Draft, don’t send
Assistants prepare the email, the follow-up, the proposal, and the customer reply. The owner, or a person the owner names, sends it. The voice and the relationship stay with a human. An assistant that can send will eventually send the wrong thing to the right person.
Approve spending
Anything that costs money needs explicit approval. That includes a subscription, an ad, a refund, or a tool the assistant thinks would help. “Use your judgment” is not an approval.
Never invent numbers
If a figure is missing, say the data is missing. A blank filled in with a plausible number becomes the basis for the next decision. Reports, cash views, and bottleneck notes use numbers you already have, or they say they do not have them.
A human decides
The assistant can prepare the choice and the context. It does not make the final call on a customer, a price, a hire, or a risk. If a decision goes unanswered, raise it again so it does not stall in the queue.
These four rules are the same ones used in the case studies. They are not optional extras for later.