The first real Excel-AI breakthrough in finance is here
CFOs have waited 40 years for this moment.
CFOs have waited 40 years for this moment.
An AI that can open Excel and do the real job of an analyst.
In 1985, Excel gave finance teams a superpower:
Scale
Structure
Calculation
For 40 years, nothing truly changed.
Until now, Anthropic’s Claude built a 24-month SaaS forecast in 5 minutes with formulas, drivers, and a live cash chart.
The first real Excel-AI breakthrough is here.
But before we begin today’s letter, you must know the spreadsheet era made great number-keepers. The AI era will make great decision-makers.
And the real breakthroughs don’t happen in reports or Zoom calls.
They happen in real life, when 100 CFOs gather under one roof to share what’s working, what’s breaking, and what’s next.
On September 26th in Dubai, you can be in those conversations.
With only 100 seats, this event is filling fast.
Be in the room: https://luma.com/5udk521n
You can meet peers who are building AI-powered finance teams, not just talking about them. And you’ll walk away with strategies you can put into practice the next morning.
Now let’s get to today’s letter - A real breakthrough in finance.
In today’s edition I’ll teach you how to build a 24 month forecasting model for a SaaS company with Claude in Excel.
Let’s dive in.
How To Build a 24 Month Forecasting Model for a SaaS Company in 5 minutes
CFOs used to hire analysts for this:
“Build me a 24-month forecast. SaaS metrics, churn, headcount, fundraising.”
3 days later you’d get a model. Sometimes 3 weeks. And you’d pray the formulas worked. But Claude can do it in 5 minutes.
It gave me a real Excel model with:
Traceable formulas.
Yellow-highlighted driver cells.
Churn, MRR, opex, fundraising assumptions built in.
A cash burn chart showing exactly when the company runs out of money.
Now that’s an analyst’s job, done by AI.
I copy-pasted a prompt. Claude built the model.
When I opened Excel, it was live and working.
This all runs through Claude’s brand-new Documents feature. You can upload full Excel workbooks, board decks, or annual reports directly.
People think AI = ChatGPT but it’s not true.
Go to claude.ai