# Brightmoor Finance × Claude Cowork — recommended run

A 3.5-hour, Cowork-only session for Brightmoor’s accounting, payroll, bursar, and strategic finance teams. One monthly close, three artifacts they already make by hand.

**Send Dana:** `agenda-for-dana.md`  
**Run the room with:** `run-of-show-brightmoor.md`  
**Send attendees Monday:** `prework.md`  
**Live copy-paste:** `demo-prompts.md`  
**Data + 15-page template:** `workshop-pack/brightmoor-feb-close/`  
**Do not share with attendees:** `workshop-pack/facilitator/`

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## What the run is

Not a Claude Code workshop. Not a tour of AI. Not a brainstorm.

It is their existing job, once:

1. **Dashboard** — the wide NetSuite P&L Excel Accounting already sends, turned into a campus-filter HTML view leadership can read.
2. **Analysis** — Cowork runs the numbers in Python and writes a tied-out Excel workbook (P&L, EBITDA bridge, payroll vs non-payroll, register-to-GL recon, control totals). Then ten minutes in **Claude in Excel** so they can do the same work inside the sheet.
3. **PowerPoint** — the 15-page monthly template, filled from that workbook, including charts and commentary.

That is the 8-hour job Dana walked through on the 3 Apr call (NetSuite export → Excel → slides, every month). We do a compressed, checked version of it.

## What we cut, on purpose

- No “why AI, why now.”
- No ASCII art / location icebreaker. First prompt is an Excel first-look against the February P&L.
- No Claude Code, no terminal, no GitHub, no public deploy.
- No vacation planner, no second toy build, no afternoon open-build.
- No volunteer TAs from their team (Dana declined; they are too busy).
- No Snowflake live connection. Files are NetSuite-shaped so the prompts transfer the day IT turns the connector on.

Keep from the standard beginners session: Cowork vs a chatbot (files + code), **Talk → Jam → Make → Tune**, the **ASK Ladder**, and a short number-checking block — the last one matters more here than in a PM room.

## Timing (3h 30m inside a 4-hour block)

| Clock (10:00 start) | Mins | Block |
|---|---|---|
| 10:00–10:08 | 8 | Why we’re here — the 8-hour pack, not a keynote |
| 10:08–10:28 | 20 | Cowork vs ChatGPT + first Excel prompt |
| 10:28–11:15 | 47 | Build 1 — HTML dashboard from the P&L export |
| 11:15–11:22 | 7 | Neighbor share |
| 11:22–11:32 | 10 | Break |
| 11:32–11:42 | 10 | Checking numbers + ASK Ladder |
| 11:42–12:25 | 43 | Build 2 — analysis workbook, then Claude in Excel |
| 12:25–13:10 | 45 | Build 3 — fill the monthly PowerPoint template |
| 13:10–13:20 | 10 | The Monday workflow (repeatable prompt) |
| 13:20–13:30 | 10 | Questions and close |

Shift the clock to whatever start time is on the invite. The extra 30 minutes in the four-hour block is setup slack, not content.

## The data

Synthetic February 2026 close for **Brightmoor Education, Inc.** Oracle NetSuite is the system of record; Snowflake is the warehouse. Files look like saved-search / worksheet extracts, not a data-science sandbox.

Dimensions they will recognize:

- **Location = campus:** Bay Area, Austin, Chicago, Online, NYC
- **Department, Class (program), Subsidiary, Account Number**
- Month + YTD (Jan + Feb), budget, forecast locked 1 Feb
- Payroll accounts 5000/5010/6000/6010 vs everything else
- EBITDA with D&A add-back; Chicago opening costs on 7900 as a Controller judgment

Issues planted so the analysis is not a clean happy path:

- Austin tuition **16%** under budget (enrollment)
- Online **11%** over
- Chicago new campus, **$186.4k** of opening costs on 7900, EBITDA near zero
- Payroll **$189k** over budget; ADP register is **$47,250** short of GL (2/28 wage accrual)
- Three vendor bills totaling **$18,740** sitting on account **1300 Clearing**
- Marketing underspend is timing, not a save
- Company trial balance **debits = credits** (`$37,401,931.62`)

If Dana later shares real campus names or a real slide template, swap those labels. Do not swap in live numbers without an NDA.

## Assumptions (nothing to wait on)

- **Headcount:** 20–30, mostly accounting / payroll / bursar; ~3 strategic finance. ~90% beginners; Dana, Greg, and one modeler are further along. Give those three the “hard mode” extras in the run sheet — do not make them TAs.
- **Licenses:** Cowork for every attendee is a blocker. On the call, only Dana’s three plus Greg had Claude. Confirm with Greg before Thursday.
- **Claude in Excel:** Assume the add-in is available. If it is not, run that ten minutes as a Cowork “edit this workbook in place” prompt. Do not stall the room.
- **Snowflake:** Optional. Same file shapes; connector is not required to run the session.
- **Session length:** 3.5 hours of content, 4-hour hold, per Natalia/Dana.
- **Start time:** Not specified; run sheet uses 10:00. Relabel.
- **Campus names:** Invented. Transcript mention of “Ideal Info Cross” was unclear.
- **Brand:** Navy `#1F4E79` / gold `#C4A35A` on the template. Swap if they send a real deck.
- **Publishing a dashboard:** Internal HTML file on a shared drive. Not a hosted app, not a password product, not GitHub Pages. Dana asked about “publish so other finance can open it.” Shared drive / SharePoint is the honest answer in this session.
- **Expectation Dana already heard:** they will not walk out with a one-shot, pixel-perfect 15-pager. They will walk out with the process, a working dashboard, a tied workbook, and a filled pack they still have to Tune.

## What “good” looks like on Thursday

Every attendee has, in their Cowork folder:

1. `00_first_look.xlsx` — 30-second CFO snapshot  
2. `dashboard.html` — campus dropdown, horizontal bars, month + YTD  
3. `Feb_close_analysis.xlsx` — control-totals tab that ties to the trial balance  
4. `Brightmoor_Monthly_Review_Feb2026.pptx` — template filled, not from scratch  

And one sentence they can use on Monday: drop next month’s extract in the folder, run the same prompts, check the control totals, then send.