How to Setup the Financial Assistant Add-On
You can extend your LifeBots bot’s capabilities with the growing library of LifeBots specialized add-ons.
LifeBots add-ons can be purchased in the LifeBots Add-On Store at https://lifebots.cloud/store.
This article walks through setting up the Financial Assistant add-on, which watches your bot’s L$ balance, notifies you about transactions, sends money from the website, and runs scheduled payments such as rent, staff wages, tier and prize payouts.
[IMPORTANT:] Financial Assistant sends real Linden Dollars from your bot’s account. Payments that have gone out cannot be reversed by LifeBots or by Linden Lab. Always test a new recipient with L$1 before scheduling anything larger.
Before You Begin
The bot needs L$ of its own to pay anyone. A new bot account starts with nothing, so transfer Linden Dollars to the bot avatar in-world first. The add-on can only spend what the bot actually holds.
The bot must also be online for its balance to be read or for money to move.
Getting Started
- Purchase the Financial Assistant Add-On at https://lifebots.cloud/store/addon/financial-assistant
- Attach the add-on to one of your LifeBots bots.
- Note: Purchase an additional Financial Assistant Add-On for each bot you wish to configure.
Opening the Add-On
- Visit your LifeBots Dashboard at https://lifebots.cloud/dashboard
- Click Financial Assistant in the ADDONS section of the Dashboard left panel
- Select the bot you want to manage
If you see No Compatible Bots Found, the add-on has not been attached to a bot yet.
The Seven Tabs
The manager is organised into tabs. It helps to know what each is for before you start:
| Tab | What It Is For |
|---|---|
| Overview | Current balance, quick actions and anything that needs attention. |
| Recipients | Your saved, name-verified people to pay. |
| Notifiers | Balance notifiers that IM other people about transactions. |
| Payments | Create and track scheduled payments. |
| Recurring | Manage repeating payment series as a unit. |
| Transactions | Full history of money in and out. |
| Alerts | Alerts the add-on sends to you in-world, including the forecast. |
Step 1: General Settings
Open the settings dialog and set up the basics:
| Setting | What It Does |
|---|---|
| Enable Financial Assistant | Master switch for the add-on. |
| Track Transaction History | Store a record of money in and out. Leave on, as it is how you audit what the bot did. |
| Transaction History Limit | How many transactions to keep. Default 1000; older entries drop off. |
| Timezone for Scheduled Payments | The clock scheduled payments run on. Defaults to SLT (Second Life Time). |
[NOTE:] Unlike Calendar Notice, this timezone is yours to choose. Whatever you pick, a payment set for 09:00 goes out at 09:00 in that zone. Set it once and leave it alone, or you will spend a long time working out why rent went late.
Step 2: Save Your Recipients
Go to the Recipients tab. With nothing saved you will see No saved recipients yet and a prompt to Add your first recipient.
Click Add recipient and fill in:
- Avatar name or UUID: either the Second Life name or the raw UUID
- Nickname (optional): a label that means something to you, such as “Landlord, sim tier”
- Note (optional): any extra detail worth remembering
[IMPORTANT:] When you save a recipient the add-on resolves and verifies their Second Life UUID there and then. This is deliberate: it turns a mistyped name into an error you see immediately, rather than a payment that silently fails at 3am. If a name will not save, check the spelling, and remember single-name avatars take the last name Resident.
Each saved recipient offers Edit, Remove recipient, and Re-check this name against the grid, which is worth using if someone changes their display name. The tab also lists people under You have paid these people before, so you can save a repeat recipient without retyping anything.
Step 3: Set Up Balance Notifiers
Go to Notifiers. A balance notifier IMs a chosen person when something happens with the bot’s money. You can run several at once, each watching for something different. With none set up you see No Balance Notifiers.
For each notifier set Who gets notified, the Notification Type, a Threshold Amount (L$) where one is needed, the Notification Message, and Notifier Enabled.
| Notification Type | Fires When | Threshold |
|---|---|---|
| Every Transaction | Any L$ transaction, in or out | No |
| Incoming Only | Only when receiving money | No |
| Outgoing Only | Only when sending money | No |
| Large Transaction | A transaction exceeds your amount | Yes |
| Balance High | The balance rises above your threshold | Yes |
| Balance Low | The balance falls below your threshold | Yes |
The Threshold Amount field only appears for the three types that need one.
