How to get answers from your business data, and keep them

An answer about your business is only useful if you can check it, and only worth asking once if you can keep it. Here is how to do both.

Step 1. Ask in your own words

With your assistant connected, ask the way you would ask a colleague: “Which clients ordered less this quarter than last?” The assistant reads your tables and fields first, so it uses your names for things.

Step 2. Check it against the records

The answer comes from your live records, read as you: the assistant sees only what you can see, and changes nothing to answer. Amounts come back exact to the cent. To check a figure, ask which records it counted, or open the table in the app and filter it the same way.

Step 3. Keep it as a view

In the app, filter the table the way the answer did and save it as a view. It lives in the workspace and stays current as the data changes, and your assistant reads it, or changes its filter, the next time you ask.

Step 4. Share it with who needs it

Share the view with a role. They get exactly that slice, and never the table behind it.

Step 5. Put the daily numbers on a page

For the numbers you look at every morning, build a page from number and chart blocks, yourself or by asking your assistant. Click a chart to narrow the page to what you clicked.