User guide
The Business Scorecard
Enter a handful of numbers from your business. The scorecard grades each ratio against benchmark targets, then writes a plain-spoken read of where things stand. This guide covers setup, each field, how to read the results, and how to make the tool useful every quarter.
01Before you begin
You need three things. Give yourself about fifteen minutes the first time, and much less once you have a routine.
Your numbers
Revenue, leads, conversations, clients, and repeat clients for one period. Your invoices and a simple prospect list will cover almost everything.
An Anthropic API key
The read is written by Claude on your own account. You need a key from the Anthropic console. Setup takes about two minutes.
Pick a period
Choose a month, a quarter, or a year, and use that same period every time. Changing it between runs makes the comparisons meaningless.
Optional: your About text
If you keep an about.md describing your work, you can paste it in. It helps the read reflect your market and specialty.
02Your API key and model
The key panel sits at the top of the form. It is the only setup the tool needs.
- Create a key. Sign in at console.anthropic.com, open the API keys page, and create a new key. Copy it in full. Keys begin with
sk-ant-. - Paste and save. Open the API key panel, paste the key into the field, and select Save key. The panel rolls up and shows the last four characters so you can confirm which key is saved.
- Change or remove it. Open the panel and use Change to paste a new key, or Remove to delete the saved one.
The key stays in this browser. The tool never sends it anywhere except to Anthropic when you run the read. Use this on a computer you control, because anyone with access to that browser profile can read the saved key.
Choosing a model
The model dropdown controls which Claude model writes the read. Your numbers and the grading stay the same regardless of model. Only the writing changes.
| Model | Best for | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Claude Haiku 5.5 (default) | Quick, routine quarterly reads | Fastest and least expensive per run. |
| Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Balanced reads with more nuance | Takes longer. Handles complicated or mixed results more carefully. |
| Claude Opus 5.5 | Deeper diagnosis of a difficult period | Slower, and costs more per run. |
| Claude Fable 5.1 | The most capable model in the list | Use it when you want the most careful reasoning. |
Cost
Each run sends one request and receives one read of a few paragraphs. Per-run cost depends on the model you choose. Check current pricing on the Anthropic console before you run it often.
03Your About text
This panel is optional. Open it, paste the contents of your about.md, and select Save About text. The text stays in this browser and can be edited or removed at any time. The limit is 12,000 characters.
Once saved, the read uses it to understand your work, your market, your specialty, and the terms you use. A commercial food photographer in a small market and a wedding photographer in a major metro get different reads from the same numbers, and the About text is how the read knows the difference.
What to leave out
Keep it to your work and business. Leave out account numbers, client names you are not free to share, and anything you would not want a language model to see. The tool does not filter what you paste.
04The seven required fields
These drive every grade. Enter them carefully, because the read can only be as accurate as the counts.
| Field | What counts | What does not count |
|---|---|---|
| Time period | The single month, quarter, or year you are measuring. | Mixing periods between runs. |
| Total revenue | All money collected from clients during the period. Count it when it arrived. | Invoices sent but not yet paid. Work done but billed next period. |
| Qualified leads | Real prospects you pursued, or who approached you with genuine interest. | Follower counts, mailing list sizes, website visits, random contacts. |
| Real conversations | A genuine back and forth: a call, a video meeting, or an email exchange where both sides engage with the work, budget, or timeline. | A one-line reply to a contact form. A voicemail you never returned. |
| Clients booked | Unique clients who paid you during the period. | Jobs. One client with three jobs counts once. |
| Repeat clients | Of the clients above, those who had worked with you in any earlier period. | New clients, even if they were referred by a past client. |
| Revenue from repeat clients | The dollar total paid by returning clients during the period. | Revenue from new clients. Estimates when invoices are available. |
A quick check
If a repeat client paid you $4,200 and another paid $3,800, enter $8,000 for revenue from repeat clients. The repeat client count is two, not four, if the two of them booked a total of four jobs.
05The optional fields
Each optional field unlocks one calculation. Skip any you do not have. The read will simply say that the figure was not provided.
Prior period revenue
Revenue from the period immediately before this one. It unlocks revenue growth.
Prior period clients
Unique clients from that same earlier period. With prior revenue, it shows whether revenue per client is rising or falling.
Total expenses
Everything spent to run the business: gear, software, insurance, studio, marketing, travel, and subcontractors. It unlocks profit margin.
Total hours
Every hour spent on the business, including admin and marketing. It unlocks effective hourly rate. That rate is shown but never graded, since a fair rate depends heavily on market and specialty.
Price change
If you raised or lowered prices this period, select the direction and enter the percentage. The read will connect the change to what happened with bookings. Note that a price change and a booking trend can be related, but the tool cannot prove cause.
06How the grades work
The numbers panel shows each ratio with a tier. The tiers are benchmark targets drawn from coaching creative service businesses. They are a guide, not a universal standard. Your market, your specialty, and how you run the business all move the right numbers for you.