Message Variables
The form lists these under Available variables. They are replaced when the message is sent:
| Variable | Becomes |
|---|---|
{amount} | Transaction or threshold amount |
{balance} | Current balance |
{name} | Full name of the transaction party |
{firstname} | First name only |
{lastname} | Last name only |
{type} | Transaction type, incoming or outgoing |
{date} | Current date |
{time} | Current time |
For example: Low balance: the shop bot is down to L${balance} as of {time}.
Step 4: Turn On Owner Alerts
Go to the Alerts tab, headed Alerts to you in Second Life. Notifiers tell other people about transactions; these alerts tell you that something needs attention.
- Send me alerts in-world: the master switch
- When a scheduled payment fails: strongly recommended, because without it a failed rent payment can go unnoticed until your land is reclaimed
- When the balance will not cover what is scheduled: the forecast alert
- Count payments due within: how many days ahead the forecast looks, default 30
- Warn me if less than this would be left: your minimum acceptable balance
The Forecast
The forecast is the most useful thing in the add-on, because it tells you the bot will run out of money before it does. It shows What the balance has to cover, a line reading “X of Y is already scheduled to go out”, and a Payment by payment breakdown with When, Amount and Balance after for each.
Where the money runs out, the panel marks the point with The balance drops past your limit here and flags the payment as Exceeds the balance.
Forecast alerts have a built-in cooldown, so a shortfall will not IM you every hour.
Step 5: Schedule a Payment
Go to Payments and create one:
- Who gets paid: choose from your saved recipients
- Amount (L$)
- Scheduled Date and Time
- Message (Optional): the payment note, which can use the variables above
- Recurring Payment: switch on to repeat
Recurring Payments
Switch on Recurring Payment and set:
- Frequency: daily, weekly, monthly or yearly
- Every X: the interval, so 2 with weekly pays fortnightly
- End Date (Optional): leave blank to repeat indefinitely
The Recurring tab manages series as a unit. It shows the next occurrences and offers Stop this series, so you can end a repeating payment without hunting down individual entries. With nothing set up it reads Nothing recurring is scheduled, and a finished series shows No further occurrences scheduled.
Payment Status
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Pending | Scheduled and waiting |
| Completed | Sent successfully |
| Failed | Could not be sent. The reason is recorded and you can retry manually. |
| Cancelled | Cancelled before it ran |
Each payment also has its own enable switch. Turning it off pauses the payment without deleting it, which is how you put a recurring payment on hold for a month without losing the setup.
Step 6: Check the Transaction History
The Transactions tab shows Total Transactions, Total Received and Total Sent, with a searchable, sortable list. Use Search transactions, Sort by and Items per page to work through a long history. With nothing recorded it shows No Transactions.
Step 7: Test Before You Trust It
- Save the recipient and confirm the name resolved.
- Send L$1 manually and confirm it reached the right person.
- Schedule an L$1 payment a few minutes ahead and confirm it goes out on time.
- Check the Transactions tab after each test.
- Only then set up the real amounts.
Troubleshooting
| Problem | What to Check |
|---|---|
| Payment shows Failed | Read the recorded reason. Usually an insufficient bot balance, or the bot being offline at the scheduled moment. |
| Balance shows zero or looks stale | The bot must be online for its balance to be read. Use Re-check. |
| Payment went out at the wrong hour | Check Timezone for Scheduled Payments. It defaults to SLT. |
| Recipient will not save | The name could not be resolved. Check spelling and include the last name; single-name avatars use Resident. |
| Recipient name is now wrong | Use Re-check this name against the grid. |
| Threshold field is missing | It only appears for Large Transaction, Balance High and Balance Low. |
| No notifications arriving | Confirm Notifier Enabled is on and the type matches what you expect. |
| Forecast says Exceeds the balance | Scheduled payments total more than the bot holds. Top the bot up or reduce what is scheduled. |
| Recurring payment stopped | Check whether the series end date passed, or the payment was paused. |
| Cannot end a repeating payment | Use Stop this series on the Recurring tab rather than cancelling occurrences one by one. |
| Older transactions have disappeared | The history limit (default 1000) was reached and the oldest entries dropped off. |