# Build Your AI Business Dashboard Visualize → Automate → Optimize Build one screen that shows what is stuck, where spending is creeping up and what to tackle next. Start with a working example, then let Claude adapt it to your business. START: Download https://switchboards.ai/downloads/assets/business-starter.zip and open START-HERE.txt. ## 1. Open the finished example first DO: Download the starter folder, unzip it, and double-click dashboard.html. No AI account is needed to explore the sample. It opens in your browser. The example business is Cedar Studio; the money and projects are fictional. SEE: Two projects, €115 in monthly software commitments, and €720 spent on Oak against an €800 spending limit. The project fee is not the spending limit. WHY: This is what you are making: a working view of the business, not another report to read. ## 2. Make the dashboard react DO: In the sample, press ‘Add €180 Oak expense’. This adds one fictional revision cost. Then open ‘What needs attention’ and ‘This week’s improvement’. SEE: Oak spending changes from €720 to €900. Its remaining allowance changes from €80 to €100 over. The unused €39 clipping subscription is still highlighted separately. WHY: One new piece of information changes the picture. The demo uses visible calculation rules; Claude is what you use to adapt the system and investigate new questions. ## 3. Give Claude a folder to work in DO: Install Claude Desktop from claude.com/download. Use Cowork with folder access and choose the unzipped starter folder. You need an account with Cowork access. Keep this sample separate from your real files. Open 01-build-dashboard.md and paste its prompt into Cowork. SEE: Claude reads business.json and BRAIN.md, opens the existing dashboard code, and creates your first weekly-review.md. It should work with the files, not merely describe a dashboard. WHY: The folder is the assistant’s working material: goals, records, the dashboard and the results it saves. ## 4. Replace the sample with your business DO: Ask Claude to interview you for your business name, one priority, active projects, each project’s spending limit, recent costs and monthly tools. Provide an exported expense file if you have one. Start with one currency. Ask it to show the proposed data before replacing the sample. SEE: business.json contains your information, with stable expense IDs. Refresh dashboard.html after Claude updates the file through the dashboard’s Import JSON button. Import the new business.json—not the old sample. WHY: This starter reads files you provide. It is not connected to your bank, and costs are recorded spending—not tax advice or a profit calculation. ## 5. Ask it to do the next useful job DO: Use 02-weekly-review.md to ask Claude to inspect the records, identify a recurring cost worth reviewing, propose one project improvement, and create an action file it can work on. Give it a clear allowed task such as drafting a revised delivery plan in this folder. SEE: A saved weekly-review.md and needs-you.md. The assistant drafts the plan; your list holds the decisions, such as approving a scope change or cancelling a subscription. WHY: The upgrade is from ‘tell me something’ to ‘keep the records, find the problem and prepare the next move’. ## Build prompt Work in this selected folder. Read BRAIN.md and business.json. Inspect dashboard.html. First explain the three most useful findings in this sample. Then create weekly-review.md and needs-you.md. Use expense IDs to avoid counting records twice. Project fees are not profit; compare recorded project costs against spendLimit. Calculate software commitments separately. Suggest one improvement tied to the goal. Complete one allowed local draft action: write an Oak delivery-plan.md that offers two ways to keep work within scope. Put only decisions requiring my judgment into needs-you.md. Do not contact clients or cancel anything. After that, ask me for my business details so you can adapt the dashboard. Keep the dashboard functional, mobile-friendly and able to import/export JSON. Do not embed credentials or external requests. ## Weekly review prompt Read BRAIN.md, last-week.json and this-week.json in this folder. Compare records by ID. Save weekly-review.md with: what changed; recorded project spending versus its limit; recurring tools with overlapping purposes or reported non-use; one improvement tied to the business goal; the exact evidence and calculation. Distinguish potential reductions from realised savings. Write needs-you.md for approval decisions only. Create one useful local draft: an Oak recovery-plan.md, with two choices for getting the project back within scope, their tradeoffs, and the question the owner must answer. Use only supplied amounts; list missing figures. Finish by telling me the files you actually saved. On later runs, read prior decisions and check whether the chosen change improved the numbers.