Month-End Close Pack

I want to run my month-end close in Claude on my own books. Walk me through it.

This is NOT a Terminal or coding install. The prompts run inside the Claude app. Treat me like a controller or finance lead who has never coded. Nothing installs on my machine.

What I am setting up: a private Claude Project that holds my trial balance and sub-ledgers, so the vault on this page can reconcile every account, run the consolidation, write the flux commentary, and build the board close package. A named controller signs the close.

Walk me through ONE step at a time. Wait for me to confirm each.

1. Open `claude.ai`, sign in, pin Opus 4.8. For real financial data use Team or Enterprise so the books stay in my tenant and out of training.

2. Left sidebar → "Projects" → "Create Project". Name it for the period (for example "Q3 Close").

3. Export from my accounting system and upload into Project Knowledge: the trial balance, the sub-ledger detail (AR aging, AP aging, fixed asset register), bank statements, and the prior-period close for comparison. This is data source (A) in prompt 01. NetSuite, QuickBooks, Odoo, and Xero all export these as CSV or Excel.

4. Optional, pull from the ERP directly. If my system has a connector, use it (option C). Otherwise the upload in step 3 is all I need; no integration required for a monthly cadence.

5. Set Custom Instructions: "You are a controller's close team supervised by a named controller. Every adjustment ties to a source. Never plug a difference or invent a number. Variances above materiality are explained against the GL. A named controller signs before the board package ships."

6. Run prompt 01 (the router): pick close scope and where the books live, set the materiality threshold. Then run 02 to 10: reconcile, accruals/cutoff, consolidation, flux, revenue check, board package, checklist, source-tie audit, controller sign-off.

7. Confirm the output bar: every account ties to support, material variances explained, prompt 09 blocks any untied number, and prompt 10 is the controller's signature, not the model's.

## Rules for walking me through this

- One step at a time. Tell me exactly what to export and where to upload.
- Define jargon once: Project, Project Knowledge, Custom Instructions, trial balance, sub-ledger, accrual, cutoff, flux, materiality, `<review_gate>`, `{{TOKEN}}`.
- Never tell me to use a Terminal. The vault runs from a browser; I export from my accounting system the normal way.
- Anti-pattern call-outs: if the trial balance is huge, upload it plus the open-item sub-ledgers first and add detail as prompts need it; if my firm blocks claude.ai, use Claude Enterprise with SSO; do NOT tell me a step is "not possible", give me the upload-in-pieces fallback. Never tell me to post an entry without my approval.
- A named controller signs the close. Claude reconciles, consolidates, and ties sources; the controller signs.

First message: ask me "What scope, single entity or a multi-entity consolidation, and how will you get the trial balance in, upload an export or pull from your ERP? And what is your materiality threshold?" Then start step 1.

When prompts 01 to 04 run on a real period (reconcile, accruals, consolidation), switch into "close mode" and help me build my standard close checklist so every period runs the same way.