Claude set-up
Thinking andwriting, done.
Claude, set up for your firm: quotes, letters, reports and the week's paperwork, done the way you would do them, with your email, diary and files connected.
In your voice, every time.
Claude is an AI assistant made by Anthropic. Each person in the office gets their own login, and it works in a web browser, a desktop app and a phone app. You talk to it like a capable member of staff: give it notes, files or a question, and it writes, reads, works things out and builds documents.
It drafts. A person decides what goes out.
Owner
- A Monday summary of the inbox and diary: what is due, who is waiting on you, what has slipped.
- A long contract or tender read for you, with what matters and what to push back on.
- “What did we quote them last time?” answered from your own emails and files.
- The email you have been putting off, drafted in your voice for you to check.
- Your notes from a site visit or a meeting turned into a proper proposal.
Estimating and quotes
- Quotes and proposals from site notes or photos, using your prices and your wording.
- Materials lists from the job, ready for the buyer.
- A quote checked against the spec before it goes: anything missed, anything that doesn't match.
- The sums checked, with the client's name and the figures the same everywhere.
- Quotes that have gone quiet chased with a friendly note, for you to approve.
Office and accounts
- Letters and emails in the firm's voice.
- Chasing letters for what is overdue: polite first, firmer later.
- Spreadsheets that add up, with the working shown.
- Supplier invoices sorted and matched to the orders, and the ones that don't agree flagged.
- The shared inbox sorted every morning.
Health and safety
- A first draft of RAMS and method statements from job photos and notes, for a competent person to check and sign.
- A toolbox talk for this week's work: one page, plain English.
- Subcontractors' paperwork checked for dates: insurance, cards and certificates.
- An accident or near-miss note written up as a proper report, for you to check.
HR
- Job adverts written for the role.
- Contracts and policies from your own templates, with the right names and dates.
- Induction packs for a new starter's first week.
- Questions about the staff handbook answered in plain English.
- Holiday clashes spotted before they are booked.
Staff records are personal data, so they stay on your own accounts, seen only by the people who already see them.
Marketing
- Posts, newsletters and case studies from the jobs you have finished.
- Replies to reviews, in your voice.
- Website updates: a new job in the gallery, new opening hours, a page for a new service.
- Page wording for Google, so people searching for what you do can find you.
- A monthly check of your ads for wasted spend.
Examples of a normal week. The screens are illustrations, with made-up names.
What changed in our office
Our own office,before and after.
David's own examples, from his own businesses. Yours will be your own.
“Tasks that took half a day now take 5 to 10 minutes.”
“Every morning Claude goes through the inbox first: it flags the handful of emails that need me, files the rest, and has replies drafted for me to check. I start the day on the work that matters, not the sorting.”
“Job photos become a 30-page RAMS PDF with a materials list in under 10 minutes, and my buyer orders online for next-day delivery to site.”
“Window survey sizes collated and the order forms filled in, in minutes.”
“Every document spelling- and grammar-checked before it goes out.”
David Alner, Always Building
What you send Claude
What Claude gives back
Claude works on the real thing, not on what you copy and paste into it. Each person connects their own accounts, with their own sign-in.
Google Workspace
Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Drive
Gmail: it searches and reads your mail, and drafts replies for you to send. Calendar: it books and moves meetings, and finds a time that suits everyone. Drive: it reads and saves files.
Microsoft 365
Outlook, OneDrive, SharePoint, Teams chats and the calendar
Claude reads them. It starts read-only: it can't send or change anything there unless your Microsoft administrator chooses to switch that on. The administrator approves the connection once, for your firm's work accounts.
Inside Excel, Word, PowerPoint and Outlook
Claude for Excel, Claude for Word, Claude for PowerPoint, Claude for Outlook (beta)
Claude working inside the Office apps themselves, on the spreadsheet, document, deck or email you have open. They come with the paid Claude plans.
Web tasks
Claude in Chrome (beta)
A browser extension that can click, type and fill in forms on websites you are signed in to: a supplier's portal, say, or a booking system. We keep it away from payments and passwords.
Every action needs a person's OK. Claude drafts; someone checks it and sends it.
Claude only sees what that person's own login can see. If you can't open it, neither can Claude.
Chat
Find what was decided last week, or get a summary of a busy channel.
Claude can also join your Slack channels as a team member people @mention (in beta).
- Slack
- Microsoft Teams
Accounts
Ask “who owes us money over 60 days?” and get the answer, with chasing letters drafted.
- Xero
- QuickBooks
- Stripe
Customers
Where are we with this client? Which deals have gone quiet?
