Claude for CFOs

What this workshop covers Here is the updated copy with the tax analysis section added and the section numbers adjusted: What this workshop covers This is a 1-hour hands-on session showing CFOs, Finance Directors, and PE-backed company finance teams how to automate the core financial workflows that consume the most time every month, using Claude AI agents inside Claude Cowork. We will walk you through seven production-ready workflows built on a real PE-backed manufacturing company, so by the end of the session you can run your full monthly close cycle, board reporting process, and capital structure analysis without opening a blank document or building a single formula yourself. Limited slots available. First come, first served. Section 1: Claude in Excel How to use Claude directly inside Microsoft Excel to analyse financial data, build and audit formulas, generate variance commentary, flag anomalies, and restructure models without leaving the spreadsheet. We show you what Claude can do when it is sitting inside your actual workbook — cleaning messy data, explaining what a formula does, suggesting improvements to model structure, and generating narrative from numbers in one click. If your finance team lives in Excel, this section shows you how Claude becomes part of that environment rather than a separate tool you switch between. Section 2: Financial Reporting How to have Claude scan your Gmail inbox, locate the month-end financial data, and produce a fully formatted financial report covering the income statement, balance sheet, and cash flow statement. Claude writes the executive commentary, flags the movements that matter, and delivers a board-ready document in the time it takes to make a coffee. We run this live on real May financials. You see exactly what gets produced and how Claude structures the output. Section 3: Variance Analysis How to have Claude take the monthly actuals, compare them line by line against budget, identify the top variance drivers, go deep on root cause for each one, and produce a structured variance report with a RAG status on every line item and a numbered set of management recommendations. The kind of analysis that normally takes a finance team half a day now takes under two minutes. Section 4: Working Capital Monitoring How to configure Claude to calculate DSO, DIO, DPO, and the cash conversion cycle from your AR aging, inventory, and AP data, track the five-month trend, assess every metric against your credit agreement thresholds, and flag any deterioration before it becomes a covenant issue. Claude delivers a compliance summary and a ranked list of working capital improvement actions with expected impact in days and dollars. Section 5: Board Reporting How to have Claude synthesise everything it has just produced into a complete board pack and a polished PowerPoint presentation deck, then draft the email to the board distribution list. Claude builds the CFO narrative, the KPI dashboard, the covenant compliance table, the risk and mitigants register, and the Q3 outlook section. It then opens a Gmail draft addressed to the board, ready to send. The full board reporting cycle from data to draft email in one prompt. Section 6: Financial Planning and Analysis How to have Claude build a fully dynamic three-scenario financial model in Excel covering Q3, with Base, Upside, and Downside cases, all assumptions on a dedicated sheet, covenant projections through to September, and an Excess Cash Flow Sweep analysis referenced directly against the credit agreement. Claude then writes the FP&A report pulling from the model, with scenario commentary, sensitivity analysis, and a CFO recommendation on which scenario to present to the board. Section 7: Tax Analysis How to have Claude review the monthly accounts and produce a full tax analysis covering current tax liability, deferred tax movements, and the effective tax rate versus the statutory rate. Critically, Claude analyses the deferred tax position arising from temporary differences between the accounting treatment under IFRS and the tax base under the applicable tax regime, including accelerated depreciation on PPE under tax rules versus straight-line depreciation under IAS 16, timing differences on provisions and accruals recognised under IFRS but deductible only on a cash basis for tax, and the treatment of lease liabilities under IFRS 16 versus the tax deductibility of lease payments. For companies reporting under US GAAP, Claude applies the equivalent ASC 740 framework, identifying the same categories of temporary differences and producing the deferred tax asset and liability schedule accordingly. Claude calculates the closing deferred tax position, projects the full year tax exposure under Base and Downside scenarios, and delivers a CFO recommendation on any year end tax planning actions worth considering before close. Section 8: Capital Structure Decision Support How to have Claude read your credit agreement, analyse a proposed new debt facility, calculate the pre and post transaction impact on every covenant, assess the consent requirements under your existing facility documentation, flag the legal and structural considerations, and produce a complete decision paper ready for a board vote. The kind of analysis that normally requires three days and an advisory fee now takes one prompt. Section 9: Root Files and Workspace Configuration How the three root files driving every workflow in this session actually work: CLAUDE.md for workspace identity, company context, and folder structure, SKILL.md for all seven workflow instructions in a single file, and SCORING-CRITERIA.xlsx for the editable scoring rubric your team can update without touching any code. You configure these once and every month the system runs against the same institutional standard. Section 10: The Scheduling Prompts How to configure Claude so that every month on the 5th it scans your Gmail for the latest financials, runs the full reporting cycle, and delivers everything to the right output folder automatically. One prompt per workflow, set once, and the monthly cycle runs without you. What you leave with All root files, prompts, workflows, and input templates ready to run on your own company tomorrow. 30-minute Q&A with Ayub. Who this is for CFOs, Finance Directors, Financial Controllers, and PE-backed company finance teams at businesses with USD 10M to USD 500M in revenue who want to compress the time between month-end close and having a board-ready pack, variance analysis, and capital structure memo on the table.