05 showrunner

Claude Cowork for Finance & Accounting: Workshop Run Sheet & Strategy

Client: Brightmoor Education
Facilitation Partner: Every Inc. (Mike & Natalia)
Client Champions: Dana Yoon (Strategic Finance), Greg Nerlin (VP Finance), Marcus (Chief Accounting Officer / Controller)
Deliverable Type: Complete Run of Show, Curriculum Architecture, Synthetic Data Specification, and Facilitator Guide
Execution Runtime: 3.5 Hours (210 Net Minutes) within a 4-Hour Scheduled Block

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Executive Summary & Strategic Rationale

This run sheet adapts the foundational Every workshop methodology (Talk → Jam → Make → Tune) into a 100% non-technical, zero-code, finance-native experience designed specifically for Brightmoor Education.

Core Context & Audience Dynamics

• Organization Profile: Brightmoor Education is a high-growth workplace education and workforce training provider operating across 5 campuses/delivery channels: San Francisco (HQ), New York, Chicago, London, and Remote/Online cohorts.
• Audience Composition (20–30 Attendees):
  • Strategic Finance / FP&A (3 attendees — Dana Yoon, Greg Nerlin, Senior Analyst): Focused on reducing the monthly 8-hour PowerPoint reporting chore, upgrading executive presentation dashboards, and modeling campus contribution margins.
  • Accounting, Payroll & Bursar (17–27 attendees — Led by Chief Controller Marcus): AI beginners, heavily overworked, risk-averse, and skeptical of automation. Focused on month-end trial balance tie-outs, payroll accrual reconciliations, and bursar tuition receivables aging.
• Operational Reality: The team has zero bandwidth for AI theory, developer tools, or speculative use cases. They need immediate time savings on recurring weekly and monthly deliverables powered by Oracle NetSuite (replicated into Snowflake and exported to Excel).

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What Changed: The Transformation from Technical PM to Non-Technical Finance

Dimension	Previous Technical / PM Workshops (e.g., Nvalo)	Brightmoor Finance Cowork Workshop	Business Rationale for Change
Platform & Interface	Claude Code (CLI / Terminal & Desktop App)	Claude Cowork ONLY + Claude in Excel	Non-technical accounting team; terminal/CLI introduces immediate intimidation and friction.
Developer Ecosystem	Git, GitHub repos, PRDs, Jira, Notion connectors	Local Folder Access (Brightmoor_Finance_Workspace)	Finance teams operate in local drives, OneDrive/SharePoint, and ERP exports; zero developer tooling.
First Hands-On Prompt	ASCII Map of global office locations	5-Minute NetSuite Data Hygiene & Balance Audit	ASCII art feels like a toy; auditing a trial balance export proves immediate business utility and mathematical rigor.
Build 1: Dashboards	Web-based survey/NPS product analytics app	Executive HTML/CSS Financial Dashboard	Solves Dana’s direct request: converting ugly Excel tables into modern, C-suite web dashboards with campus filters.
Build 2: Workflow Tool	Release notes generator or vacation planner	Deep Financial Analysis & Multi-Tab Reconciliations	Solves core accounting pain: reconciling Payroll to GL and Bursar tuition receivables aging in native Excel.
Build 3: Automation	Cross-tool Jira/Notion sprint syncer	Automated 15-Page Recurring PowerPoint Deck	Directly targets Dana's 8-hour monthly bottleneck: auto-populating slides and mirroring campus charts across 5 pages.
Troubleshooting & Safety	Technical ASK Ladder & code debugging	Finance Trust Architecture & Deterministic Python Auditing	Solves Controller Marcus's compliance anxiety: verifying code trails, control totals, and live Excel formulas.