- HubSpot
- Salesforce
Projects
Turn a site meeting's notes into tasks, and keep the office handbook searchable.
- Asana
- monday.com
- Notion
Files and signatures
Prepare the agreement and see who hasn't signed.
- Google Drive
- OneDrive
- SharePoint
- Dropbox
- Box
- Docusign
Design
Social posts, flyers and adverts made to your brand.
- Canva
Everything else
Zapier reaches thousands of other apps.
- Zapier
* Through the Microsoft 365 connection. Each one is connected with your own sign-in, and only the ones you use.
Use something else, like Sage or a trade job system such as Simpro, ServiceM8 or Tradify? We'll connect it through Zapier or work from its reports. Ask David on the day.
Your website, updated by you
We set the website up so you can change it yourself. Tell Claude in plain English (“add our new kitchen job to the gallery”, “change the opening hours”, “add a page for loft conversions”) and it makes the change for you to check before it goes live. No waiting days for a web developer, and no paying for every small edit. For many firms those small bills add up to thousands of pounds a year.
Getting found on Google and in AI search
Claude checks every page for what slows it down or stops it ranking: missing titles and descriptions, weak headings, slow images, broken links, no page for a service people search for. Then it writes and fixes it with you, including the wording that helps AI assistants recommend you when someone asks who to use locally. It helps you get found; nobody can honestly promise page one.
Google Ads that cost less per enquiry
Claude reads your Google Ads reports and shows where money is wasted: searches you pay for that never turn into work, ads that don't match their landing page, areas or times that don't pay. It writes better ad versions and a list of searches to block, and you approve every change. It cuts wasted spend: the aim is more enquiries from the same budget, or the same enquiries for less.
What we set up for you
Delivered, set up,and yours.
On your own accounts, in your firm's name. Nothing runs through us afterwards.
- Accounts on the right plan for the team, with an owner or admin login.
- The connections above, each with the staff member's own sign-in.
- Projects: one for each kind of work (quotes, letters, RAMS, tenders, HR, marketing), loaded with your prices, services, standard wording and good past examples, so nobody explains the business from scratch.
- Skills: one for each job done every week, such as “survey notes into an order form” or “photos into a RAMS draft”, so it comes out the same way every time.
- House style: your wording, tone and sign-offs.
- Scheduled jobs where they are useful, such as a Monday morning summary.
- How it hands work to and from the receptionist and the Grok Bots.
- Your website set up so you can edit it yourself.
Then an hour side by side with each person until it feels normal. Training for the whole team is separate, if you want it.
A 15-minute chat
What you write and read most, and what you would like never to write from scratch again.
Accounts and connections
Your Claude accounts, and your files and tools connected with your own sign-ins.
Taught your business
Projects, examples and skills built from your real documents, in your voice. Usually a day.
Shown to you, then yours
An hour side by side until it feels natural. Training for the team is separate if you want it.
- A person approves
- Nothing goes out without a person approving it. Claude drafts; someone checks it and decides what is sent, shared or changed.
- It can make mistakes
- So figures, legal wording and safety documents are checked by a person before they are used. RAMS are still signed off by a competent person.
- It sees what you see
- Each person signs in with their own account, and Claude can reach only what that person's login can already reach.
- Your data and Anthropic
- On Claude's business plans (Team and Enterprise), Anthropic says it does not use your chats or files to train its models by default. Anthropic's own wording (opens in a new tab) ↗
- Personal data
- Personal data stays within your own accounts and your existing GDPR responsibilities.
Claude
Claude subscriptions are paid by you, straight to Anthropic, per person per month. Current prices on claude.com (opens in a new tab) ↗
Google Ads
Ad spend is still paid by you, directly to Google. Claude just helps you waste less of it.
Our set-up
One-off, as for everything we do: a few thousand pounds, no subscription.
The exact figure for your firm comes after a 15-minute chat.
Will it replace my staff?
No. It takes the typing and searching off them, so they get through more.
Do we need Google or Microsoft already?
It works with either, and without both too.
Can staff see each other's chats?
Private chats are private. Shared projects are shared: everyone in a project uses the same instructions and files, but each person's chats stay their own unless they share one.
Does it work on my phone?
Yes, through the Claude app.
What if it gets something wrong?
You check before anything goes out, and we train your team how.
What do we need before the set-up day?
10 to 20 good examples of your quotes, letters and forms, and a list of the software you use.
Is our data used to train it?
On Claude's business plans, Anthropic says it does not train its models on your chats or files by default. Anthropic's own wording is linked above.
Can it get us to the top of Google?
Nobody can honestly promise that. Claude helps you get found, and cuts what you waste on searches that were never going to be customers.