Claude Cowork
An entire FTE's work, saved
Finance staff trade notes in a Reddit thread on Claude Cowork. One portfolio-company CFO puts work files in a fresh folder. He moves them back when the work is done. That habit limits delete risk. He says Claude saves the work of an entire full-time employee between projects. His tools are Cowork and automations built with Claude Code. Another user runs reporting that was 100% manual. Thorough, checked skills pull the data. He says the flow saves 10 to 15 hours a week. He also warns that loose use brought very high token cost and hidden errors.
How it wentOne CFO claims savings equal to one full-time employee's work. A strategy user claims 10 to 15 hours a week saved on reporting. Both are thread comments, not audited figures. The same thread warns that token costs can run very high without tight rules.
Try it · based on the source's workflow
Work on the files in [fresh folder] only. Task: [reporting task]. Use only the data in these files: [list]. Build the report in this format: [format]. List every figure with the file and line it came from. Do not delete, move, or rename any file. Do not send anything. Show me the report and the figure sources. I will check it and move the files back myself.
A starting template based on the workflow the source describes. Review it before you use it; you are responsible for what it does.
An entire FTE's work, saved — from The SmallOffice Brief, a daily brief of real AI cases for small businesses: https://smalloffice.space/case-an-entire-fte-s-work-saved