Get started with Ask Yarken

Before you begin

Before using Ask Yarken, confirm that:

1. Ask Yarken is enabled for the environment.

2. Your account has the required Yarken Intelligence access.

3. You have permission to view the cost center, account, entity, cloud, contract, vendor, or planning data you want to analyze.

4. Required financial, cloud, vendor, contract, and master data has been loaded.

5. Cost allocation mappings are configured where your analysis depends on allocated spend.

6. The Knowledge Base dimensions index is current.

Open Ask Yarken

To open Ask Yarken:

1. Open Yarken.

2. Select Ask Yarken from the top navigation bar.

3. Enter your question in the chat box.

4. Select Send.

Ask Yarken opens first in a sidebar view so you can ask a question while staying on your current page.

Use Ask Yarken in Custom Dashboards

Ask Yarken can also be added directly to a Custom Dashboard, allowing you to ask questions while reviewing dashboard information.

Dashboard designers can customize the Ask Yarken widget and optionally provide suggested questions to help you start your analysis.

For configuration steps, see Add and configure an Ask Yarken widget.

Sidebar view

Sidebar view is optimized for quick questions and follow-up analysis.

The sidebar includes:

• Three Suggested prompts under Try these.

• Prompt box.

• Send button.

• Stop button while a response is running.

• Microphone button for voice-to-text input.

• New Chat.

• Chat History.

• My Memories.

• Full Screen.

• Close.

Full-screen view

Open full-screen view when you need more space and better view for complex analysis and investigations.

Full-screen view is useful for:

• Reviewing previous conversations.

• Continuing earlier threads.

• Sharing conversations.

• Deleting or unsharing conversations.

• Multi-step analysis.

Ask your first question

Use a clear question with a topic, time period, dimension, and expected outcome.

Example:

Compare cloud spend against budget for this quarter by provider and identify the largest variance drivers.

Other examples:

• What are the top 10 vendors by spend this year?

• Explain why cloud spend increased last month.

• Show actuals versus budget by cost center for this quarter.

• Which contracts are expiring in the next 90 days?

• Create a line chart of monthly cloud spend by provider.

Understand responses

Ask Yarken responses may include:

• Summary.

• Variance explanation.

• Tables.

• Charts.

• Recommendations.

• Supporting analysis.

• Caveats when data or permissions limit the answer.

Ask follow-up questions

Ask Yarken maintains context within a conversation thread.

For example, you can ask:

Show cloud spend by provider for this quarter.

Then follow up with:

Which provider increased the most?

Useful follow-ups include:

• Break that down by cost center.

• Show the same view for last quarter.

• Which vendors contributed most?

• Create a chart for that trend.

• Recommend actions for the top variance.

Stop a response

Select Stop when:

1. You submitted the wrong question.

2. You want to refine the request.

3. The response is no longer relevant.

4. The analysis is taking longer than needed.

Start a new chat

Use a new chat whenever you change topics.

To start a new chat:

1. Open Ask Yarken.

2. Select “+” to start a New Chat.

3. Enter a new question.

4. Send the question.

View and continue chat history

In full-screen view, use the left-side history panel to view previous conversations.

Continue an existing chat when the next question depends on earlier analysis.

Example:

After asking for the top cloud spend drivers, you can continue the thread and ask:

Break that down by business consumer.

Share, unshare, or delete a conversation

Ask Yarken supports sharing a chat thread with other authorized users.

Use sharing when a conversation contains analysis that should be visible to Finance, IT leadership, FinOps, TBM, or business stakeholders.

Shared conversations remain governed by Yarken access controls. Users cannot use a shared conversation to view data they are not authorized to access.

In full-screen view, open the chat history menu for a thread. Depending on the thread status, you can:

1. Share the thread.

2. Unshare the thread.

3. Delete the thread.

Ask questions from a chart or widget

You can open Ask Yarken directly from supported charts and widgets.

When you open Ask Yarken from a visual, Yarken automatically adds the selected Dashboard and Widget to the conversation context.

To investigate a chart or widget:

1. Open the required page or dashboard.

2. Locate the chart or widget you want to investigate.

3. Select the Ask Yarken icon.

4. Ask Yarken opens with the selected dashboard and widget in the conversation context.

5. Review the initial response.

6. Ask follow-up questions to continue the analysis.

You can use follow-up questions to explore trends, compare periods, investigate variances, or understand the underlying data. You do not need to restate the dashboard or widget in each follow-up question.

Ask Yarken answers questions using the data available within the selected widget's context and active filters. It does not use data outside the current filter scope.

For example, if Expense Type is filtered to OpEx and you ask about CapEx spend, Ask Yarken explains that CapEx data is not available in the current view. Change the applicable filter before asking about CapEx data.

Next step

Ask better questions (scenario based examples)

Related content

• Ask Yarken

• Ask better questions (scenario based examples)

• Use Ask Yarken for spend, variance, cloud, contracts, and planning analysis

• Add and configure an Ask Yarken widget