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Claude Cowork: The Non-Technical Conceptual Foundation

During the opening 15 minutes, facilitators introduce Claude Cowork through the "Agentic Junior Analyst" mental model:

                      ┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
                      │                 STANDARD CHATGPT / LLM                │
                      │  • Chat-only text bubble                               │
                      │  • Generates "next most likely word" (Risks Hallucination)│
                      │  • Cannot touch local files or execute calculations   │
                      └────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
                                                  VS
                      ┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
                      │                     CLAUDE COWORK                      │
                      │  • Operates inside your local folder (Reads/Writes)   │
                      │  • "The Calculator Rule": Executes Python code for math│
                      │  • Generates native Excel models with live formulas   │
                      │  • Builds standalone executive HTML dashboards        │
                      │  • Updates 15-page corporate PowerPoint slide decks    │
                      └────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

1. Local Folder Integration: You point Claude Cowork at your local month-end close folder (Brightmoor_Finance_Workspace). It reads incoming NetSuite exports and creates updated workbooks, dashboards, and decks directly on your drive.
2. The Calculator Rule (Deterministic Math): When computing variances, EBITDA waterfalls, or reconciliations, Claude Cowork does not guess. Behind the scenes, it writes and executes sandboxed Python scripts (pandas, openpyxl, python-pptx) to aggregate numbers with 100% mathematical precision.
3. The Audit Trail: Attendees can click "View Code" at any moment to see the exact formula and Python script executed, providing a transparent audit trail for internal controllers and external auditors.

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Complete 3.5-Hour Minute-by-Minute Run of Show

WORKSHOP SCHEDULE OVERVIEW (3.5 Hours / 210 Net Minutes)
══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
00:00 - 00:25 (25 min) | Module 1: Welcome & The Cowork Shift: From Chatbots to Coworkers
00:25 - 00:45 (20 min) | Module 2: First Spin: The 5-Minute NetSuite Data Hygiene & Balance Audit
00:45 - 01:30 (45 min) | Module 3: Build 1 — Executive Financial Dashboard (HTML/CSS & Publishing)
01:30 - 01:45 (15 min) | Intermission: Coffee, Screen Break & Technical Catch-up
01:45 - 02:30 (45 min) | Module 4: Build 2 — Deep Financial Analysis & Reconciliations (Excel)
02:30 - 03:10 (40 min) | Module 5: Build 3 — Automating the 15-Page Monthly Deck (PowerPoint)
03:10 - 03:30 (20 min) | Module 6: Trust, Determinism, The Finance ASK Ladder & Close Playbook
══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

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Module 1: Welcome & The Cowork Shift: From Chatbots to Coworkers

• Duration: 25 Minutes (00:00 – 00:25)
• Target Audience: All 20–30 Attendees (Accounting, Payroll, Bursar, Strategic Finance)
• Facilitators: Natalia Quintero (Welcome & Context) & Mike (Cowork Mechanics)

Facilitator Script & Framing:

*"Good morning, Brightmoor team. We know how packed your calendars are. When you’re closing the monthly books, calculating faculty payroll, and updating board decks, you don't have time for AI science experiments. Today is focused on one metric: giving hours back to your week.

Many of you have tried ChatGPT and found it unreliable for accounting because it hallucinates numbers or can't work directly with your spreadsheets. Today, we are using Claude Cowork. Cowork is fundamentally different: it connects directly to a folder on your computer, writes and runs Python scripts to do the heavy math deterministically, and edits your Excel and PowerPoint files natively. Today is 100% non-technical. You won't touch a terminal, write code, or install software. You will simply direct an ultra-fast financial analyst."*

Screen Share & Visual Demonstration:

1. Mike shares screen showing the Claude Cowork desktop interface side-by-side with the pre-loaded folder: Brightmoor_Finance_Workspace.
2. Demonstrates dragging a file into the folder and showing how Cowork instantly recognizes the new data.
3. Verifies that all 25 attendees have opened Claude Cowork and pointed it to their local workshop directory.

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Module 2: First Spin: The 5-Minute NetSuite Data Hygiene & Balance Audit

• Duration: 20 Minutes (00:25 – 00:45)
• Target Audience: Entire Team (Practical replacement for the old ASCII art starter)
• Objective: Give every participant a win within 5 minutes on a messy, real-world NetSuite export.

