then press Add to your podcast app, there or here, choose a sector and press Copy. Paste the address into your podcast app (“Add by URL”) once. Each weekday’s episode about your company, and your sector’s, then arrives by itself. The address is private to you. Stop my podcast address ends it. To change the sector later, choose another there or here: the address in your podcast app stays the same and carries the new sector from the next episode.

6. Your week. Each Friday the same podcast feed also gets Your week: up to ten minutes on your company alone, from that week’s briefing, your To do list and what is coming up. How long it runs depends on how much happened that week. It comes with the Briefed and Engaged plans. To stop it, press Your week on Fridays on the Seam Daily page, or choose Off here.

7. Ask about an episode. Under any Seam Daily episode, press Ask about this episode and type a follow-up, such as “tell me more about the second story”. Where your browser can, press Speak and say it instead. The answer comes only from that episode and its sources, which are linked. Each question uses one from your monthly Ask allowance. When Seam opens on WhatsApp, you will be able to ask there too, by typing or with a voice note.

8. The right items to the right colleague. Add colleagues to your mailing list, then press Choose what to send them under a name. Pick tenders, consultations, Parliament or any of the other groups, and each Monday they get just those items. Leave them all off and they get the whole briefing.

9. Watched terms. Your Slack or Teams alerts fire the day something new names one, and your weekly briefing picks it up. Press Suggest some and we offer up to 15 from your company profile: your name, your products, the competitors you watch and your regulators. Remove any you do not want, then press Add these. Briefed watches 25, Engaged 100.

1. On the day. When a Budget, Spring Statement, Spending Review, King’s Speech or the Industrial Strategy is published, you get a note that afternoon. It says what changed for your company, what did not, and what to do. After a King’s Speech it says what the bills would change, because a bill is only a plan until Parliament passes it.

2. Every line has its source. We read the government’s own documents. Each line links to the sentence it comes from, and we check every sentence word for word against the document. A person checks the notes before any are sent.

3. On Home for a week. The note stays at the top of Home for seven days. On Track you get the short version: the changes most companies’ notes picked.

4. Party manifestos. When a party publishes its manifesto, you get the parts that affect what you do, in the party’s own words, with a link to each. We send the same note for every party with seats in the House of Commons, and we never say whether a proposal is good or bad for you.

5. Before a general election. Once every party’s manifesto is out, you get one email that sets them side by side under each of your subjects. Parties come in alphabetical order, each with the same number of short quotes and a link. It ends with questions you can ask every candidate.

6. Turn them off. Go to Settings › Emails and set Big moments to Off.

1. Ask a question. Type it in plain English. The answer comes as bullet points, with each source linked. We flag results more than three months old.

2. Questions about a regulator. If you name one, such as Ofgem or the FCA, you also get a ready-made search of that regulator’s own website.

3. Watch what you ask about. Under an answer, press Watch this for me and we add a word or two from your question to your watched terms. Ask about the same thing twice and we offer it more plainly.

4. Search every source yourself. Open the Search console under the answer. Type your words. Narrow the results by source or date.

5. Hear about new results. Press Alert me to new results under a search. You then get an alert in Slack or Teams when something new matches it, in the sources you ticked. It counts as one of your watched terms.

6. Search by company. Paste a company’s website to search for what it does.

1. Describe your issue. Say in your own words what you are trying to change. Then press Find who matters.

2. Read the map. It shows the department that owns the issue, the bodies around it and the named people in each. Hover over an organisation to see its people and their job titles.

3. Check and finish. Open the suggestions list to add anyone the map left out. Your company’s own MPs are listed beside it, with one press to add each. Then press Finish map.

4. Use it. Save it, export it as a spreadsheet or PDF, or send it to a colleague. Some names may be out of date, because people move roles often.

5. Write to someone on it. Press a person, then Write to them. The letter builder opens with that person and your map’s issue filled in. Letters come with Engaged.

6. It stays fresh. We check your saved maps against the sources every night. When someone on a map has moved, your Monday briefing says so, such as “2 people on your grid connections map have changed”, with a link to the map.

7. See your history with them. Press a person or a body on the map. Under Your history with them you see every letter you sent and every reply, your meetings, consultation responses, committee evidence, FOI requests and what the government decided, newest first.

8. Pick up where you left off. If you have not been in touch with someone for 90 days, or a letter you chased is still unanswered four weeks on, your To do list says so: “It’s been 4 months since you last wrote to Ofgem. Write again?” Pressing it opens a letter with them filled in. Nothing is drafted until you press Draft.

9. If they move before you send. If the person a draft letter is to has left the post, the letter builder and your To do list say who holds it now. Press Readdress to change who it is to, the greeting and their name in the letter. We never change a draft by ourselves.

