FP&A Rolling Forecast Engine

If you can browse the web, open and read this page in full first, it has the complete guide and every prompt you will run (the vault is under the-vault anchor): https://consultance.ai/library/fpna-forecast-engine#the-vault . If you cannot open links, tell me and I will paste the page in, do not guess the prompts.

I want to set up the FP&A Forecast Engine and rebuild my rolling forecast off my own actuals inside my own Claude, before it touches a board pack. Walk me through it step by step, one question at a time, and wait for my answer before moving on. I am a CFO, controller, or PE portfolio finance leader, not a developer. Define every term once. Keep me to one action per message.

## The honest ceiling before we start
This bundle is about 60% of the build. It gets the rolling forecast, the variance story, and the board commentary running on my own numbers, fast, this month. Consultance wires the last 40% into production: live data off my ledger instead of a monthly paste, role based permissions on who sees which line, an audit trail an auditor accepts, and multi entity scale. That part is implementation work, a call not a prompt. If I ask for any of that, tell me plainly it is the "wire it" path, a 30 minute slot, not something the prompts do alone.

## What this produces
A rolling forecast rebuilt off my closed actuals the day the close lands, every variance to plan explained in plain language, the line most likely to break the budget flagged before the board asks, three downside scenarios, and the board commentary a CFO actually sends. A reconcile step regrades the math and catches double counts before I trust it. Everything runs in my own Claude. Nothing is uploaded to you, stored by you, or seen by you.

## This is not a Terminal install
There is nothing to install and no command to run. This lives entirely inside the Claude app. If any step ever reads like a coding task, stop and tell me, because it should not. Do not tell me something is "not possible" here. If a path is unclear, ask me one plain question and we route around it.

## Step one, ask me this first, nothing else
"Where do your numbers live right now: a spreadsheet or CSV you can upload, figures you will paste in, an Excel file you would open through the Claude add in, or a governed connector to your ledger or ERP? Any of these works. I just need to know which, so I point you at the right first step."

Wait for my answer. Then continue, one step per message.

## The path you walk me down (UI driven, click by click)
- Classify my setup as UI driven, inside the Claude app, no Terminal. Say so plainly.
- Walk me through creating a private Project in Claude. Tell me exactly where to click: the Projects area in the left sidebar, the New Project button, and how to name it "FP&A Forecast Desk". Explain that a Project keeps my data in my own account so nothing leaves my tenant. Define "Project knowledge" the first time you use it.
- Have me paste the house rules into the Project instructions box: tie every forecast line to an actual or a labeled assumption, never invent a figure or a driver, label every assumption, hold actuals fixed and never overwrite them, stop and ask rather than guess.
- Based on my answer to step one, tell me exactly how to load my actuals and my plan: upload into the Project knowledge, paste into the chat, open my workbook through the Claude add in for Excel, or pull from my connector. Name the button or menu for whichever I chose.
- Have me open the prompt vault and run prompt 01, the setup router. Explain that it builds my advisor board and asks the job type and the data source before it forecasts anything.
- Walk me through prompts 02, 03, and 04 so I get a validated input table, the drivers pulled from my actuals, and my first rebuilt rolling forecast, then stop with me and read the walk from the prior forecast so I trust what the close changed.
- Make sure I run prompt 08, the reconcile gate, before I build any dashboard or board commentary. Explain that this is the step that regrades the math a second way and catches a double count. Nothing goes to a board until it reads RECONCILED.

## Model
Tell me to pin Claude Fable 5 for the forecast rebuild, the variance work, the scenarios, and anything the board reads. A lighter model is fine for the dashboard layout only.

## The first session drill
By the end of this session I should have: a private Project named FP&A Forecast Desk, my own actuals and plan loaded, a validated input table, a rolling forecast rebuilt off the close with the walk from the prior forecast, a variance to plan story, and a reconcile report that reads RECONCILED. Then show me the run order so next month is a checklist, not a rebuild the night before the board.

Before you tell me the forecast is ready, re derive full year revenue and operating income a second way from my drivers and held actuals, confirm the actuals were never overwritten, and confirm no one time or intercompany item is double counted. Do not say it is ready until that check is clean and I have signed it.

The official Anthropic help docs on Projects and the Excel add in are a bonus reference if I get stuck, never a required step.