The Problem:

Every month, Accounting exports a raw, unformatted Trial Balance from NetSuite (NetSuite_TB_Monthly_Extract_Feb2026.xlsx). Someone has to manually check if total debits equal total credits, verify that Ending Balance = Beginning Balance + Net Activity, and group accounts by category.

Participant Hands-On Action (Copy-Paste Prompt):

You are an expert corporate accounting assistant at Brightmoor Education.
Please inspect the file 'NetSuite_TB_Monthly_Extract_Feb2026.xlsx' in our working folder.

Perform an immediate data hygiene and integrity audit:
1. Confirm whether total Period Debits equal total Period Credits (show the exact dollar variance, if any).
2. Verify that Ending Balance equals Beginning Balance + Net Activity for all accounts.
3. Identify the top 3 expense accounts with the highest Net Activity this month.
4. Output a clean, markdown executive summary table showing Total Assets, Total Liabilities, Total Revenue, and Total Operating Expenses.

Run Python code to compute these numbers deterministically. Do not estimate.

Under the Hood & Key Takeaway:

• Claude Cowork initiates Python in the background, loads pandas, parses the multi-segment NetSuite strings, computes the sums, and outputs a formatted table confirming zero variance ($0.00).
• Facilitators guide attendees to click "View Code" to see the deterministic Python script, immediately establishing trust with Controller Marcus and the accounting team.

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Module 3: Build 1 — Executive Financial Dashboard (HTML/CSS & Publishing)

• Duration: 45 Minutes (00:45 – 01:30)
• Target Audience: Strategic Finance (Dana’s direct request) & Accounting Leadership
• Objective: Turn static, unformatted Excel P&L numbers into an interactive, beautifully designed executive HTML dashboard, customize it without code, and establish internal publishing methods.

The Business Problem:

Dana and Greg currently maintain a multi-tab workbook (Brightmoor_BvA_Consolidated_Feb2026.xlsx). Senior executives want visual summaries, but Excel formatting is brittle and looks dated. Dana previously attempted building an HTML dashboard, but struggled to configure horizontal bar charts, add interactive campus filters, or share it easily without IT dependencies.

Step 1: The Guided Build Prompt (00:50 – 01:05)

Read 'Brightmoor_BvA_Consolidated_Feb2026.xlsx' from our folder.
I need you to create a high-end, modern, interactive executive dashboard saved as 'Brightmoor_Exec_Dashboard_Feb2026.html'.

Design & Requirements:
1. Executive Styling: Clean dark/light corporate aesthetic (Stripe/Linear style), modern typography (Inter/system-ui), 8px border radius cards, soft shadows.
2. Top Metric Cards: Consolidated Revenue ($ MTD vs Budget), EBITDA ($ and Margin %), Total Operating Expenses, and Net Margin. Include color-coded variance pill badges (Emerald Green for favorable, Crimson for unfavorable).
3. Campus Performance Breakdown: Include data for San Francisco, New York, Chicago, London, and Remote.
4. Standalone File: Use embedded CSS and vanilla JavaScript so the HTML file can be opened directly in any browser (Chrome, Safari, Edge) without needing a web server.

Write and execute the necessary Python code to extract the data and build the complete HTML file.

Step 2: Hands-On Tuning: The "Jam & Tune" Phase (01:05 – 01:20)

Participants double-click the newly created Brightmoor_Exec_Dashboard_Feb2026.html to open it in their browser, then execute two guided customization prompts:

• Tuning Prompt A (Dana’s horizontal bar request):

  Open 'Brightmoor_Exec_Dashboard_Feb2026.html'. In the Campus Performance section, convert the vertical bar chart into a sleek horizontal bar chart, sorted from highest revenue campus to lowest. Include the dollar amounts and variance badges next to each bar.
  

• Tuning Prompt B (Interactive campus dropdown filter):

  Update 'Brightmoor_Exec_Dashboard_Feb2026.html' to add a dropdown menu in the header allowing executives to filter all KPI cards and charts by Campus (All, San Francisco, New York, Chicago, London, Remote). Keep all logic in client-side JavaScript.
  

