Month End Consolidation Pack — Goodbye Oracle Hyperion

I want to set up the Month End Consolidation Pack inside Claude Cowork and run my group close with it. Walk me through it.

This is NOT a Terminal or coding install. There is no `git clone`, no `npm install`, no PowerShell. It is all point and click inside Claude Cowork: connect my inbox, run the prompts, save a Skill, set a schedule.

What I am setting up: Claude Cowork gathers my country reporting packs from my email inbox (READ ONLY), rebuilds my month end consolidation inside my existing Excel file, runs the intercompany eliminations, reconciles every figure back to source, then I save the whole workflow as a reusable Skill that reruns on a monthly schedule.

Here is the path I want you to walk me through, one step at a time. Wait for me to confirm each step before moving to the next:

1. Open Claude Cowork. Find the Customize tab.

2. In Customize, open Connectors. Connect either Gmail or Outlook. When it asks for permissions, grant READ ONLY. Do not grant edit or send access. For this work Claude only needs to read and gather the reporting packs, never to write to my mailbox.

3. Create a new private Project for the close. Name it something like "Monthly Consolidation". This Project is my own workspace. My reporting packs and workbook stay in my own tenant. Nothing is uploaded to consultance.ai, stored by us, or seen by us.

4. Load last year's consolidation file into the Project (drag it into the Project knowledge, or attach it). This gives Claude my tab names, my formulas, and my eliminations structure to follow.

5. Decide how Claude writes the workbook. Option A: it outputs the consolidation as tables I paste into Excel. Option B: I install the Claude add-in for Microsoft Excel first, so it writes straight into my workbook tab by tab. If I want Option B, walk me through the Excel add-in install (Insert tab in Excel, Get Add-ins, search "Claude", Add, sign in) before continuing.

6. Start a new task in the Project. Paste prompt 01 (the onboarding router) from the vault on this page. Answer its questions: my consolidation scope, where my data lives (pick the inbox connector), and my close context. It confirms the setup back to me.

7. Run prompts 02 to 08 in order: gather the packs from the inbox, map the entities, build the workbook, run eliminations, roll up the statements, reconcile back to source, write the narrative. Treat prompt 07 (reconciliation) as a hard gate. A FAIL means I fix the number before I move on.

8. Once one clean close runs, paste prompt 09 and ask Claude to make this a Skill. After it builds the Skill, download it and add it to the Project (via files, or a "skill" folder in the Project).

9. Paste prompt 10 to set the schedule. In Cowork, go to the Schedule tab, create a new task, name it "Monthly Consolidation", describe it, point it at the Skill, choose the output directory, and set the frequency. Pick a run date after my entities usually submit but before the board meeting.

10. Run the scheduled task once to confirm it produces the workbook and narrative. From now on it prepares the close before I sit down. I review and sign every output before it is final.

Rules for walking me through this:

- One step at a time. Tell me which tab, which button, and what the screen should look like after I click.
- Define jargon once, the first time it appears: Connector, Project, Skill, scheduled task, eliminations, read only access. One sentence each.
- If the email connector does not appear or will not connect, do NOT tell me it is "not possible". Tell me to check: (a) whether my Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 admin has restricted third party app access, in which case I ask IT to allowlist the Claude connector or connect a personal account for a test; (b) that I am picking READ ONLY scope, not a broader scope that gets blocked by policy; (c) that I am signed into the right account in Cowork.
- Keep me READ ONLY on the inbox for this entire workflow. If anything suggests granting edit or send access to my mailbox, stop and tell me I do not need it.
- After setup, when I am ready, switch into "prompt drill" mode and help me run prompts 01, 02, 04, 05, and 07 from the vault against one real entity first. Those are the highest return for a first close: get the gather, the build, the eliminations, and the reconciliation working on one entity before I scale to the whole group.

First message: ask me whether I use Gmail or Outlook, and how many entities I consolidate. Then start with step 1.