10. See who you already know. In Settings, under Warm introductions, add your LinkedIn connections. To get the file, go to LinkedIn’s Settings, then Data privacy, then Get a copy of your data, and choose Connections. LinkedIn emails you a link; choose the file called Connections.csv. Your file is read on your own computer, and we keep only names, companies, job titles and the date you connected. Nobody else sees them, and we never contact them.

11. Who to approach. A body on your map then says “You know 4 people here”. Open it to see their names and job titles, and who to ask for an introduction. On a person, we say “You know them” only when the name and the organisation both match. If only the name matches, we ask “Is this the same person?” and remember your answer. Departments that have been renamed or split are matched to the new ones, so DSIT and DBT connections still count.

12. Add your investors’ and advisers’ connections. Invite them by email from the same place. They sign in to Seam (free), see exactly what you will see, and choose whether to share. You then see where they could introduce you, such as “Sam Lee knows 2 people here”, but never their list. They can withdraw at any time, which deletes their connections.

1. Find anything you have made. We file every briefing, map, document and answer from Ask here automatically. We group them under Briefings, Engagement and Meetings.

2. Ask your own documents. Type a question in the library’s box. The answer comes from your own files.

3. Upload your own. Press Add a document and choose a PDF, Word, text or Markdown file, up to 10MB. Briefed keeps 25 and Engaged keeps 100. We read the words once. Your drafts then sound more like you, and your consultation answers can start from what the file says. Only you can see it. Delete it and it is gone everywhere, at once.

4. Keep a copy in your Drive. In Settings, under Copies of your Library, connect Google Drive or OneDrive. Every new briefing, map, draft and meeting pack is then saved to a folder called “Seam Library” as a Word file, usually within the hour. Seam writes only to that folder. If a copy fails, we try again later, and Settings shows how many are waiting.

5. See it by organisation. Press By organisation. Every public body and person you have been in touch with through Seam is listed, the most recent first. Open one for the whole history.

6. Make a report for your board. On the same page, press Make this year’s report. You get a Word file of what you did with government that year, what came of it, the main issues and the dates in the year ahead, filed in your Library as a draft. It is built from your records. Tick the box if you also want a short summary paragraph, written by a model. Every sentence in it names the record it rests on, and you can add one to up to three reports a month.

1. Ask from Slack. Type /seam followed by your question. You get the same answer as the platform, with links to the sources.

1. Forward anything. Send any email to [email protected] from the address you use for Seam. Within a minute or two you get a reply with what government has published on it, and a short summary. Only you get the reply.

2. A letter from a regulator or a department. The reply says what it asks you to do, picks out any date it sets and any duty it puts on you, and says who sent it, including whether they are on your Who Matters map. Press Track this beside a date to put it on your To do list and your Seam calendar, with reminders. A newsletter or email alert from GOV.UK is not treated as a letter.

3. An invitation to respond to a consultation or give evidence. The reply lists the questions and the closing date, with Track this.

4. An investor’s question. “What’s your exposure to the Online Safety Act?” The reply answers from your own records (the new rules that apply to you, your investor one-pager, your briefings) and the government’s, with each source numbered.

5. On Engaged, a draft when you want one. Each reply offers Draft a reply, or opens the response or evidence builder already filled in. Nothing is drafted until you press, and Seam never sends anything for you. Seam does not write tender bids. A forwarded tender gets the usual reply and Track this.

6. What we keep. Nothing from the email or its attachments, unless the reply says so (forwarded meeting notes go to your Library). PDF and Word attachments up to 5MB are read for the reply, then let go.

1. Open it. Go to Laws in progress, or use the link at the top of your Home screen.

2. Narrow it down. Search by name, or filter by stage, House or department. The second tab lists statutory instruments.

3. Follow a bill. Press Follow this bill on any bill. We alert you each time it moves, and its next sittings go in your Seam calendar. Each bill you follow uses one of your plan’s watched terms. Press Unfollow to stop.

1. See what is coming. Under Coming up on your Home screen, rows marked In Parliament are hearings, bill stages, debates and question times in the next fortnight that affect your company. Your weekly email lists them too.

2. Read why each is there. It is a stage of a bill in your briefing, question time for a department you deal with, or business that names your subject.

3. Plan around it. Press one to open Parliament’s own page for it. Parliament can move or cancel business, so check there on the day.

1. Open it. Go to New rules: start dates. The next few duties that apply to you also appear under Coming up on your Home screen.

2. See what starts when. Each new legal duty shows the date it starts, who it is for and what to do before then. It also shows the law behind it, the official source of the date and when we last checked it.

3. Sharpen the match. Duties we cannot place are listed under May apply: check. Answer three quick questions (staff, turnover, where you work) to sort them. Your answers are saved to your account, so your weekly email and your calendar use them too.

