How to make your monthly board pack write itself in Google Sheets with Claude

See the worked example - this exact model, simulated and verified end to end on a synthetic ~$20M/yr DTC brand.

Here's the spreadsheet 👇

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1VK2q2xMC0UR0Cgv6HdQAzgjdQWciRDwGdkhgWCYG8_8/edit?usp=sharing

What you're building

A monthly board pack that assembles itself in a Google Sheet: every tab, actuals vs plan across the business, each variance explained in plain English instead of just flagged red, the top three things worth raising written up, and charts laid out. It runs on the 1st before anyone's in, and because it reads from live data it stays current.

What you need

• Claude (Cowork or Desktop) with connectors enabled
• Shopify, Meta Ads, Google Ads, Klaviyo, and any finance or ops source you report to the board
• Your monthly plan or budget numbers (actuals vs plan needs a plan)
• If you are not using Polar: your cost inputs for margin (COGS percent or per product, shipping, and payment or platform fees)
• A blank Google Sheet named "Board Pack"
• About 30 minutes, once

Step 1: Connect your sources to Claude

In Claude, open Connectors and enable, then authenticate: Shopify, Klaviyo, Meta Ads, Google Ads, and Google Sheets (so Claude can build the pack in your sheet).

All four data sources have MCP connectors, so Claude reads them directly. For a channel or system without one (TikTok Shop, Amazon, a 3PL, your accounting tool), bridge it with the Zapier MCP, pipe it into a warehouse and connect that MCP, or drop a CSV in each time. A board pack pulls from more corners of the business than a weekly report, so map these before you build.

Step 2: Put your plan in the sheet

Actuals vs plan needs a plan. Add a Plan tab with your monthly targets by line: revenue, spend by channel, contribution margin, new customers, whatever the board sees. If you keep targets elsewhere, paste them in or point Claude at them.

Step 3: Prompt once to write the pack

Open your "Board Pack" sheet and give Claude this prompt:

You have access to my Shopify, Meta Ads, Google Ads, Klaviyo, the Plan tab, and the Google Sheet "Board Pack." Write my monthly board pack in this sheet:
Actuals vs plan for revenue, spend by channel, contribution margin, and new vs repeat, with the percent and dollar variance for each.
Explain every material variance in plain English, one line each, not just a red flag.
A "Top 3 to flag" tab: the three things the board actually needs to hear, written up.
Charts for the headline trends. Use live formulas, label the period, and format it so it reads clean.

Claude builds every tab, writes the variance commentary, drafts the three flags, and lays out the charts.

Step 4: Schedule it for the 1st

In Claude Cowork, save the prompt as a recurring task on the 1st of each month that refreshes the pack from live data and sends you the link. The pack is waiting before anyone's in.

Step 5: Review, do not rebuild

Open the sheet and read it like a reviewer, not a builder. Check the variance commentary and the three flags, adjust the wording where you would say it differently, and it is ready for the room. The lost weekend is gone; your time goes to the story, not the assembly.

Polar upgrade

One governed source, so the room trusts every number

Optional, but for a board pack this is the part that decides whether the room trusts it.

A board pack has to be right, and right means every metric defined once. Run the version above and Claude is joining six tools that each count revenue, spend, and "new vs repeat" a little differently. It works, right up until someone in the room finds two different net-sales numbers and stops trusting the whole pack.

Polar removes that risk. It consolidates the whole business (marketing, sales, finance, operations) into one governed source with each metric defined once, and hands Claude a single clean feed. That is what makes a pack Claude writes something you can stand behind in the room.

Enable the Polar MCP and swap Step 3's data sources for:

Prompt

Using the Polar MCP, the Plan tab, and the "Board Pack" sheet, write the same pack, but pull revenue, spend by channel, contribution margin, and new vs repeat directly from Polar's semantic layer so every number reconciles to one definition. Keep the variance commentary, the top 3 flags, and the charts.

With Polar you can also rebuild the pack under any of its 10 attribution models if the board wants to see the picture a different way.

Starter prompts to extend it

• "Add a cash and runway tab from my finance source."
• "Write a one-page CEO summary: five sentences, the story of the month, no jargon."
• "Compare this month to the same month last year, not just to plan."
• "Draft the speaker notes for the three flags: what I say out loud for each."

A few honest notes

• Review, do not rebuild. The value is that the assembly disappears, not the judgment.
• A board pack has to be right. Reconcile net sales and contribution margin to one definition before the room does it for you. This is the single reason to run it on Polar.
• Charts via the Sheets API can be fiddly for rich native chart types. Confirm what renders cleanly, or have Claude build the chart data and a clean table and add the chart with one click.
• Keep the Plan tab current. Actuals vs a stale plan is a variance report about nothing.
• Save the prompt. The prompt is the asset.