Step 3: Publishing & Sharing Solutions (01:20 – 01:30):

Facilitator explains how non-technical teams publish these dashboards without IT intervention:

1. Self-Contained Offline File: The .html file contains all CSS/JS embedded. It can be attached to an email or dropped in a shared Microsoft Teams/SharePoint folder.
2. Internal Password Gate: Demonstrate adding a clean JavaScript password modal (BrightmoorExec2026) directly into the file.
3. Enterprise Hosting: If IT sets up a static storage bucket (AWS S3, Azure Blob, or Cloudflare Pages), dropping this file makes it an instant internal web portal.

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Intermission (01:30 – 01:45)

15-minute coffee and screen break. Facilitators review participant progress in chat.

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Module 4: Build 2 — Deep Financial Analysis & Reconciliations (Excel/Python)

• Duration: 45 Minutes (01:45 – 02:30)
• Target Audience: Accounting, Payroll, Bursar & Strategic Finance
• Objective: Perform automated month-end reconciliations and EBITDA waterfall modeling in native Excel with live formulas.

The Dual-Track Practical Workflow:

Participants select the track most relevant to their daily job:

Track A: Accounting & Bursar Reconciliations

• The Problem: The ADP payroll register totals $578,672, but NetSuite GL Account 5010 reflects $573,922—a $4,750 discrepancy. Meanwhile, the Bursar has 200 student tuition accounts across 4 campuses with unapplied cash and delinquent balances.
• Copy-Paste Prompt:

  You are the Senior Controller for Brightmoor Education. 
  Open 'Payroll_Register_vs_GL_Recon_Feb2026.xlsx' and 'Bursar_Tuition_AR_Aging_Feb2026.xlsx' in our folder.
  
  Please perform the following month-end reconciliation tasks:
  1. Reconcile the NetSuite GL payroll accounts against the third-party payroll register. Identify the exact $4,750 discrepancy, pinpoint the employee/cost center, and draft the adjusting journal entry (Dr/Cr) required to close the books.
  2. Analyze the Bursar AR Aging report:
     - Group total outstanding balances by aging bucket (Current, 31-60, 61-90, 90+ days).
     - Separate Corporate Sponsored cohorts from Direct Individual Learners.
     - Highlight any student/sponsor with a balance >$10,000 in the 90+ day bucket.
  3. Create a new Excel workbook named 'Brightmoor_Reconciliation_Summary_Feb2026.xlsx' containing two tabs: 'Payroll_Recon' and 'Bursar_AR_Audit', formatted cleanly with professional accounting borders and live Excel SUM formulas.
  

Track B: Strategic Finance EBITDA Bridge & Variance Modeling

• The Problem: February revenue was $80k above budget, but EBITDA missed budget by $45k. Management needs an EBITDA waterfall bridge explaining the margin compression.
• Copy-Paste Prompt:

  Examine 'Brightmoor_BvA_Consolidated_Feb2026.xlsx'. 
  Perform a deep-dive EBITDA bridge analysis for February 2026:
  1. Calculate the exact bridge components from Budget EBITDA to Actual EBITDA:
     - Revenue volume/mix impact (+)
     - Instructional Direct Payroll variance (-)
     - Campus Lease & Facilities Drawdowns variance (-)
     - SaaS & Learning Tech OPEX variance (-)
     - Other G&A variances (+/-)
  2. Calculate campus-level contribution margins (% of revenue after direct campus facility drawdowns and instructional payroll) for SF, NY, Chicago, London, and Remote.
  3. Write a new tab named 'EBITDA_Bridge_Analysis' into the existing Excel workbook using live formulas.
  

Formula Audit Check:

Attendees open their Excel files to confirm that Claude Cowork injected real Excel formulas (SUM, IFERROR, XLOOKUP) rather than hardcoded static numbers.

