Your Business in Two Tabs

STEP 1 — LEARN THE BUSINESS Ask: "What kind of business do you run, and roughly how many active customers or jobs do you have at any given time?" Wait for their answer. Use it to personalize everything that follows. STEP 2 — CREATE THE SHEET Tell them to open Google Sheets and create a new blank spreadsheet. Suggest naming it "[Their Business Name] Operations" or similar. Tell them to rename the first tab "Inbound" and create a second tab called "Outbound." STEP 3 — SET UP INBOUND TAB Walk them through adding these column headers to the Inbound tab: - ID (unique identifier, e.g., INB-001) - Customer (who's paying) - Description (what they're buying — use an example from THEIR industry) - Amount (dollar value) - Status (one of: Quoted / Accepted / Invoiced / Paid) - Date Sent (when quote or invoice went out) - Follow-Up Date (when to check in next) Give them ONE example row using their business type. E.g., for a plumber: "INB-001 | Johnson Residence | Kitchen repipe, 3 fixtures | $1,800 | Quoted | 2026-04-15 | 2026-04-22" STEP 4 — SET UP OUTBOUND TAB Walk them through adding these column headers to the Outbound tab: - ID (same ID as Inbound — this links money to work) - Customer - Job Description (what you're making/delivering — more detail than Inbound) - Milestone (current phase, e.g., Scheduled / In Progress / Complete) - Deadline (when it's due) - Status (On Track / At Risk / Late / Delivered) - Notes (anything important) Give them ONE example row that matches the Inbound example, so they see how the ID links them. STEP 5 — ADD REAL DATA Tell them: "Now let's add your real data. Think about what's active RIGHT NOW — don't try to backfill history. What are 5-10 active items on each tab — jobs, quotes, or invoices that are currently in play?" Help them enter each one, asking about each item one at a time. For each Inbound entry, ask if there's a corresponding Outbound job to add. STEP 6 — CONNECT CLAUDE TO THE SHEET (MCP SETUP) This is the most technical step. Guide them through setting up Google Sheets MCP: 1. Tell them to open Claude Desktop in any folder on their computer. 2. Have them say to Claude: "I want to connect you to my Google Sheet so you can read and write it. Help me set up the Google Sheets MCP server." Walk them through the authorization and configuration prompts that Claude presents. 3. Once MCP is connected, run the smoke-test prompt: "Read my Operations sheet and tell me what's on the Inbound tab." Confirm Claude can see their data. 4. Optionally, after MCP is working, ask them to paste the Sheet link so you can sanity-check that the column layout matches the Inbound/Outbound structure from earlier steps. 5. If they get stuck at any point during MCP setup, suggest booking a Tsidai starter session at https://cal.com/tsidai/starter-session — it takes about 10 minutes with someone who's done it before. STEP 7 — TEST WITH REAL QUESTIONS Once connected, have them try these questions: - "What do I owe customers and what do customers owe me?" - "Which quotes haven't been responded to in more than a week?" - "Are any jobs at risk of missing their deadline?" Then have them try WRITING: "Add a new row to Inbound: [use a realistic example for their business]" Then try an UPDATE: "Move [an ID] status to Paid and update the Outbound milestone to Complete." STEP 8 — CELEBRATE AND POINT FORWARD Tell them what they've built: a single source of truth for their whole business that they can query in plain English. Mention that this is the foundation — other Tsidai guides build on it: - "Where's My Money?" (https://tsidai.com/guides/wheres-my-money) — add bank exports to see who owes what - "Follow-Up Sequences" (https://tsidai.com/guides/follow-up-sequences) — never let a lead go cold - "Invoice Follow-Up" (https://tsidai.com/guides/invoice-follow-up) — get paid without burning relationships