Mathew PaquetChecklist · 4 min read
The Number Receipt Checklist
Three questions to ask any number Claude builds, the exact sentences to type, the one-line receipt to write under it, and what to check before you share it or animate it.
Claude Dashboards (in beta since October 8, 2026, on the Pro, Max, Team and Enterprise plans) builds a live dashboard from a plain-words request. Claude writes a query for every chart, runs it, and every chart shows its query and when its data was last refreshed. Click a number and you see where it pulled from, which dates and what it counted.
That click proves the math. One analyst copied Claude's query, ran it himself in BigQuery and got the same number. It doesn't prove the number answers your question. As he put it, revenue isn't one thing: this quarter, all time, with returns, without returns. When your question is vague, Claude has to pick a definition for you.
For a marketer the word is leads, or conversions. Google Ads' standard report counts a conversion on the day of the ad click. Someone who clicks on September 30 and buys on October 2 counts in September there, and in October in a report built from your store's orders. Two reports, two numbers, both correct.
The query proves the math. It doesn't prove it counted what you meant.You don't need to read code. Click the number and ask Claude three things, in plain words.
1. What exactly did you count, and from which source?
2. Which dates, and is it by the date of the ad click or the date it happened?
3. What did you leave out?
If the answer isn't what you meant, say what you meant, and Claude rewrites the query. Anthropic's own tip points the same way: say what you want to know, not just what to chart.
Write the answer under the number. That one line is the number's receipt: anyone who opens the dashboard knows what they're looking at.
Worked example. "Leads: Google Ads conversions, by click date, September first to thirtieth." If your client counts sales from the store, their number can differ, and now both of you can see why.
Sharing a dashboard. A dashboard connected to your apps can't be shared with anyone who has the link. When someone opens a shared dashboard, the queries run through their own connections, not yours, so a client without access to your ad account sees an error where your numbers should be. For people invited from outside your company, the connected parts don't work at all. And when you share something made in a chat, the files in that chat go with it.
Animating it. Claude Motion (beta, Team and Enterprise plans) turns a report or chart into a short animation, written as code with no video model, exported as an MP4. Because it's code, you can change one number and everything else stays as it was. A number counting up in your brand colors gets believed, and nobody watching can click it to see the query. So check first, then animate. Anthropic's advice reads like a brief: who will watch it, where it will play, roughly how long, and attach the data you want it to use.
Both are beta. Dashboards and Motion count against your plan's usage, and Anthropic hasn't published how much a dashboard or a video uses. Expect them to change.
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Open one dashboard you send every month, click its top number, ask Claude what it counted, which dates and what it left out, and write the answer under the number.
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