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How to Use Claude to Build INSANE Financial Models (2026)

Nicolas Boucher·youtube.com·6 min read·Mar 28

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I made a big mistake by ignoring Claude for too long.

It's now actually exceptionally good at finance use cases.

In this video, I will show you three ways to use Claude to build a dynamic financial model.

First, directly in Claude, then export it as an Excel file,

and finally, the best way running directly inside Excel.

Let's go.

Here's the prompt that we are going to use for the three use cases.

We always give the context, so we are the finance manager at a SaaS company,

and we need to build a scenario planning for our sales of our products.

So we have two products, the personal plan at $49 per month with currently 1,500 subscribers,

and then we give the gross 8%, and then the churn for 3%.

And then we gave the same information, but for the enterprise plan.

Then really important, we ask to build this model for the next two years

with formulas and dynamic assumptions and a graph.

Really important is to use Opus 4.5.

This is the best model of Claude for complex topics,

and here we have to build a model, so it's complex.

And you see what is happening here is that Claude is building the model within Claude.

And after a few seconds, we have it.

We have our model that I can change directly inside Claude.

So like this, if I have a meeting, I can go ahead and change it directly here.

I can change all of the assumptions, and we see that the graphs are changing directly.

So I can change the churn, I can change the price, I can change the starting point for our current subscribers.

Everything is dynamic.

And I can even share it here in a meeting or with a colleague.

And when I open it, I get a page where I can play around with this model and change the assumptions.

And I can use it either with my boss or with my client.

Let's continue with our second use case.

Now we want to create an Excel file which has the model inside.

So I'm going to use the same prompt, but at the end, I'm writing that I want to build an Excel with formulas.

And really important, if you want to create Excel files, you need to make sure that in your settings, that code execution and file creation is activated.

Let's see how Claude is going to build this Excel file for us.

So Claude is using Python to create the Excel file.

What I really like here is that I see on the right side directly the Excel file done for us.

The formatting is already quite good.

Imagine the time you save.

So now let's download the file and let's open directly this file in Excel.

So I have now the file in Excel and let's see if it works.

We have the formulas, as you can see.

Let's zoom in.

And if I change the assumptions, is there a change in the model?

Yes.

So changing all of the assumptions also work.

The formulas are working.

Everything is linked.

And each time I touch the assumptions, the graph is moving.

I'm pretty surprised actually how fast Claude was able to build this.

And how pretty the file looks like.

Even me, I will not have come up with something that pretty in such a short time.

I don't think any human can come up that fast with an Excel file that works with formulas.

And also that is that pretty.

Even better than just having the model inside a web page.

Now we have the Excel file.

Of course, these tools are evolving every single week.

And it's impossible to keep up on your own.

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tip guides, and access to us, the experts on AI for Finance.

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Let's jump to the third case to build this model directly in Excel.

So here you can see that I've installed Cloud as a plugin.

See upright on my Excel file.

I'm going to connect this plugin to my Cloud account.

So now it's connected.

If you want to get it, you can just go to this page, Cloud in Excel, and install it.

But at the time of recording this video, this is only available

if you have CloudMax team or the enterprise plan.

So now I connected Cloud for Excel with my account.

And it tells me what I can do.

We can select sales and ask questions.

We can build financial models.

And we can even debug and fix errors.

So I'm selecting Opus 4.5.

And I'm going to use the same prompt that we used before,

where we are explaining that we are the finance manager of the SaaS company.

We are giving the assumptions.

And let's see what is happening.

So Cloud is building slowly the model, first thinking about it.

So here, Cloud is asking me if it can enter the spreadsheet and do some changes.

So let's allow this for all edits.

And here, it already started building.

Wow, this is amazing.

Like now we are directly inside Excel.

AI is taking over and building all of the model for us.

Also like the fact that it's already pretty with color arranged, like blue.

Also the headers.

Also like gray background.

We have the summary in the bottom.

It also now changed the layout.

So the width of the columns.

And now it's working on creating the graph.

This is what happens sometimes with AI.

Not everything is working.

We can see the graph is blank.

But I know why.

I think it's because the datas are hidden between the column L and Q.

So let's just unhide the data.

Yes, that was the problem.

When I unhide the data, I can see the graph.

And the graph is also working.

So let's try now if I change some assumptions.

Let's start with 1000.

Everything is moving.

So the model is also linked.

If I audit the formulas, then I can check if the model is working.

And this was again in a few minutes directly in Excel.

I don't even need to go in my Chrome browser to create this Excel file.

This is going to change so much the way we work.

Here, it was a simple model.

But in the next videos, I'm going to challenge both Claude.

But also, I'm going to cooperate with Excel agent mode, with more complex data, more complex models, and also existing data.

Because a lot of people are asking me to do it with existing files.

Files that look like real finance files, like complex, dirty, with a lot of tabs, with also not really well structured.

In my next videos, I'm going to take the challenge.

And let's see together if Claude or Excel agent mode is going to win the battle.

If you don't know Excel agent mode, and you loved what you saw here, check my video here, because I'm covering Excel agent mode with a lot of use cases.

And this will inspire you, especially if you are more a Microsoft person, and especially if you already have a Copilot account.

Because normally, you should have access to Excel agent mode with Copilot.

I see you in the next video.

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