FREE · PROMPTS + WORKBOOK

Ask Claude for a dashboard, on made-up numbers first

The two prompts I typed in the video, and the practice workbook I typed them at. Try it on these before you point it at your own figures.

By Abi Odedeyi · CodeFreeIQ

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Get the workbook

A made-up agency: sales, enquiries, costs and team hours.

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Paste two prompts

One question first. Then ask for tabs.

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Read one note

How it treated your data, before you trust the number.

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The prompts and the workbook

Step 1. Download the practice workbook: agency-full-aug-sep-2026.xlsx. It is a made-up agency with eight clients, five services and two months, August and September 2026, on four sheets: Sales, Enquiries, Costs and Team hours. Every name and number in it is invented. Put it in your Google Drive, or attach it to the chat.

Step 2. Open a dashboard. In Claude, click Artifacts in the left sidebar. Under "Make something new", click the Dashboard tile. It says Beta. If you don't see the tile, check that you're on a paid plan. On a Team plan it is off by default and an admin switches it on in the organisation settings.

PROMPT 1. ONE QUESTION. There is a workbook in my Google Drive called agency-full-aug-sep-2026. Build me a dashboard of September sales against August.

If you attached the file instead of using Drive, change the first sentence to: "I've attached a workbook called agency-full-aug-sep-2026."

Step 3. Before you trust the big number, read Claude's note. In the chat, Claude tells you how it treated the data. In my video the headline said £47,100 for September. That was every invoice sent, paid or not. The money that had actually come in was £31,700. The dashboard was right. I just had to read what the number meant.

PROMPT 2. ASK FOR TABS. Rebuild the dashboard with four tabs across the top: Sales, Enquiries, Costs and Team. - Sales: keep what you already built (September against August, by client and by service). - Enquiries: how many came in each month, where they came from, and how many were won, lost or still waiting. - Costs: each category for August and September, and what is left after costs each month. - Team: hours by person and by client. Tell me how you treated the data on each tab.

Then try it on your own question. Pick the one somebody asks you every month, and the spreadsheet you already have. A few to start with: Who owes me money, and how long have they owed it? Where are my enquiries coming from, and which ones turn into work? What am I spending on each month, and what is left after that? Where are my team's hours going? How many bookings this week against last week?

Two things to know. A dashboard built from a spreadsheet file works from a copy of that file, so when the sheet changes, ask Claude to refresh it. And before you share a dashboard link, scroll through every chart on it, because whoever opens the link sees all of them.

Source: Anthropic, "Dashboards and Motion" (claude.com/resources/articles/dashboards-and-motion), published 8 October 2026, read 11 October 2026. Dashboards is in beta on paid plans, so buttons and wording may change. Check your own account.