Claude for Your Team · Lesson 3 of 7
Daily use: the company account rule
20 minutes. For everyone on the team. One rule, five habits, and a card for your desk.
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This lesson is for everyone who uses Claude at work: the office, the owner, the person who answers the phones. If your owner sent you here, welcome. You don't need to know anything about the setup. You just need to know how to use it well, and safely.
> Company work only in company accounts.
That's it. Anything you do for the business (a customer email, an estimate, a price list, a staff schedule, a vendor contract) goes in the company's Claude account. Never in a personal account, a free account, or a different AI tool you signed up for yourself.
Why it matters, in plain terms:
- The company account has the business settings. Your owner chose them in Lesson 2. A personal free or Pro account has different rules, including a setting that lets Anthropic train on your chats if it's on.
- The company account belongs to the business. If you're out sick, a teammate can pick up the shared project. If you leave, the work stays.
- The company can see what tools are in use and pay for the right ones. Nobody has to expense a mystery subscription.
And the other direction: personal stuff stays in personal accounts. Your vacation plans don't belong in the company account. Keep the two apart and nobody has to wonder.
How to tell which account you're in
When you open Claude, check that you're signed in with your work email and that you see your company's organization, not just your own name. If you have both a personal and a work account, sign out of the personal one on your work computer. If you're not sure which account you're in, stop and ask before you paste anything.
Most of what you'll ask Claude doesn't need anyone's private details. Paste the question, not the person.
Never paste into Claude, even in the company account:
- Card numbers, bank account numbers, payment details
- Social Security, driver's license or other ID numbers
- Passwords, door codes, alarm codes, Wi-Fi keys
- Health details about customers or coworkers
- Anything your owner has put on the "never" list on your Company Account Rule Card
When a detail isn't needed for the answer, swap it out. "The customer on Elm Street" works as well as the full address. "[customer]" works even better.
Claude drafts. You decide.
- Anything going to a customer: you read it, fix it and send it yourself. Every time.
- Anything about money: prices, refunds, discounts, invoices, payroll. Claude can help you write it up. A person with the authority checks the numbers and approves it.
- Anything it states as fact: check it against your own records. Claude can be confidently wrong about a price, a date or a policy, especially one it wasn't given.
At Comfort Zone, Tina uses Claude to draft every estimate letter. She still checks each line against the price book before it goes out. It takes her about a minute. It used to take her ten to write the letter.
If you need something current (a manufacturer's spec sheet, a new code requirement, today's news), turn on web search for that chat:
- Click the + button in the lower left of the chat box.
- Select Web search. A checkmark shows it's on.
Your owner has to enable web search for the organization first. If you don't see it, ask.
Even with web search on, open the source it cites and check it before you rely on it.
Usage limits. Each person has their own usage limit, which resets weekly, plus a per-session allowance. If you hit it, you'll be told. Your owner may have turned on extra usage so you can keep working, with a spending limit. If you're running out often, tell your owner. It may mean you need a different seat (Lesson 6).
The thumbs up and thumbs down. If your owner left the feedback buttons on, know that sending feedback may let Anthropic use that chat for training. Never rate a chat that has customer, employee or pricing details in it. Your card says whether your company turned these off.
Incognito chats. An incognito chat isn't saved to your chat history or to memory. It's handy for a quick one-off question. On a Team plan, it's still kept for 30 days and is included if your company exports its data. It's tidy, not secret.
Memory. If your owner made memory available, you can turn it on for yourself under Settings > Memory. It helps Claude remember how you like things done. You can leave it off.
You don't need special words. You need context. A good request has four parts:
- Who it's for: "a homeowner who's never had a heat pump"
- What you want: "a short email explaining why we recommend a maintenance plan"
- What it must include: "our price is [price from our price book], visits are spring and fall"
- What it must not do: "don't promise savings on their energy bill"
Then read what comes back, and ask for changes in plain English. "Shorter." "Less salesy." "Take out the second paragraph." That back-and-forth is normal, and it's usually faster than starting over.
If you find yourself typing the same setup every day, that's a sign it belongs in a shared Project. That's Lesson 4.
- Open the Company Account Rule Card template. Your owner fills in the top part: the company's "never paste" additions, whether feedback buttons are on, and who to ask.
- Each person reads it and signs the bottom.
- Each person checks their own computer and phone: signed in to the company account with a work email, and signed out of any personal account used for work.
- Each person does one real task from their own work this week, using the four-part request, and checks the result before using it.
Check it worked
- Everyone on the team can say the one rule in their own words.
- Every work computer is signed in to the company account, with a work email.
- The Rule Card is printed and at every desk where someone uses Claude.
- Everyone knows who to ask when they're not sure.
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Next: stop retyping the same instructions. Put them in a Project the whole team can use.
→ Lesson 4: Projects: shared work, shared instructions
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