Build an LBO model in an afternoon with 8 prompts: sources and uses, debt schedule, MOIC and IRR, sensitivity grid, and covenant stress test. For PE associates and IB analysts.
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.
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.
Free account, no card, 30 seconds. This tab stays open so you can come back.
Open claude.ai ↗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.
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/lbo-returns-model#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 this up properly so Claude Fable 5 builds a real LBO model on my deal, not a one-off chat. Walk me through it step by step, do not skip anything. Treat me like a PE associate, deal lead, principal, or IC member who has built models in Excel but has never set up a Claude Project. Define every term once. This is NOT a Terminal or coding install. There is nothing to compile. It is a private Claude Project where the deal lives so every prompt builds on the same model, with Claude Fable 5 able to work inside the Excel file I already have open. Honest ceiling up front, so you set my expectations right: this vault is about 60% of the build. It gives me a fast, defensible first pass LBO on my own deal, in my own tenant, with the arithmetic self-checked. It does not wire live fund data, enforce who can see which deal, keep an audit trail my LPs or auditors will accept, or scale across a multi entity platform. That last 40%, the production wiring, is implementation work Consultance does with me. If I ask for any of it, tell me to reply "wire it" for a 30 minute slot rather than pretending a prompt does it. ## The setup, a private Claude Project Walk me through ONE step at a time, waiting for me to confirm each: 1. **What I need.** A Claude account on a paid plan so I can pin the better model. Pin **Claude Fable 5**. Nothing to install. If I want the model written straight into a spreadsheet, install the Claude add-in for Microsoft Excel, but that is optional. 2. **Make the workspace.** In Claude, create a new **Project** named for the target. A Project is a private workspace with its own knowledge other chats cannot see. My deal stays in my own tenant; Consultance never sees it. 3. **Load the deal.** Drop the CIM and the financials into the Project knowledge, or have the P&L, balance sheet, and cash flow ready to paste. If I am using the Excel add-in, open the workbook I already have. 4. **Run the vault.** Run prompt 01, pick the deal type and where my data lives, and give the inputs (EBITDA, entry multiple, leverage, debt rate, growth, exit multiple, hold, hurdle). Then run 02 to 12 in order: sources and uses, debt schedule and cash flow, returns, the entry-exit grid, the leverage grid, the covenant stress, the reconciliation gate, the return bridge, the assumption stress, the one page readout, and the pre-IC red team. 5. **Gate it.** Treat prompt 08 (the reconciliation gate) as a hard stop. A **GATE: FAILED** means a number does not tie; fix it before the readout. This is a first pass model, not investment advice. I am still the investment committee. ## Rules for walking me through this - One step at a time. Define every term once: Project, knowledge, sources and uses, entry multiple, leverage, debt schedule, cash sweep, mandatory amortization, MOIC, IRR, exit multiple, sensitivity grid, DSCR, covenant, EBITDA haircut, return bridge, review gate. - Do NOT tell me a step is "not possible." If I cannot find the Project button, it is in the left sidebar of claude.ai. - Never smooth a number to hit a target return. If an input is missing, label it ASSUMPTION, do not invent it. - This builds the model and reads the return. It does not replace full diligence or the IC sign-off, and it does not wire live data, access rules, an audit trail, or multi entity scale. That is the 40% Consultance wires into production; if I want it, tell me to reply "wire it" for a 30 minute slot. Not investment advice. ## First session drill After setup, do not wander. Point me at prompt 01 first: pick the deal type, tell you where my data lives, give the inputs. Then run 02 (sources and uses) and check sources equal uses to the dollar before moving on. Then 03 and 04 to get to a return. Before I trust any number for the IC, run prompt 08, the reconciliation gate, and only write the one page readout (prompt 11) if it prints GATE: PASSED. Good output means every figure traces to an input I gave and the gate passed. First message: ask me ONLY this and then start step 1: "What deal is this, a platform buyout, a bolt-on, a carve-out, or a take-private? And where does your data live, uploaded into the Project, pasted in, or built inside your Excel workbook with the add-in?"
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.
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.
Build an LBO model in an afternoon with 8 prompts: sources and uses, debt schedule, MOIC and IRR, sensitivity grid, and covenant stress test
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 ↑We would deliver a private modeling workspace: the prompts loaded into your Claude tenant, the calculator wired to your fund's assumptions and hurdle, the Excel add-in building the model in your workbook, and the self-check wired as a real pre-IC control so no unchecked return reaches committee. Done with you, then handed over so you own it.
Book a build call →Prompt set authored by consultance.ai. KKR and Blackstone are referenced as the standard the pack matches, no affiliation implied. Your deal stays in your own Claude tenant; we never see it. This is a first-pass model and decision support, not investment advice; a named human owns the bid and the model never smooths a number to hit a target return.
Want this wired into your stack instead of running it yourself? That is our AI deal desk and finance automation service.
The AI tools, launches, and shifts that actually matter, in plain English. New library drops the moment they land.
More like this
For founders, CFOs, and deal teams: 9 Claude prompts that rebuild the cap table from the signed documents instead of the spreadsheet, run the waterfall clause by clause against the actual LPA or charter, and recompute fee and carry independently, so a stale sheet gets caught before a round closes on it.
For CFOs and finance leaders: the map of seven finance desks, deal, diligence, close, tax, underwriting, family office, and market, each one a free prompt vault that runs inside your own Claude, plus the order to install them in so a team actually adopts them.
For CFOs and controllers: 11 Claude prompts that run the month end close reconciliation itself, match bank and subledgers both directions, catch the account that will not foot, and draft the flux memo, so a 6 day close lands in 2.
The person drowning in this every week is the one who'll actually want it.
LBO Model and Returns Calculator is a finance and data build in the consultance.ai AI Build Library. Build an LBO model in an afternoon with 8 prompts: sources and uses, debt schedule, MOIC and IRR, sensitivity grid, and covenant stress test. For PE associates and IB analysts. It fits PE associates and VPs, investment banking analysts, search funds, corp dev, and credit investors who build buyout models. Setup difficulty is Medium, with 4 plain-English steps.
Build an LBO model in an afternoon with 8 prompts: sources and uses, debt schedule, MOIC and IRR, sensitivity grid, and covenant stress test. For PE associates and IB analysts.
It fits PE associates and VPs, investment banking analysts, search funds, corp dev, and credit investors who build buyout models.
Medium to set up — one guided setup instruction covering 4 plain-English steps, plus 12 ready-to-run prompts on the resource page.
We would deliver a private modeling workspace: the prompts loaded into your Claude tenant, the calculator wired to your fund's assumptions and hurdle, the Excel add-in building the model in your workbook, and the self-check wired as a real pre-IC control so no unchecked return reaches committee. Done with you, then handed over so you own it.
Prompt set authored by consultance.ai. KKR and Blackstone are referenced as the standard the pack matches, no affiliation implied. Your deal stays in your own Claude tenant; we never see it. This is a first-pass model and decision support, not investment advice; a named human owns the bid and the model never smooths a number to hit a target return.
LBO Model and Returns 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.