> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://help.whetstone.au/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# What to Expect During Your Advisory Session

> How Whetstone sessions run, joining the video call, reminders, messaging your advisor, and how to prepare.

Sessions are held in your browser, on a private video call, within the scope you booked.

## Where everything lives

Open **Bookings** and click the booking. That page is the home for the engagement: the messages, the session times, the video call button, and the buttons for finishing up.

## Joining the video call

When it is time, open the booking and use **Join** on the session. It opens the video room in your browser — nothing to install, and no account with any video service.

<Note>
  **The room has opening hours.** It unlocks **30 minutes before** the scheduled start and closes **4 hours after** it. Before that you will be told it is not open yet; afterwards, that the session's window has passed. The room is private to one session, not a standing meeting link.
</Note>

Before your first session:

* Use Chrome, Edge, Safari or Firefox, kept reasonably up to date
* Allow the browser to use your camera and microphone when it asks
* There is a check screen before you enter, so you can see and hear yourself first
* Join a couple of minutes early
* A wired or strong Wi-Fi connection beats mobile data, and headphones remove most echo problems

If video will not cooperate, message your advisor and agree a phone call instead. It does not affect the booking or the payment.

## Session length

A session runs for the length of the slot your advisor published — **30, 60 or 90 minutes**. The single-session package is a 60-minute session.

## Messaging your advisor

Every booking has its own private message thread. Use it to send context ahead of time, ask a short follow-up, or say you need to reschedule.

There is a **bell in the top bar** with a count on it, and a badge on any booking with something waiting. Both count only messages the other person sent since you last opened that thread.

<Note>
  The Whetstone team can read a thread when handling a problem on that booking, and every time they do it is logged. They can also post in it — always labelled as coming from Whetstone rather than as your advisor, and always to both of you at once.
</Note>

Messages are not instant chat. Your advisor might reply in a few hours, not a few seconds.

## Reminders

You are emailed **24 hours** and **1 hour** before each session. Each goes out once. Book at short notice and you will just get the one-hour reminder.

## How to prepare

* Send the background in the message thread beforehand rather than spending the first fifteen minutes on it
* Have your three or four real questions written down
* Say early what you want to walk away with
* Take notes, or ask your advisor to summarise the actions in the thread afterwards

<Tip>
  The more specific your question, the more actionable the advice. "How do I improve my margins?" yields less than "our wholesale margin fell from 34% to 21% in eighteen months — here are the numbers."
</Tip>

## Rescheduling

Message your advisor and agree a new time. For a single-session booking they can record the original as rescheduled and you agree a replacement. No payment changes and nothing needs re-booking.

## Related articles

* [Book a session](/owners/booking-a-session)
* [After your session](/owners/after-your-session)
* [Insurance explained](/trust/insurance-explained)


## Related topics

- [What to Do After Your Advisory Session](/owners/after-your-session.md)
- [Book an Insured Advisory Session](/owners/booking-a-session.md)
- [Managing your advisor bookings](/advisors/managing-bookings.md)
- [Professional Indemnity Insurance on Whetstone](/trust/insurance-explained.md)
- [Describe Your Challenge on Whetstone](/getting-started/describe-your-challenge.md)