An example of how the numbers panel looks. Your results will differ.
The benchmark bands
| Metric | Low | Middle | Strong |
|---|---|---|---|
| Prospect-to-Client Conversion | Under 5%: Weak to Average | 5% to 10%: Healthy | 10% to 15%: Excellent, 15%+ Elite |
| Lead-to-Conversation Rate | Under 10%: Weak | 10% to 25%: Average to Healthy | 25% to 35%: Excellent, 35%+ Elite |
| Conversation-to-Client Rate | Under 20%: Weak | 20% to 50%: Average to Healthy | 50% to 65%: Excellent, 65%+ Elite |
| Client Retention Rate | Under 40%: Poor | 40% to 60%: Average | 60% to 80%: Strong, 80%+ Elite |
| Revenue from Repeat Clients | Under 50%: Hunting | 50% to 60%: Building | 60%+: Predictable |
| Revenue Growth Rate | Below 0%: Declining. 50%+: Potentially Unsustainable | 0% to 20%: Stable to Healthy | 20% to 50%: Strong to Exceptional |
| Profit Margin | Under 20%: Dangerous to Surviving | 20% to 30%: Better | 30%+: Strong, Best, Elite |
Ratios without a grade
Revenue per client, average revenue per returning client, average revenue per new client, and effective hourly rate appear as plain figures. Compare them against your own past quarters. Revenue per client moving up while the number of clients holds steady usually means your pricing or your package is doing more work.
07Reading the read
After the numbers appear, the read arrives in three to five paragraphs of plain prose. It moves through the funnel first, then retention, repeat revenue, growth, margin, and price changes if you entered them.
Read it in this order. First, find the weaker funnel stage the tool names. Second, check whether the read connects that stage to a specific number. Third, check whether it asks you to examine your market or specialty before judging the work itself. A read that flags a low number and then asks what is happening in your market is doing its job.
Use the Copy button
Copy the read into your own notes. A quarter-by-quarter file of reads is the fastest way to see a pattern.
08Warnings before you trust a number
Before the read is written, the tool checks your figures for combinations that rarely hold together. A warning does not stop the run. It asks you to look again before you trust the result.
- Conversations higher than leads. Every conversation should begin with a lead. Check that both counts cover the same people.
- Clients higher than leads. This pushes conversion above 100%. Some clients probably never went through your lead list. Add them, or confirm the number.
- Clients higher than conversations. Referrals and bookings made without a call can cause this. If that is the case, the warning can be ignored.
- Repeat clients without repeat revenue, or the reverse. These should move together. One of the two numbers is probably wrong.
- Prior clients without prior revenue. The revenue per client trend needs both figures.
The tool also stops a run for hard errors. Those include blank required fields, negative numbers, zero revenue, repeat clients higher than total clients, and repeat revenue higher than total revenue. Correct the figure and run again.
09A quarterly rhythm
The scorecard earns its keep when you run it on the same schedule with the same definitions. One run tells you where you stand. Four runs tell you which direction you are moving.
- Close the period. Wait until the last invoice that belongs to the period has been paid, or at least sent, and note the date you started.
- Count the same way every time. Keep a single written definition of a qualified lead and a real conversation, and apply it every quarter.
- Run the tool. Enter the required fields first. Add the optional fields if you have them. Check the warnings.
- Save the read. Copy it into a running document with the date and the period.
- Compare to last time. Look for the same metric moving the same way across two or more quarters before you decide it is a trend.
Resist the single bad quarter
One weak quarter is a data point. Two in a row, with the same metric dropping, is a pattern worth acting on.
10When something goes wrong
| What you see | What to do |
|---|---|
| "Your numbers are above. Add your API key..." | Open the API key panel, paste your key, and save it. |
| "That doesn't look like an Anthropic key." | Keys begin with sk-ant-. Copy the full key from the console again. |
| "Anthropic rejected that key (401)." | The key was copied incompletely, or it has been revoked. Create a new key and save it. |
| "The selected model is not available (404)." | Choose a different model from the dropdown. Your key may not have access to that model. |
| "Rate limit reached (429)." | Wait a minute and run the read again. |
| "Anthropic is overloaded (529 or 5xx)." | The service is busy. Try again in a few minutes. |
| "Could not reach Anthropic." | Check your internet connection, then try again. |
| "This browser won't save data." | Your browser is blocking site storage. Allow it for this page, or use a standard browser window rather than a private one. |
| The read ends early | The read reached its length limit. Run it again. If it keeps happening, switch to a model with longer reads. |
11Privacy and what is stored
The tool saves three things in your browser: your API key, your model choice, and your About text if you added it. Your business numbers are not saved. They are sent to Anthropic only when you run the read, under your own key, and only the numbers and the About text are included in that request.
To clear everything, remove the key and the About text from their panels and clear the site data for this page in your browser settings.