See where your business information lives before you go digital
Version 1.1 · Kramaniti Kosh
Intended outcome
A one-page record of where each piece of business information lives today, who holds it and what goes wrong if that person is away, with one small, safe first digital step that has an owner and a way to check it worked, before anyone buys software or AI.
Before you begin
- Time to look at the registers, notebooks, spreadsheets, chat groups and accounting software the business already uses
- A short chat with each person who keeps a piece of information that the business depends on
- Someone who can decide the first step and who will not buy any new software until this record is filled
How to use
- List the information the business runs on and write down where each piece lives today. Include what sits only in someone’s head.
- For each piece, name who holds it, who else can reach it and what happens if that person is away for a week. Leave blanks where you do not know.
- Pick one small first step from the highest-risk rows, with an owner, a start date and a way to check it worked. Keep the old way running until the check passes.
Working template
Baseline header
Business or team:
Baseline owner:
Date:
Who was asked (names or roles):
Where information lives
Fill one block per piece of information. Write down what actually happens today, not what should happen.
- Information (for example: customer orders, supplier dues, stock, staff attendance, prices, recipes or methods):
- Where it lives today (paper register, notebook, spreadsheet, WhatsApp group, accounting software such as Tally, someone’s head):
- Who holds it and keeps it up to date:
- Who else can find it today without asking:
- How often it is used (daily, weekly, at month end, at festival time):
- Is there a copy anywhere else (yes, no, not sure):
- If that person is away for a week, what stops or goes wrong (ask them; do not guess):
Risk if someone is away
Give each block one rating.
- High: work stops or customers are let down if this person is away, and there is no copy
- Medium: work slows down or someone has to phone the holder, but it can carry on
- Low: someone else can find and use it without help
- Not sure yet: say what is missing and who will find out
Flags
Mark every flag that applies to each block.
- Only in one person’s head
- Only on paper, with no copy
- Kept on a personal phone or a personal chat
- Two versions that do not match (for example, a notebook and a spreadsheet)
- Money, customer details or staff details with no agreed rule on who can see them
Choose the first safe digital step
Pick one step only. A good first step:
- Moves one piece of information, not the whole business
- Uses something the business already has, where possible, before buying anything
- Keeps the paper or old way running alongside until the check passes
- Can be undone without losing anything
- Has one named owner who agrees to it
First step card
The step (one sentence, in plain words):
Which information block it covers:
Owner:
Start date:
What carries on the old way until the check passes:
How we will check it worked (what you will compare, and when):
Review date:
Stop rules
- Do not buy software, an app or an AI tool until this record has a risk rating for every block and one first step card.
- Do not invent volumes, costs or time saved. Write down what people said, or leave it blank.
- Do not stop the paper register or the old way until the owner has seen the check pass.
- Money, customer details and staff details stay with a named human owner. Ask before you copy any of them somewhere new.
- If two people describe the same information differently, record both and ask the owner which one is true.
Demonstration
This is an illustrative scenario, not a client case study or a measured result. Do not reuse its details as facts about your work.
A sample family-run sweets and catering business with two shops in Bengaluru is run by a father and his daughter. The daughter wants to try an ordering app, but nobody has yet written down where orders, stock and supplier dues are kept today.
Sample inputs
Demonstration inputs only. No order counts, sales figures or costs are used. From short chats with the father, the daughter, the head cook and the counter lead at the second shop: catering orders go into a paper order book at the main shop; the father takes many catering enquiries on his personal WhatsApp; supplier dues are entered in the accounting software by an outside accountant once a month; daily milk and ghee stock is written in a notebook in the kitchen; the price list is a spreadsheet on the daughter’s laptop; festival batch quantities are known only to the head cook.
Example output
Baseline header
[Fact within this demonstration] Baseline owner: [Name the daughter]. Who was asked: the father, the daughter, the head cook and the counter lead at the second shop.
Where information lives
[Fact within this demonstration] Catering orders: paper order book at the main shop; the father writes most entries; the second shop has to phone to check.
Catering enquiries: the father’s personal WhatsApp; nobody else can see them.
Supplier dues: accounting software, updated monthly by the outside accountant; the father keeps the bills in a file.
Milk and ghee stock: kitchen notebook, kept by the head cook.
Price list: spreadsheet on the daughter’s laptop; the second shop has a printed copy that may be older.
Festival batch quantities: in the head cook’s head only.
Risk if someone is away
Catering orders: High. If the father is away, the second shop cannot confirm a booking without phoning him.
Catering enquiries: High. Messages wait until the father checks his phone.
Festival batch quantities: High. Only the head cook knows them.
Price list: Medium. Two copies that may not match.
Milk and ghee stock: Medium. The notebook stays in the kitchen.
Supplier dues: Low. The accountant and the bill file both hold it.
[Inference] Catering orders and enquiries depend on one person and sit where the second shop cannot see them. How often this causes a problem has not been measured in this demonstration.
Flags
Catering orders: only on paper, with no copy.
Catering enquiries: kept on a personal phone; customer details with no agreed rule.
Festival batch quantities: only in one person’s head.
Price list: two versions that do not match.
First step card
[Recommendation] Step: copy each new catering order from the paper book into one shared spreadsheet that both shops can open, using the spreadsheet tool the business already has.
Covers: catering orders.
Owner: [Name the daughter].
Start date: [Choose a date].
Carries on the old way: the father keeps writing every order in the paper book.
How we will check it worked: at the end of each week, the daughter and the father compare the paper book with the spreadsheet, order by order, and note any that are missing.
Review date: [Two weeks after the start date].
This recommendation is not the business’s decision.
Stop rules applied
No ordering app was shortlisted or bought. The paper book stays in use. Moving catering enquiries off the father’s personal WhatsApp, and writing down the festival batch quantities with the head cook, are left for later steps with their owners.
Quality check
Every piece of information has where it lives, who holds it, a risk rating and any flags; facts come from the people asked, with blanks left visible; there is one first step with an owner, a start date and a way to check it worked; nothing was bought and the old way was not stopped before the check passed.
Limits and human review
The baseline records where information lives and who the business depends on; it does not prove that a tool is right, safe or worth paying for, and it does not check data protection or accounting rules. A filled record is not approval to buy software, move customer or staff details, or stop the paper register. Keep consequential actions with the named human owner.
Edition notes
New in Kosh at version 1.1. Provider-neutral Markdown instructions; no installation or platform compatibility is implied. Runtime behaviour has not been verified across AI providers. Reuse terms have not yet been published. Background reading: Audit the Backstage Before You Scale the Frontstage. Writing down where information lives before choosing any tool is part of Kramaniti’s Foundation Strategy audit.