PE Portfolio Monitoring Pack

I want to INSTALL the real setup so Claude runs my quarterly portfolio monitoring on the actual reporting packages, not just a chat demo. Walk me through it step by step, do not skip the install. Treat me like a PE operating partner or fund controller who has never built a Claude Project or installed an Office add-in, and define every term once.

This is NOT a Terminal or coding install. There is nothing to compile. There is no `git clone`, no `npm install`, no command line. It is two paths: a private Claude Project where your portfolio reporting lives (recommended) and an optional Excel add-in for the leverage and coverage recompute.

## Path 1 (RECOMMENDED) — a private Claude Project for the book
This is where each company's reporting package, the board decks, the financials, and the credit agreements live so every prompt reads from one governed place.

Walk me through ONE step at a time, waiting for me to confirm each:

1. **What I need.** A Claude account on a Team or Enterprise plan so the data stays in your own tenant. Pin **Opus 4.8**. Nothing to install for this path.
2. **Create the monitoring workspace.** In Claude, click to create a new **Project** and name it for the fund or the quarter. A Project is a private workspace with its own knowledge that other chats cannot see. Your reporting packages and covenant terms stay in your own tenant. Nothing is uploaded to consultance.ai, stored by us, or seen by us.
3. **Load the materials.** Drag the quarterly or monthly reporting packages, the board decks, the financials, and the credit agreements into the Project knowledge. The credit agreement matters because the covenant definitions, the EBITDA add-backs, the cure rights, and the test dates live there. For a full-book run, load each company's pack or summarize the key files.
4. **Run the vault.** Run prompt 01, pick your monitoring scope (single company, full-book roll-up, covenant watch, LP-report prep, or board pack) and your data source (A) upload, or (D) connector if you pull from **Chronograph** PE portfolio monitoring or a VDR under governed access. Then run 02 to 12 in order: KPI extraction, leverage and coverage recompute, covenant headroom vs the test date, drift vs plan, value-creation flags, the fund roll-up, the reconciliation self-check, the LP summary, questions for management, the board pack, and the next-quarter watch list.
5. **Gate it.** Run prompt 08 before any LP or board output. Any reconciliation FAIL is a number to fix, not a footnote. The pack recomputes leverage and coverage from net debt and EBITDA. Never let a company's growth headline set the number.
6. A named human at the fund signs the LP report and the board pack. This is a working tool, not an audit and not a fair-value opinion.

## Path 2 (OPTIONAL) — Claude for Excel add-in for the recompute
If you want the leverage and coverage recompute to live in real formulas in your workbook:

1. In Excel (Microsoft 365 desktop or web): open the **Home** or **Insert** tab, click **Add-ins** or **Get Add-ins**, search **"Claude"**, click **Add**. Tell me where the button is in my version of Excel.
2. Sign in to the docked Claude side panel. The side panel is the Claude window that opens on the right of the spreadsheet.
3. In vault prompt 01 choose data source (C) Excel add-in. For prompt 03 (recompute) and prompt 04 (covenant headroom) say "build this into my workbook as real formulas," so leverage, coverage, and headroom recompute on live cells and the prompt 08 tie-out runs against the cells.
4. Pin **Opus 4.8** for the recompute, the covenant read, the LP summary, and the board pack.

## Rules for walking me through this
- One step at a time. Define every term once: Project, knowledge, add-in, side panel, ribbon, net debt, LTM, adjusted EBITDA, leverage ratio, interest coverage, covenant test date, equity cure, compliance certificate, `<review_gate>`, `{{TOKEN}}`.
- Do NOT tell me a step is "not possible." If the Excel add-in is missing, check Excel for Microsoft 365, try Excel on the web, or AppSource. For the Project path there is nothing to install, so do not send me to a Terminal.
- Never paste a portfolio company's confidential package into a public Claude window outside a Project. Use a Project with your tenant controls and respect each data provider's and company's terms.
- A named human signs the LP report and the board pack. Claude runs the monitoring and ties the numbers; a person owns the decision.

First message: ask me "Path 1 (a Claude Project for the reporting packages, recommended) and do you also want Path 2 (the Excel add-in for the recompute)? And is this a single company, a full-book quarterly roll-up, or a covenant watch?" Then start step 1.

After I am set up, pivot to the prompt drill: tell me to run prompt 01, then start with prompt 03 (recompute leverage and coverage) on the company I am most worried about, then prompt 04 (covenant headroom vs the test date). That is where the pack earns its keep on the first read.