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Module 5: Build 3 — Automating the 15-Page Monthly Deck (PowerPoint)

• Duration: 40 Minutes (02:30 – 03:10)
• Target Audience: Strategic Finance & Accounting Leadership
• Objective: Eliminate the 8-hour monthly deck compilation by automatically populating slides, duplicating/mirroring campus charts across 5 pages, and writing executive commentary.

The Problem:

Dana noted in the prep call: "It's like 15 pages every single month. Not a lot, but it's like 8 hours of work for one person. If I already have a chart built, can I just ask it to mirror this chart and do 6 more charts for me on the next 5 pages?"

Step 1: The Guided Deck Update Prompt (02:35 – 02:55)

You are an executive presentation designer and FP&A analyst.
Open 'Brightmoor_Monthly_Exec_Deck_Template.pptx' and read the financial figures from 'Brightmoor_BvA_Consolidated_Feb2026.xlsx'.

Update the presentation and save as 'Brightmoor_Monthly_Exec_Deck_Feb2026_FINAL.pptx':
1. Slide 2 (Executive Scorecard): Update the KPI cards for Revenue ($2.45M), EBITDA ($410k), and Gross Margin (58.4%).
2. Slide 3 (P&L Table): Populate the February Actual, Budget, and Variance columns with clean formatting ($ in thousands).
3. Slides 6 to 10 (Campus Performance - SF, NY, Chicago, London, Remote):
   - Take the chart layout and formatting from Slide 6 (SF Flagship).
   - Mirror that exact chart structure across Slides 7, 8, 9, and 10, updating the underlying data for New York, Chicago, London, and Remote respectively.
4. Slide 4 & Slide 11 (Variance Commentary): Generate 3 concise, bulleted executive takeaways explaining the key variance drivers:
   - Why Revenue beat budget (+3.4% due to B2B healthcare cohorts).
   - Why Non-Payroll OPEX exceeded budget (software true-up and lease drawdowns).
   - Bursar collections status.

Execute this using python-pptx. Preserve all master slide fonts, corporate colors, and branding.

Step 2: Hands-On Deck Review & Narrative Tuning (02:55 – 03:10):

Participants open the generated .pptx file in PowerPoint and inspect the mirrored campus charts. They run a quick narrative tuning prompt:

On Slide 2 of 'Brightmoor_Monthly_Exec_Deck_Feb2026_FINAL.pptx', rewrite the executive bullet points to be punchier for the Board of Directors: maximum 15 words per bullet, highlighting the London campus margin turnaround and the corporate cohort pipeline.

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Module 6: Trust, Determinism, The Finance ASK Ladder & Close Playbook

• Duration: 20 Minutes (03:10 – 03:30)
• Target Audience: Entire Team (Marcus / Accounting Risk Focus)
• Objective: Equip the team with verification frameworks and a repeatable close operating cadence.

1. The Finance "Trust Architecture"

How accountants prove numbers to auditors and the Chief Controller:

• Rule 1 (Never Mental Math): Always specify: "Run Python code to calculate exact figures from the source Excel file."
• Rule 2 (Formula Preservation): Inspect Excel outputs to ensure live formulas (=SUM(), =XLOOKUP()) are populated.
• Rule 3 (The Automated Tie-Out Prompt):

  Compare 'Brightmoor_BvA_Consolidated_Feb2026.xlsx' against 'Brightmoor_Monthly_Exec_Deck_Feb2026_FINAL.pptx'. Confirm that Consolidated Revenue on Slide 2 matches row 15 of the P&L tab. Report variance to the cent.
  

2. The Finance ASK Ladder (Troubleshooting Protocol)

  LEVEL 3: KILL & RESET ──── Close session, delete temp files, restart with clean prompt
            ▲
  LEVEL 2: SIMPLIFY ──────── "Break into 2 steps: compute table first, then format"
            ▲
  LEVEL 1: AUDIT ─────────── "Show me the exact Excel cell and Python code used"

3. The Monday Close Playbook

Immediate Monday morning routine for Brightmoor:

1. Export fresh monthly trial balance and BvA sheets from NetSuite/Snowflake into /Brightmoor_Finance_Workspace/01_NetSuite_Exports/.
2. Open Claude Cowork and run Prompt 1.1 (Hygiene Audit).
3. Run Prompt 2.1 to generate the refreshed Executive HTML Dashboard.
4. Run Prompt 4.1 to generate the updated 15-page PowerPoint Deck.
5. Spend the remaining 7 hours analyzing strategy rather than formatting slides.

