How to Ask Occam About Your Numbers

By the end of this guide you'll know where to find Occam on each screen and how to ask a question it can answer from your own numbers.

Occam is the AI advisor inside Occam's Model. Its buttons sit on the screens where questions come up: next to your Financial Summary, your Score Card, a Play's results or a Blueprint. Ask from the screen the question is about.

Before You Start

• Plan: Occam needs Solo or Advisory. Free accounts can't chat.
• Credits: each question costs 1 credit. Solo includes 1,000 credits a month, Advisory 5,000. Credits refresh monthly on both plans, annual billing included. If you run low, paid plans can add "$10 for 50 credits", which last 365 days.
• Have ready: a specific question. "Why did my margin drop?" gets a better answer than "How am I doing?"

Steps

1. Go to the screen your question is about.
2. Click its Occam button. The label depends on where you are:
   • My Business setup: "Ask Occam for help"
   • Financial Summary: "Ask Occam about your numbers"
   • Score Card: "Ask Occam about your Assessment"
   • A Play's results: "Ask about your" followed by the Play's name
   • A Blueprint's Design, Invest, Results or Scale step: "Ask Occam"
3. Type your question and send it. It uses 1 credit.
4. Ask a follow-up if the answer raises one. Each follow-up is another question and another credit.
5. On a Blueprint's Design step, you can also choose "Review for blind spots" to have Occam look over your Design. That also uses 1 credit.

Occam isn't on the Plays hub or the My Business home page. Open a specific screen first.

What You'll See

Take a hypothetical landscaping company, Greenline Landscaping. On its Financial Summary, the owner sees about $520,000 of revenue and $187,200 of gross profit, a blended margin of about 36%. A useful question from there: "Which of my revenue streams is pulling the margin down?" Residential mowing runs at a 24% gross margin against 40% for commercial contracts and 42% for installs, so that's where a good answer should land. Knowing roughly what the answer should be is the best way to judge the one you get.

Good questions name a number on the screen and ask about a decision:

• "If I raised residential prices, what would that do to my gross margin?"
• "Why is my Marketing Efficiency score lower than my Margin Health score?"
• "What drives the drop in cash in this Blueprint's first six months?"

Common Questions

Can Occam change my numbers?
No. Occam answers and can research on the web, but it never edits your numbers. You change them on the steps themselves. Occam's Proposal drafts a Blueprint that you review before applying, and a Play works on a copy of your business.

Do unused credits roll over?
Credits are a monthly allowance that refreshes each month. Add-on packs are separate and last 365 days.

What if a question needs a person?
Advisory includes an expert on a private message board, with every question answered within 24 hours, calendar time, weekends included. On Solo or Advisory you can also buy a "30-Minute Session" ($99) or a "60-Minute Session" ($198) on the pricing page.