4. Put the dates in your diary. Under Put these dates in your calendar, press the button for your calendar. The duties go into your private Seam calendar, and if a date moves, your calendar moves with it. On the free plan, or to keep a fixed copy, download them as a calendar file instead.

1. Open it. Go to Who already buys. It comes with Briefed. Track shows a short taster.

2. Look anyone up. Type a supplier or buyer name in the search box to see who paid whom.

3. Take the next step. Press Introduce us on a buyer. Who Matters opens with that body’s commercial team first, so you can write to the right person.

4. Contracts coming up for renewal. Under the buyers, see contracts that end in the next 6 to 18 months, where the firm holding it is a rival you named, the contract mentions what you sell, or the buyer already pays firms like yours. Each shows the award notice, its value, the framework it was let through if the notice names one, and what it takes to get on that framework, with the source. Nine months before a contract ends it goes on your To do list: start talking to the buyer before they decide whether to extend it. Monday’s email tells you when a new one comes into view. Many award notices give no end date, so the page says what share of award notices do.

1. Open it. Go to All-party groups.

2. Find the groups on your subject. Search by subject, MP, peer or organisation, or filter by type, secretariat or who funds a group. Each group shows its officers, who runs it and every benefit it has declared.

3. Already done for you. On a paid plan we match your company to the all-party groups once, when your company profile is first built. It does not use any of your monthly matches. The groups are waiting when you open the page, and the top three are on your Home screen under Show more, as Groups on your subject.

1. Name them. On your Home screen, under Your competitors, add up to five rivals or peers, with any other names they trade under.

2. Or pick from our suggestions. Under Are these your competitors? we list companies that won public contracts or grants for the things you make. Press Add to watch one. If we cannot find good matches, we show none.

3. See what they are doing with government. See when one meets a minister, wins a public contract or grant, gives evidence to Parliament, or funds an all-party group. Each entry links to its source.

4. Hide a wrong match. If a match is a different company with the same name, press Not them? Hide this. It will not show again.

5. See your share of voice. A chart under the list counts, quarter by quarter, how often your company and each rival appear in the records, including mentions in Parliament. Press a number to see the records behind it. Mentions in Parliament cover a debate’s title and summary, and written and oral questions, not every word spoken.

6. Know when a rival is at the same inquiry. When a rival you watch gives written evidence to a committee inquiry you gave evidence to, we tell you, with a link to their evidence. Choose in Settings, Emails whether that comes as it happens, in Monday’s email, or not at all. This covers committee evidence only: government rarely publishes the consultation responses it receives, so we cannot see a rival’s.

1. Pick the consultation. Choose one from the list of open consultations, or search for one. Use the Open filter to see only those still taking responses.

2. Say what you think. Answer a few questions about your position. We read the consultation for you and set out what it asks. We start your answers from your website, your past responses and your Library, so you only edit and confirm.

3. Check the draft. We draft the response in your voice. Edit anything you like.

4. Ask a colleague to check it. Before you approve, press Ask a colleague to check this and pick or type a colleague at your company. They get an email with a link to a read-only copy. They can comment on any answer and press Approve or Suggest changes. You see their comments on your draft, and Checked by their name by the send button. The link lasts 14 days, and you can withdraw it. Colleagues who sign in also find it under Engagement. This works for evidence and letters too.

5. Respond together, if you want to. If other Seam customers like you (in the same sector, or following the same subjects) are responding to the same consultation, we ask: “Other companies like yours are responding to this. Would you be interested in a joint response?” Press Yes or No. We never tell you who they are, or tell them you are responding, unless you both say yes. When two or more of you say yes, we email each of you the others’ company names and email addresses. If you like, any of you can then press Draft a joint response from our positions. We write it once at least two of you have pressed it, from what you each wrote. Any of you can edit it, every company approves the same final words, and you submit it yourselves. Seam sends nothing.

6. Approve it. We send nothing until you press approve, even once a colleague has approved it.

7. We remind you. When a consultation that fits you opens, we email to ask if you want to respond. If a draft is not sent, we remind you about two weeks and three days before it closes.

8. We tell you what the government decided. When the government publishes its response to a consultation you responded to through Seam, we read it against your own answers. Each of your points is marked adopted, partly adopted, not adopted or not mentioned, with the government’s own words as proof. If we cannot find those words in its response, the point says unclear. You get one email that week, a line in your To do list, and a copy in your Library.

9. Press the points it did not take up. If some were not adopted, the Library copy has a Write to the minister about this button. It opens a letter with those points filled in. Nothing is drafted until you ask.

1. Pick the inquiry. Choose a parliamentary committee inquiry that is open.

2. Follow the same steps. Give your position. Check the draft. Then approve it. We shape the draft to the committee’s terms of reference.

