For Grant Manager / Sponsored Programs Administrators ·
What you'll accomplish
Before a check-in with a PI you want to know which budget categories are running ahead of the calendar and which are lagging. You will upload a small CSV of category totals to a regular Claude chat, type in how many months have passed, and get a table with percent spent, the straight-line pace and a label for each category, plus a short draft status note. You recompute rows by hand and compare totals with the financial system before the note goes anywhere.
What you'll need
Data caution. Spending data is institutional material, so using it depends on your institution's AI guidance and an approved tool. Check Claude's privacy settings for whether chats and uploads are used for training and how long they are kept. Upload account codes and category totals only. Never include names, salaries, effort lines, personnel detail, vendor bank details or anything tied to a person. If you cannot upload real figures, the workflow works the same with the invented sample below.
category, budget, spent.What you should see: A file of about 5 to 10 rows with only codes and numbers. Troubleshooting: If the system includes encumbrances or commitments, decide with your office whether they belong in "spent". Keep the definition the same every month.
Pick the band that counts as "on pace", for example within 10 percentage points of the straight-line figure. The band is your office's choice, and the AI should not set it.
What you should see: The file shown above the message box. Claude's upload page also lets you drag and drop files into the chat window. Troubleshooting: If the file will not attach, confirm the extension is .csv and check the upload help page for supported types.
Months elapsed and total months go in the prompt text, so the pace comes from you.
The attached CSV has category, budget and spent to date for one award. Months elapsed: [x]. Total months: [y]. Straight-line pace is months elapsed divided by total months, as a percent.
Make a table with these columns: category, budget, spent, percent spent, straight-line percent, difference in percentage points, label.
Labels: "ahead of pace" if percent spent is above the straight-line percent by more than [band] points, "behind pace" if below by more than [band] points, otherwise "on pace".
Add a totals row. Show the percent to one decimal place.
Then write a short status note of no more than 120 words for a PI. Do not say whether any cost is allowable and do not give advice about rules.
Different band:
Redo the table with a band of [x] percentage points and show which labels change.
Plain status note for a PI:
Write a four sentence note for PI A about Award 1. Name the categories that are ahead of pace and behind pace, and say the figures come from the financial system export dated [date]. Do not suggest what is allowable.
Questions to ask the PI:
For each category labelled ahead or behind, list one neutral question I could ask the PI about upcoming spending.
Month over month:
Here is last month's table [paste] and this month's CSV [attach]. Show the change in percent spent for each category.