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audit → build → deploy

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Finance and data

AI vs Payroll Trade-Off Calculator

A free calculator for CFOs, founders, and ops leads. Drop in headcount, comp, and SaaS spend to see your AI vs payroll payback and EBITDA impact, plus 12 Claude prompts for your live P&L.

Free — runs in your own ClaudeEasy setup · 5 steps12 ready-to-run prompts+ live interactive tool
Set it up free — takes 3 minutes ↓Or have us wire it in →
Step 1 · setup
Three minutes, three steps, nothing to install by hand

Claude sets it up for you. You just paste.

Never used Claude? It is free and takes 30 seconds to open. Copy the instruction below, paste it into Claude, and it reads this page and walks you through everything, one question at a time.

  1. 1

    Copy your setup instruction

    A short instruction plus a link to this page lands on your clipboard. First copy asks for your email once. That unlocks every button across the whole library.

  2. 2

    Open Claude in a new tab

    Free account, no card, 30 seconds. This tab stays open so you can come back.

    Open claude.ai ↗
  3. 3

    Paste, send, and answer one question

    Claude reads this page, asks which computer you are on, then guides you step by step until it works. If anything errors, tell Claude what you see, and it fixes it with you.

▸How should Claude talk to you? (optional)
▸Prefer the full prompt instead of the link? (optional)
I want to start running the AI Capex Trade-Off prompts from this bundle against my own P&L and headcount. Walk me through it.

This is NOT a Terminal or coding install. There is no `git clone`, no `npm install`. The interactive calculator opens in a browser tab. The 12 Finance Vault prompts run inside Claude (claude.ai in a browser, Claude desktop app, or the Anthropic Console). Treat me like a CFO, ops lead, or founder who is comfortable with spreadsheets but has never coded.

What I am setting up: a Claude Project that holds my P&L, headcount roster, and SaaS ledger so the 12 prompts can run against my real numbers. Plus the live calculator (separate tab) for the quick math before the board.

Walk me through this, one step at a time. Wait for me to confirm before moving on:

1. Open a new browser tab. Click the "Launch the live tool" button on this page. The AI Capex Trade-Off Calculator opens. Drop in your headcount, fully-loaded comp, current SaaS + infra spend, customer-facing payroll %, and target redeploy %. The Benioff ratio + payback quarters appear instantly. Leave the tab open — we will reference numbers later.

2. Back to claude.ai (or open it now). Sign in. For board-grade work I want Pro or Team (Opus 4.7); free + Sonnet 4.6 covers a first-pass.

3. Left sidebar → "Projects" → "Create Project". Name it "AI Capex Reshuffle".

4. In Project Knowledge, paste / upload these:
   - My P&L for the last 4 quarters + the forward 4 quarters of plan (XLSX or CSV upload works)
   - My headcount roster with fully-loaded comp by role (anonymise names if needed — Claude only needs role + comp + tenure + manager)
   - My SaaS + infra vendor ledger (last 12 months)
   - The bundle's `reality-check.md` ceiling note + `audit-compliance-overlay.md` (RBAC, payroll continuity, EEOC for any cut decision)

5. In Custom Instructions, paste: "You are an FP&A lead + chief of staff hybrid. Output only what passes the `<review_gate>` and `<constraints>` blocks in each prompt. Never recommend cutting a role without naming the Claude workflow that replaces 60%+ of the weekly work. CFO + GC + Head of People all sign off before any cut lands."

6. Start with prompt 01 (Benioff Test on your headcount). Copy it from `finance-vault-prompts.md`, open a new chat inside the Project, paste, send. The prompt reads the headcount roster you already pasted into Project Knowledge — no need to re-paste.

7. Read Claude's output. Confirm:
   - Every role-replaceable score names the specific workflow that would replace the weekly tasks
   - The Benioff ratio matches roughly what the calculator showed in step 1
   - No protected-class signals leaked into the scoring

8. Once prompt 01 works, repeat for prompts 02 (AI Capex Trade-Off with P&L), 07 (Headcount-to-GPU), 12 (Internal Memo). Those four are the quarter-changers.

Rules:

- One step at a time. Tell me exactly where Projects sits in the Claude UI, and which menu hides Custom Instructions.
- Define jargon once: Project, Custom Instructions, Project Knowledge, `<review_gate>`, Benioff ratio, GPU-equivalent, customer-facing payroll.
- The live calculator runs in your browser, single HTML file, no install. It is the fast lane.
- Anti-pattern callouts:
  - If I say "I cannot find Projects in claude.ai", check profile menu for "Try Projects" toggle, otherwise paste P&L + headcount into each chat individually (uglier but works)
  - If I say "my P&L is too big to paste", upload it as a file in Project Knowledge — Claude reads XLSX, CSV, PDF
  - If I say "my CFO will not let employee comp data hit Claude", that is a fair gate. Use the calculator standalone first (no data leaves your browser), then take the output back to your CFO with the compliance overlay before pasting any P&L

First message: ask "Are you on claude.ai web, the desktop app, or Anthropic Console — and is your P&L data approved for AI use yet?" Then start with step 1.

