Level 2 · Guide 5 of 7

Ask questions of your spreadsheet

Find what matters in sales, costs or time logs without writing a formula.

Time

About 8 minutes

You'll need
  • A Claude account
  • A spreadsheet: an Excel file or a CSV export from your bank, QuickBooks or sales system
When you're done
  • You can ask plain questions of your numbers
  • You can get a chart without building one
  • You know how to check the answer

Most owners have the numbers. What they don't have is an hour to dig through them. Claude can read a spreadsheet and answer questions like "what makes us the most money?" in plain English.

Our example is a year of made-up monthly sales for a landscaping company.

Step 1: Attach the spreadsheet and ask your question

A spreadsheet attached in the message box, marked 1, with a question typed below and the send button marked 2.
Click the picture to make it bigger

Start a New chat and attach your spreadsheet with the + button (the files guide shows how). Then ask what you want to know, in plain words. We asked:

Copy this into Claude
This is my 2025 sales by month. Which service brings in the most money, which months are slow, and what's one idea to fill the slow months? Show it as a simple chart too.

Step 2: Read the answer and the chart

A bar chart of monthly sales by service, followed by Claude's answer that mowing brought in $82,000 of $146,000.
Click the picture to make it bigger

Claude reads the whole file, adds it up, and draws a chart. In our example, mowing brought in $82,000 of $146,000 for the year, about 56%, and January and February brought in nothing.

Step 3: Use the ideas as a starting point

Claude's suggestion to add holiday lighting installation to fill the slow winter months.
Click the picture to make it bigger

Because we asked for one idea, Claude suggested holiday lighting installation to fill the winter gap, using the crews, trucks and customer list the business already has.

Treat ideas like this as a conversation starter, not a plan. Ask follow-ups: "What would I need to start?" or "What would 20 customers bring in?"

Good questions to ask your numbers

  • "What are my top 5 customers by revenue this year?"
  • "Which expenses went up the most compared to last year?"
  • "What recurring charges am I paying every month?"
  • "Which jobs took the most hours compared to what we charged?"
  • "Show my sales by month as a chart."

Screenshots taken September 24, 2026. Claude changes its look now and then. If a button has moved, look for the same words nearby.