Free guides · Q4 2026 editions

Three free guides. Pick the one that fits where you are.

New to AI and weighing up the tools: start with The AI Playbook. Already on Claude and getting generic answers: The Claude Quick Start. In finance and ready to hand Claude real work: The Claude Finance Runbook.

The AI Playbook: the cover and the contents page

Start here · ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini

The AI Playbook

A clear map of ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini for experienced professionals, and how to start this week.

For senior professionals who know their field and want to know where AI fits in it. It explains what the tools actually do and where they go wrong, compares the three main platforms and when to use each, works through four real tasks with the prompt for each, and ends with a plan for your first week.

Inside

  • Forget everything you think you know: what the tools do, where they go wrong, and why the wrong ones matter
  • The Big Three, and when to use each: ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini, side by side
  • AI in action: four tasks from a real week, the prompt for each, and why it works
  • The frontier: agents, tasks, and connectors, what AI now does on its own and what to watch
  • Your playbook: the prompting principles, a first-week plan, and the habit that lasts
51
pages
14
prompts to copy
45 min
read

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The Claude Quick Start: the cover and the contents page

Claude · set it up properly

The Claude Quick Start

Set Claude up properly, give it your context, and learn to work with it.

For anyone with a Claude account who gets generic answers. It takes you through the 45-minute setup, done once, then the context layer most people never build: projects, a project folder, and the one plain text file (CLAUDE.md) that carries your standing rules into every session. No coding and no terminal.

Inside

  • What Claude actually is: what it does well, the three ways it lets you down, the plans, and the models
  • The 45-minute setup: six steps in order, with a short test at the end that proves it works
  • Projects, CLAUDE.md, and how the layers stack, so Claude knows your work before you type
  • Briefing, not prompting: hand Claude a piece of work the way you would brief a capable colleague
  • Staying safe: what never goes into a chat, and what you check before it leaves your desk
50
pages
10
sections
45 min
setup

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The Claude Finance Runbook: the cover and the contents page

Claude for finance · Excel and tasks

The Claude Finance Runbook

5 finance workflows Claude runs end to end, and the checks that keep them defensible.

For finance professionals who want to see Claude do real work, not demos. Five workflows, each with the job it does, the prompt, what public tests showed, and the checks to clear before you sign: two built in Excel, two handed to Claude as tasks, and the control tab that makes the whole model defensible.

Inside

  • A three-statement model from your actuals, built in Excel with a drivers tab
  • Balance-sheet reconciliation and cash flow, with every plug named
  • Journal-entry and audit testing across a full population, planned, run, and documented
  • Receipts to a reconciled schedule: a folder of receipts extracted to Excel and checked for gaps
  • The control tab: one check tab, one flag on every sheet, every hard-coded value listed
25
pages
8
prompts
28
sign-off checks

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When you want the full set

The paid guides go platform-deep: The Claude Playbook, The ChatGPT Playbook, and The Google AI Playbook at $47 each, or all three for $97. For running Claude itself, The Claude Foundations Playbook ($29) and The Claude Power-User Playbook ($47). Paid once, yours to keep.

See the paid guides →