When prompts 01, 02, 07, 12 run cleanly, switch into "board-pack mode" and help me write the one-page decision memo for the next board meeting using prompt 11 against the outputs we just generated.
Step 2 · run it on your data

Step 1 set it up. These 12 prompts do the work.

the vault

The 12 prompts

Grab the whole pack as one file, or tap any prompt below to copy it on its own. Placeholders that look like {{THIS}} get swapped for your own numbers — and if you ran Step 1, Claude fills them in for you.

One .md file · all 12 prompts, numbered, in order · nothing left out.
Source repo
https://github.com/anthropics/anthropic-cookbook ↗

The code is public and free. The setup instruction above installs and wires it for you. You never need to open this link.

🔥 optional · live interactive tool

Open the AI Capex Trade-Off Calculator

Browser-based. No signup. Drop in your numbers and see the trade in real time. Opens in a new tab so the prompts stay where you left them.

Launch the live tool ↗

Navigate the reshuffle on instinct, or on the Benioff ratio and payback math.

Founders and CFOs are facing the Salesforce, Microsoft, and Meta headcount-and-AI reshuffle without numbers. This calculator returns the Benioff ratio, GPU-equivalent payroll, payback in quarters, and the EBITDA delta — plus the 12-prompt Finance Vault that runs it on your live P&L.

Path A · free

You just did it

The setup rail and every prompt above are free and stay free. The cost is your time, and the risk of wiring it wrong on live data.

Back to the prompts ↑
Path B · done with you

We wire it into your business

We deliver a private capex lab: a branded calculator pre-loaded with your numbers, a Claude project wired to your P&L, the board memo template, and a Friday brief that tracks the Benioff ratio quarter over quarter as your team and AI workflows evolve. You navigate the reshuffle on anchors, not instinct.

Book a build call →
data safety

Before you use live numbers

  • • Run last quarter's numbers first. Live data is not a test bed.
  • • Nothing here uploads to us. It runs in your own Claude account, on your own machine.
  • • A named human reviews and signs every output before it reaches a board, lender, or client.
  • • Wiring the open-source piece to real systems? Keep keys out of public code and add access control first — or have us do that part.
the fine print

Credit the original author

Hyperscaler capex figures, NVIDIA filings, and public salary benchmarks are public domain. Respect your own P&L privacy. Never paste live financials into a public Claude instance, only into a Claude project with your tenant controls.

Read this far? You want to plan the reshuffle on numbers, not panic. Let us build the lab — with the memo template before you cut anything.

Book a build callBack to the library

Want this wired into your stack instead of running it yourself? That is our AI deal desk and finance automation service.

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Get the free kitBook a call

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The person drowning in this every week is the one who'll actually want it.

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in one line

What is AI vs Payroll Trade-Off Calculator?

AI vs Payroll Trade-Off Calculator is a finance and data build in the consultance.ai AI Build Library. A free calculator for CFOs, founders, and ops leads. Drop in headcount, comp, and SaaS spend to see your AI vs payroll payback and EBITDA impact, plus 12 Claude prompts for your live P&L. It fits founders, CFOs, ops leads, and anyone with a salary line on a P&L navigating the Salesforce, Microsoft, and Meta reshuffle without panicking the team. Setup difficulty is Easy, with 5 plain-English steps.

What does AI vs Payroll Trade-Off Calculator do?

A free calculator for CFOs, founders, and ops leads. Drop in headcount, comp, and SaaS spend to see your AI vs payroll payback and EBITDA impact, plus 12 Claude prompts for your live P&L.

Who is AI vs Payroll Trade-Off Calculator for?

It fits founders, CFOs, ops leads, and anyone with a salary line on a P&L navigating the Salesforce, Microsoft, and Meta reshuffle without panicking the team.

How hard is AI vs Payroll Trade-Off Calculator to set up?

Easy to set up — one guided setup instruction covering 5 plain-English steps, plus 12 ready-to-run prompts on the resource page.

How would consultance.ai build this out?

We would deliver a private capex lab: branded calculator pre-loaded with your numbers, a Claude project wired to your P&L, the board memo template, and a Friday brief that tracks the Benioff ratio quarter over quarter as your team and AI workflows evolve.

What are the licensing terms?

Hyperscaler capex figures, NVIDIA filings, and public salary benchmarks are public domain. Respect your own P&L privacy. Never paste live financials into a public Claude instance, only into a Claude project with your tenant controls.

Want this built into your workflow?

AI vs Payroll Trade-Off Calculator is the starting point. On a free AI audit we map where it fits your stack and what consultance.ai would build around it.

This build comes from our AI consulting and AI implementation practice — see the full AI in finance guide and how we work with CFO teams.

Book your free AI audit