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Claude for Operators

Budget & Forecasting

Last verified: 13 February 2026 | Applies to: Pro, Max, Team, Enterprise (Finance plugin recommended)

In 30 seconds

Section titled “In 30 seconds”

Budget season doesn’t need to take six weeks. Claude can draft an annual budget from historical data, model best/base/worst-case scenarios, track monthly variance, and forecast cash flow — in minutes rather than days. You still need your accountant for the final review, but Claude handles the heavy lifting of structuring, calculating, and formatting the numbers.

Step by step

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Draft an annual budget from historical data

Section titled “Draft an annual budget from historical data”

Upload your last 12 months of actuals and let Claude build the framework.

Here's our P&L for the last 12 months [upload]. Build a base case budget for next financial year with 15% revenue growth. Assumptions:
- COGS scales at 60% of revenue (current average)
- Headcount grows from 18 to 24 (6 new hires, average $85,000 salary + 25% burden)
- Rent increases 5% in July (lease renewal)
- Marketing budget increases from $12,000/month to $18,000/month
- All other opex grows at 3% (inflation)


Output a monthly budget with a summary row and full-year totals. Flag any months where we'd be cash-negative.

Claude produces:

  • Monthly budget spreadsheet — revenue, COGS, gross margin, opex by category, EBITDA
  • Assumptions table — every assumption listed with its source and impact
  • Cash flow flags — months where expenses outpace revenue based on timing
  • Year-over-year comparison — budget vs. prior year actuals

Model three scenarios

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Using the base case budget you just built, create two additional scenarios:


Best case: 25% revenue growth, COGS drops to 55% (new supplier deal), only 4 new hires needed instead of 6.


Worst case: 8% revenue growth, COGS stays at 60%, still need all 6 hires (committed offers), plus $40,000 one-off cost for office relocation in Q3.


Show all three side by side. For each scenario, tell me: full-year EBITDA, lowest cash month, and break-even month.

Claude outputs a comparison table with the three scenarios and highlights the key decision points — when you’d need to adjust hiring, where the cash pinch hits, and what revenue targets trigger each path.

Track monthly variance

Section titled “Track monthly variance”
Here are our January actuals [upload]. Compare to the budget we built. Show variance by line item — both dollar amount and percentage. Flag anything more than 10% off budget. For each flagged item, suggest whether it's a timing issue or a trend I need to act on.

Claude produces:

  • Variance report — budget vs. actual for every line item
  • Flagged items — anything outside the 10% threshold with analysis
  • Timing vs. trend assessment — whether the variance is likely to self-correct or persist
  • Revised forecast — updated full-year projection based on January actuals

Forecast cash flow

Section titled “Forecast cash flow”
Based on our last 6 months of cash flow data [upload], project our cash position for the next 6 months. We have $340,000 in the bank today. Key assumptions:
- Average receivables collection: 42 days
- We pay suppliers on 30-day terms
- Payroll: $165,000/month
- Quarterly tax payment of $28,000 due in March


What's our cash runway at current burn? When do we dip below $50,000 (our minimum comfort level)?

Plan headcount costs

Section titled “Plan headcount costs”
We want to expand our sales team from 3 to 6 reps over the next 12 months. Model the cost:
- Base salary: $75,000 each
- OTE (on-target earnings): $130,000 each
- Employer burden: 25% of base
- Equipment and onboarding: $4,500 per new hire
- Ramp time: 3 months to full productivity, expect 25% of quota in month 1, 50% in month 2, 75% in month 3
- Current average quota per rep: $500,000 annual revenue


Show me the monthly cost curve, when we break even on each hire, and total investment before we see positive ROI.

Claude models the hiring timeline against expected revenue contribution, showing the cash investment trough and the crossover point where new reps become profitable.

How operators actually use it

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