QnA on databases user guide

Through hila’s QnA on database feature, a business user can rapidly receive charts and tables to questions against any system of record. This application provides all of the benefits of anti-hallucination, text2sql, and database connectors to make the process simple for a business user to get started on their data.

Welcome window

When you open the hila UI, the following welcome window appears, providing you a quick reference to the conversation page, including sample questions to give you an idea of what kinds of questions you can ask.

1. Visit the most recent conversations.

2. New conversation start a new conversation.

3. Select a tab to narrow the conversation to a specific area.

4. Select a suggested question associated with the selected tab.

Workflow

The basic QnA on databases flow consists of:

1. Select data sources.
2. Ask questions.
3. View answers.
4. Ask follow-up questions.

1. Select data sources

1. Open the Data Sources pane with the Data Sources menu item.

2. Select Database from the Data sources pane.

3. Select the name of the database your admin has connected to your financial system. If you don’t know this, check with your admin.

   

2. Ask questions

1. Type a question in the text box at the bottom of the window.

2. The blue box next to the Querying label shows the data source you have selected, or “No source selected” if you have not selected a data source. If you have selected multiple data sources, it shows how many data sources you have selected.

   Note: Click the blue box to open the Data Sources pane where you can update your data source choices.

3. The label for the current currency. Your admin can set up the currency for a specific data source.

4. Show suggested questions toggles the list of suggested questions to show the type of questions you can ask. If the toggle is on (which is default) then the following occurs:

   • As you start typing, sample questions appear from which you can select a question.
   • When you select a question, you can edit the question in the text box before submitting.

Notes:

• While hila is generating an answer, a box appears above the question showing the status of the answer generation. You can expand this box for more information on the process.

  

  

• If an error occurs, a message appears in the answer window. Click the message to expand it and see more details.

  

  The following table shows the error messages and actions you can take to resolve the error.

  Header	Text	Action	Explanation
  Question out of scope	LLM generated error message + Please try changing your question.	Edit the question.	The question or topic is beyond the scope of hila.
  Question cannot be answered	I’m sorry, but I’m not confident in answering your question using the context provided. Please try changing your question or rephrasing to get an answer.	Edit the question or select a suggested question.	The question is not in the right form or does not match an internal question.
  No data found	I’m sorry, but there was no data found for your question. Please try changing your question or rephrasing to get an answer.	Edit the question or select a suggested question.	No data was retrieved.
  Database error	I’m sorry, but it looks like I ran into a database issue. Please try changing your question or rephrasing your question. If this problem persists, please contact your administrator.	Edit the question or select a suggested question.	A database error occurred.

3. View answers

If the QNA UI finds an answer, it shows the answer in the main pane of the window.

1. Click thumbs up or thumbs down to evaluate the answer. This feedback helps hila learn how to answer your questions better.

2. The table view/chart view switches between table and chart views.

   If you select chart, the have the following additional controls available:

   1. Copy chart.
   2. Click a bar to see the value.
   3. Select an item in the legend to toggle the visibility. This is particularly helpful if the answers are difficult to see because they have different scales or different units.

   

3. Click the View full-screen button to enlarge the table or chart.

4. Click the Download button to download the table as a CSV file or download the chart as a PNG file.

5. Response explanation provides a detailed explanation of the answer.

   

6. The source is stamped in case you come back to this conversation later and want to know where the data came from.

7. A timestamp shows when the answer was generated.

8. Ask follow-up question allows you to ask a follow-up question related to the answer. See the next section for more information.

4. Ask follow-up questions

You can follow-up a question with related questions to get a more detailed answer. For example, if you ask a question about a company’s revenue, you can follow up with questions about the company’s revenue by quarter, by product, or by region. Or if you ask about a time range, you can add to or remove from that time range in a follow-up question.

To ask a follow-up question, click the Ask follow-up question link that appears below the answer.

The query entry box shows a Follow-up chip, indicating you are asking a follow-up question.

Notes:

• By default, hila allows a context window of four questions, after which the Follow-up chip no longer appears in the query entry box.
• If an error occurs, the Follow-up chip disappears from the query entry box, and no more follow-up questions are permitted.
• You can reset the context by creating a new conversation or by clicking the X in the Follow-up chip.

Other basic features

Manage conversations

The hila UI maintains a history of your conversations. You can create (New Conversation), select, and delete (Delete Selected/Delete All) conversations by clicking the Conversations icon in the top-left of the window.

To rename or delete a conversation, click the three vertical dots to the right of the conversation name.

Select color modes

You can select dark mode or light mode by clicking the bottom-most icon in the left pane of the window.