Setting up your first Symphony workbook — a practical guide.

Setting up a Symphony workbook the right way makes everything downstream easier. This is the guide for the person who's going to be the workbook owner — the one who decides the structure, invites the team, and shapes how the workflow feels.

You can do this in about fifteen minutes. Rushing it is fine — the workbook can evolve later. But there are a few decisions worth thinking through up front.

Start with the conversation

Before you touch Excel, name the conversation this workbook exists to support. Is it your weekly pipeline review? Your monthly budget consolidation? Your ongoing account health tracking? Symphony workbooks work best when they're tied to a specific recurring conversation, not a general-purpose "data lives here" file.

The clearer the conversation, the easier every other decision becomes.

Decide the ownership pattern

You have two proven patterns to choose from:

Worksheet per owner

Each contributor gets their own worksheet inside the shared workbook. Sales pipeline: one worksheet per rep. Budget consolidation: one worksheet per department. Account reviews: one worksheet per CSM.

Best when: Each contributor's data is meaningfully distinct, or they need substantial privacy while working. Reps working on different accounts. Department heads with different budget structures. Regional forecasts.

One worksheet, row per owner

Everyone works in a single worksheet. Each row has an owner (assigned by name, territory, or account). Owners update their own rows privately, then Submit. Everyone sees the whole list.

Best when: The workbook is a flat list where the whole team benefits from seeing everything as context. Smaller teams. Order books. Vendor lists. Shared pipelines where cross-visibility helps.

Either pattern works. Pick based on how your team actually thinks about the work, not on which feels more "advanced."

Structure the columns

Design the column set for the conversation. A pipeline workbook probably needs: opportunity name, account, stage, amount, close date, next step, confidence. A budget workbook: line item, category, current year, proposed year, notes.

A few rules of thumb:

• Keep the sheet narrow enough to read. If contributors have to scroll horizontally to see key columns, they'll miss things. Aim for what fits on a standard laptop screen.
• Put the most-changed columns to the left. Amount and close date on a pipeline. Status and next-review-date on an account. This puts the movers in the reader's first pass.
• Include a reason column. Even though Symphony captures reasons per Submit, a running "notes" column per row is useful for context that persists across Submits.

Set up the workbook

Create the workbook in Excel like you always would. Add the worksheets you need. Set up your columns and any headers, formatting, or formulas.

Save it to a location that Symphony can access — typically OneDrive or a shared drive that your team already uses. Open it in Excel, click Enable Symphony from the Symphony ribbon, and confirm the workbook is now Symphony-managed. This is a one-time step per workbook.

Invite the team

Click Invite and add each contributor's email. If you're using the worksheet-per-owner pattern, assign each contributor to their worksheet. If you're using row-per-owner, assign each contributor to the rows they own.

Add a short welcome note explaining what the workbook is for and when the first Submit deadline is. Contributors get an email with the Join link, a link to install Symphony if they don't have it, and your note.

See the inviting contributors reference for details on the invite flow.

Set the rhythm

Symphony doesn't impose a cadence. You do. In your first team meeting after setup, decide together:

• When do people Submit? Some teams have a hard deadline (Friday 5pm, before the Monday meeting). Others have a soft rule (whenever meaningful changes happen, ideally at least twice a week). Both work.
• When does the owner Refresh? Typically before every review meeting. Some owners Refresh daily as a habit.
• Should reasons be required? Symphony strongly encourages a reason on every Submit, but doesn't enforce it. Many teams make reasons mandatory for material changes.

Write these expectations down and share them with the team. Not a policy document — just a shared understanding.

The first Submit

Ask each contributor to make a small update to their worksheet and Submit it, with a reason. This is a practice run. Everyone Refreshes. Everyone sees each other's practice Submits and the reasons attached.

Do this in the first meeting after invites go out. Fifteen minutes. Fixes any installation issues before real work begins. Builds muscle memory for the Submit-Refresh loop.

What to expect in the first month

The first two weeks feel unfamiliar. Contributors may forget to Submit, or Submit without reasons, or expect their edits to be visible to teammates instantly (they're not — Submit is required). This is normal. Gentle reminders help.

By the third or fourth week, the rhythm becomes automatic. Reps update between calls. Department heads update as they think. Everyone Refreshes before meetings. The workbook becomes the current state of the conversation, and the conversation itself moves faster.

By month two, most teams report the same thing: information moves at the pace of the work, not the pace of the weekly meeting.