The Setup: Claude in Excel
Anthropic just released Claude in Excel, an add-in that puts their AI assistant directly inside your spreadsheet. I'd heard about it and wanted to test it myself.
Getting started was simple:
2. Opened Excel and activated it from Home > Add-ins
3. Signed in with my Claude account
One hiccup: The sidebar showed "loading" for a few minutes and wouldn't connect. I closed Excel completely, reopened it, and tried again. Worked perfectly the second time. (If this happens to you, a full restart usually fixes it.)
The Conversation That Built My Dashboard
Here's where it gets interesting. I didn't give Claude a detailed spec. I didn't outline every formula I needed. I just... talked to it.
My first prompt:
"I want you to create a personal finance dashboard that is easy to use, by non-techy"
Claude asked me a few clarifying questions — what categories, what time period, any specific features. I told it:
"Budget vs Actual, spending, expenses, bills, etc. I need to organize my finances, but most of the templates don't work for me, so hoping something easy to use but complex enough to help me get started. We will be improving as we go. I am a visual person, so nice formatting is important."
And then Claude just... built it. Right there in my spreadsheet. I watched cells fill in, formatting appear, formulas populate.
What I Got in 5 Minutes
A January tab with:
A Dashboard tab with:
The Dashboard automatically updates when I duplicate the January tab for future months. All the formulas are already wired up.
Why This Matters
I've tried dozens of budget templates. They never quite fit. Wrong categories. Too complicated. Not visual enough. Missing features I need, cluttered with ones I don't.
With Claude in Excel, I described what I wanted in plain English, and got something customized to how *I* think about money. When I asked "should I have a separate tab for each month?" Claude didn't just say yes — it restructured the whole thing and connected everything with formulas.
This is what I mean by "vibe coding" for everyone. You don't need to know Excel formulas. You don't need to understand SUMIF or VLOOKUP or how to reference other sheets. You just need to know what you want.
Try It Yourself
If you have a Claude Pro, Max, Team, or Enterprise account:
2. Click "Get it now" and install
3. Open Excel, go to Home > Add-ins, activate Claude
4. Sign in and start talking
Pro tip: If it gets stuck loading, close Excel completely and try again.
Then just describe what you need. Start simple. Let Claude ask questions. Build iteratively. You can always say "add this" or "change that" as you go.
The Bottom Line
Five minutes. One conversation. A complete personal finance system that actually fits how I manage money.
This is the future of productivity tools — AI that meets you where you work and builds what you need while you describe it. No coding required. No template hunting. Just results.
What would you build if you could just describe it?