Module 6 · Reporting & Data Analytics
Prompt it: answers from your data today
Nearly every system you use has an export button, and that button is the whole trick. Export, paste, ask. This lesson is the fastest payback in the module — you can run the first prompt before you finish reading it.
The move: export, paste, ask
Your accounting software, booking system, point-of-sale, and ad accounts can all export a CSV file — the spreadsheet-export format every business system can produce. Download one, paste the rows into Claude or ChatGPT (or upload the file itself), and ask questions the way you’d ask an employee who’d read it all: What’s my busiest day? Which service makes the most per hour? Which clients are shrinking?
Copy this prompt
You are my no-nonsense business analyst. I run a [YOUR BUSINESS TYPE — for example: "three-chair dental practice" or "residential painting company"]. Below is an export from [WHERE THIS DATA CAME FROM — for example: "my booking system — one row per appointment, January through June"]. Answer these questions in plain English: 1. What is my busiest day of the week, and my slowest? 2. Which service brings in the most money — in total, and per hour of time spent? 3. Which clients or customers are spending less than they used to? 4. What is one pattern in this data I probably haven't noticed? Be direct — don't flatter me. If the data can't answer one of these questions, say so instead of guessing. Here is the data: [PASTE YOUR EXPORTED ROWS HERE — copy them straight from the spreadsheet, headers included]
Whatever comes back, keep going — follow-up questions are free. “Break that down by month.” “Which of those clients used to book monthly?” “Show me the same thing for last year.” You now have an analyst on retainer; interrogate accordingly.
Explain my P&L
The single highest-value version of this move: paste your profit-and-loss statement — the report your accounting software already builds showing money in, money out, and what’s left — and ask for plain English plus three questions for your accountant. You walk into your next accountant meeting prepared instead of nodding along.
Copy this prompt
Below is my profit-and-loss statement for [PERIOD — for example: "January through June 2026"]. I am not a finance person, so keep everything in plain English. 1. Tell me how the business is doing in five or six sentences — no jargon. 2. Point out the three numbers that most deserve my attention, and why. 3. Give me three specific questions to bring to my accountant at our next meeting. If anything looks unusual or off, say so directly. Here is the statement: [PASTE YOUR P&L HERE — export it from your accounting software, or copy the rows straight in]
Three more moves worth stealing
Review themes
Paste all your feedback; get recurring themes with a quote each. Your customers already wrote your next ad.
Ad-report translation
Export the Meta or Google report and ask what's working and the one change to make first — forty columns into a decision.
Trends and anomalies
Paste 12–18 months of figures; ask for trends and any month out of pattern. Catch the quiet decline while it's quiet.
The ground rules from the start of this course apply here: check your AI tool’s data settings, and where the analysis doesn’t need real names — and it usually doesn’t — strip them or swap in initials before pasting.
- Export a CSV from any system you run, paste it, and ask real questions — today, with no new tools.
- Run the P&L prompt before your next accountant meeting and arrive with three sharp questions.
- Follow-ups are free — treat one answer as the start of the conversation, not the end.
- Verify a number or two against the source before you act on any of it.
Watch this step
Getting answers out of a spreadsheet by just asking is best seen live — this walks through uploading a file and asking plain-language questions, the exact move below. It’s from an independent creator — credited below, so go give them a follow.
Analyze Excel Data with ChatGPT: A Complete Tutorial
More learning resources
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