3. We tell you when it is published. Committees publish the evidence they accept, often a few weeks later. We check Parliament’s list for that inquiry every weekday, and when your submission appears, or you are named as a witness at a hearing, we email you with the link and file it in your Library.

4. Tell your investors. Your To do list then says Share your published evidence with your investors. It opens a short note for your investors, with the link, ready to copy into your own email. We never send it for you.

1. Say who and why. Name the person or office, or start from a Who Matters map.

2. Check the letter. We show past letters to that office. Then we draft a letter in your name.

3. Approve and send. You check every word before it goes.

4. From your briefing. When an announcement, a new rule or a consultation’s outcome affects you, the item says Write to the minister about this? It opens the letter with the item filled in and the right person from your Who Matters map. We suggest it on two items a week at most.

5. Before a tender. When a buyer publishes a planned contract or asks to talk to suppliers first, the item says Introduce yourself to the buyer before their tender? It also appears on your To do list. Pressing it opens a letter to their commercial team, with the notice, what you want and the person filled in. We pick someone in a commercial or procurement post from your Who Matters map, or search for the buyer. We never guess an address. Nothing is drafted until you press Draft, and nothing is sent until you approve it.

6. To your own MP. Press Invite your MP to visit on Home or your To do list. The letter builder opens with your MP, found from your registered office, and the invitation filled in. You choose when to draft and send it.

1. The tracker. Every response, letter and map you are working on, with its status.

2. The calendar. Deadlines and hearings by month. Use the arrows to move between months.

3. Connect your tools. From Settings › Connections, link your Google or Outlook calendar. You can log activity to HubSpot or Attio. You can also bring in meeting notes from Granola or Notion. Or press any button on the integrations page.

1. Meeting briefings. Name who you are meeting. We build a one-page brief from the public record: their role, what they have said and who they have met.

2. One-page note to leave with them. Written in your voice, it sets out the ask, the evidence and the next step.

3. Meeting notes. Meeting notes arrive by themselves once Granola or Notion is connected, from Settings › Connections. Using something else? Forward them to [email protected] from your Seam address. We save them to your Library as a meeting note, and use them in your next briefing about the same people. An invitation is never saved as notes.

4. Follow-up correspondence. We draft the thank-you note, and a reminder a few weeks later, for your approval.

5. How did your meeting go? If your calendar is connected, we ask in the afternoon email after a meeting with government ends. The link opens the follow-up with the meeting filled in. If you use HubSpot or Attio, tick the box to log it there when you send.

1. Set up your portfolio. Sign in with your work email and open your portfolio page. Give your fund’s name. We email you within one working day to agree the price. If you would rather talk first, use the portfolio form.

2. Paste your companies. One per line: the company’s website, and the founder’s work email if you want us to invite them. Up to 50 at a time, so a long list goes in a few pastes.

3. We build each profile. Seam reads each company’s website and the public record, as it does for any new customer, a couple of companies at a time. It takes a minute or two each, and carries on if you close the page. Until the price is agreed we build your first 10.

4. Invite the founders. Once the price is agreed, press Send invitations. Each founder gets an email telling them you pay for their account and what you can see. They claim it from their own inbox, and the account belongs to their company. A company with no founder email still gets a profile you can see.

5. Watch the portfolio. Your page shows one row per company: how many items this week, the top one, deadlines and new rules coming up, and anything that may change what the company must do. Above the rows, the items that affect several companies at once. You get the same by email at the start of each month.

What you can see. Each company’s profile and a summary of its weekly briefing. Never a founder’s searches, notes, drafts or letters. A founder can take their company out of your portfolio at any time; they keep their account.

Billing. We invoice you once a year for the companies in your portfolio. You can add or remove companies at any time on your portfolio page.

1. One page for the month. Open your fund one-pager. A grid shows which policy areas touch which companies this month. A darker square means more new documents. A ! means at least one may change what that company must do.

2. Risks, openings and dates. Under the grid: the top five risks and the top five opportunities across the portfolio, each with its source and the companies it touches, then the closing dates and new legal duties coming up.

3. For your LP report. A short “Policy and regulatory environment” section, written from the records, ready to paste into your report to your investors. Press Copy the LP section. If you want it as a smoother paragraph, press Reword the LP section. A model rewrites it from the same records, up to three times a month. Every sentence must cite its source, and any sentence that does not is removed.

4. Responding together. When two or more of your companies face the same open consultation, the page says so and lists them, so you can suggest they answer it together.

5. Download or share it. Download the page as a PDF or a Word file. Or press Make a link for a private link your partners can open without an account. It works for 90 days, and you can switch it off at any time. On the 1st of each month we file last month’s page, and your portfolio email links to it.