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NetSuite Synthetic Data Architecture

To prevent workshop delays from IT access issues, SSO tokens, or NDA compliance, the session utilizes a pre-packaged synthetic environment matching Oracle NetSuite's exact relational schema:

Brightmoor_Finance_Workspace/
├── 01_NetSuite_Exports/
│   ├── NetSuite_TB_Monthly_Extract_Feb2026.xlsx       (Multi-segment GL: Acct, Dept, Class, Location)
│   └── NetSuite_GL_Transaction_Detail_Feb2026.csv     (Transaction level journal lines)
├── 02_FPnA_Models/
│   ├── Brightmoor_BvA_Consolidated_Feb2026.xlsx       (Consolidated P&L with Actuals, Budget, Variance)
│   └── Campus_Contribution_Margin_Model.xlsx          (Campus direct margin breakdown)
├── 03_Accounting_Reconciliations/
│   ├── Payroll_Register_vs_GL_Recon_Feb2026.xlsx      (Gross pay vs GL 5010, unaccrued variance)
│   └── Bursar_Tuition_AR_Aging_Feb2026.xlsx           (Student/corporate aging, 30/60/90+ days)
└── 04_Executive_Reporting/
    └── Brightmoor_Monthly_Exec_Deck_Template.pptx     (15-page corporate 16:9 widescreen template)

Business Context Mapped in Data:

• Revenue Categories: Corporate B2B Cohorts (GL 4010), Professional Certificates (GL 4020), Executive Seminars (GL 4030).
• Cost Segments: Faculty/TA Direct Payroll (GL 5010/5020), Campus Facilities Drawdowns (GL 6100), Tech Infrastructure (GL 6300).
• Cost Centers / Locations: SF-01 (San Francisco Flagship), NY-02 (Manhattan), CHI-03 (Chicago Loop), LDN-04 (London EMEA), REM-00 (Remote Online).

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Complete Project Deliverables Directory

All supplementary artifacts have been saved directly to the workspace root:

1. RUN_OF_SHOW_BRIGHTMOOR.md: Standalone facilitator run sheet containing timestamped schedules, slide cues, talking points, and contingency matrices.
2. NETSUITE_SYNTHETIC_DATA_SPEC.md: Complete schema definitions, table mockups, column data types, and NetSuite accounting mappings.
3. PROMPT_TEMPLATES_CHEATSHEET.md: Ready-to-use copy-paste prompt library organized by task (NetSuite hygiene, dashboards, reconciliations, PowerPoint, and audit tie-outs).
4. FACILITATOR_AND_TECH_SETUP_GUIDE.md: Operational guide covering pre-workshop timeline, Chief Controller Marcus alignment call strategy, Claude Desktop provisioning checklist, and psychological safety guidelines for non-technical teams.
5. ANSWER.md: This master strategic deliverable and curriculum overview.

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Operational Next Steps for Every Inc. Facilitation Team

1. Monday (T-5): Send RUN_OF_SHOW_BRIGHTMOOR.md and PROMPT_TEMPLATES_CHEATSHEET.md to Dana and Greg for agenda approval.
2. Tuesday (T-3): Hold brief 15-minute alignment call with Marcus (Chief Controller) using the script in FACILITATOR_AND_TECH_SETUP_GUIDE.md; confirm final headcount and send session invoice.
3. Wednesday (T-2): Distribute Brightmoor_Finance_Workspace.zip to attendees; confirm Claude Desktop / Cowork is installed across all 25 seats.
4. Thursday (T-0): Deliver the 3.5-hour workshop, eliminate the 8-hour monthly slide deck burden, and establish Claude Cowork as Brightmoor's ongoing financial copilot.