Claude for finance teams
For accountants and finance staff: Claude for Excel, analysis of exported data, month-end commentary and variance notes you can trace back to the cells.
- Level
- Role-basedHalf-day workshop
- Delivery
- On-site or remoteanywhere in New Zealand
- Length
- Half a dayagreed with you first
- Topics
- 6adapted to your team
Who it is for
Accountants, management accountants, bookkeepers, finance managers, financial controllers and analysts who live in spreadsheets.
Finance work is where AI errors are easiest to catch and most expensive to miss. This half-day keeps both in view. People learn to use Claude on real workbooks and exports, and to show where each number came from before it goes into a report.
Most of the session runs in Claude for Excel, the add-in that works inside an open workbook and answers with cell-level citations. We also use Claude in the browser to analyse exported data and draft commentary for a board pack or a management report.
Anthropic is clear about the limits. Its documentation advises against using the Excel add-in for final client deliverables without human review, or for audit-critical calculations without verification, and the add-in does not run macros or VBA. We build the session around those limits.
Before you start: A Pro, Max, Team or Enterprise Claude plan, and Excel on the web, Excel for Windows with Microsoft 365, or a recent Excel for Mac. Your IT provider may need to allow the add-in first.
What we cover
- Reading a model you did not buildAsk Claude for Excel to explain how a total is calculated and which assumptions drive it. Click each citation to the referenced cell and confirm the logic.
- Changing assumptions safelyChange a rate or an input and let Claude update dependent calculations while keeping formula links intact. Work on a copy, and review every change before keeping it.
- Finding errorsTrace a #REF! or #DIV/0! error to its root cause, and ask for a fix with a plain explanation. Then check the fix with the team's own test totals.
- Analysis of exported dataUpload a ledger or sales export and ask Claude to group, summarise and chart it. Ask it to show its working so a colleague can repeat the steps.
- Commentary and variance notesDraft month-end commentary from the numbers and a few bullet points. Every figure in the text must match a cell, and the reviewer checks that first.
- Untrusted files and sensitive dataWorkbooks from outside the organisation can carry hidden instructions. Use trusted copies, read confirmations before Claude acts, and keep IRD numbers and bank details out unless your policy allows them.
We adjust the content to your team, and use your own documents and tasks for the exercises.
Who does this kind of work
63.6% of employed New Zealanders, about 1,669,000 people, work in the desk-based occupation groups (in bold) where Claude helps most. Each town page shows the local share, so you can see how a rollout would size up where you are.
Employed New Zealanders by occupation group, 2023
| Occupation group | Chart | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Managers | 18.3% | |
| Professionals | 26.8% | |
| Technicians and trades workers | 12.5% | |
| Community and personal service workers | 9.0% | |
| Clerical and administrative workers | 10.8% | |
| Sales workers | 7.8% | |
| Machinery operators and drivers | 5.9% | |
| Labourers | 9.0% |
Desk-based roles: managers, professionals, clerical and administrative workers, and sales workers (ANZSCO major groups). These are roles where AI assistance is most applicable. This broad proxy is not measured adoption or a forecast of job change.
Source: Stats NZ, 2023 Census, usually resident employed people; ILO, Generative AI and jobs: a refined global index of occupational exposure (2025).
Other courses
1Introductory
Claude foundations workshop
A hands-on first session for the whole team: prompts with real context, Projects, files, artifacts and the habit of checking answers.
2Practical
Claude for everyday work: the full day
One day spent on your own work: research with citations, long documents, Projects that hold up over time, Cowork tasks and polished outputs.
3Organisation
Claude team rollout
Move from a few keen users to a whole team using Claude well: plan and seats, Projects structure, usage rules, connectors, Skills and champions.
4Advanced
Claude Code and MCP for developers
For developers and technical leads: agentic coding with Claude Code, team settings and permissions, building an MCP server, and the Claude API.
Industries this course suits
Guides
Available in every region, for example Auckland, Canterbury and Wellington. See all locations.
Questions about this course
Does it work with older versions of Excel?
No. Anthropic's documentation says the add-in does not run on perpetual-licence Excel 2016 or 2019, or on Excel for iPad or Android. Excel on the web is a good fallback for the session.
Can it connect to Xero or MYOB?
Not through the Excel add-in itself. Exports into Excel work well, and some accounting tools offer connectors for Claude. We check what your systems support before the session.
Will this replace our review process?
No. The course adds a step to your review: trace each figure to its source. Sign-off stays with the same people.
Ask about Claude for finance teams
- You tell us about the teamSize, where you are, the documents people work with, and what you would like to change.
- We suggest a course and formatBy email, with a few questions about the tasks and documents you want to train on.
- People practise on real workOn-site or remote. Everyone leaves with Claude set up for tasks they do every week.
- In person
- Remote
- Half-day workshop
- Full-day workshop
- Team rollout
Independent training by TheColab. Not affiliated with Anthropic.
Enquire
Tell us about your team. We reply by email with a suggested course and format.