Historical Cost Benchmarking Assistant

1. Go to {{tool:Claude.url}} and log into your Claude Pro account
2. In the left sidebar, click Projects
3. Click New Project
4. Name it something like "Estimating — Historical Cost Data" or "[Company Name] Bid History"
5. You'll land on the project page with a chat interface and a Project Knowledge panel on the right

What you should see: A project workspace with a chat area and a panel labeled "Project Knowledge" on the right side where you'll add your data.

Before adding anything, collect the documents you want Claude to reference:

• Bid summaries: The one-page or spreadsheet summary showing trade breakdowns by $/SF or $ total for each past project
• Job cost reports: Final cost reports from projects you've completed (exported from Sage, Procore, or similar)
• Project descriptions: Even a brief description (building type, size, location, year, owner type) for each project

If you don't have documents, you can type summaries directly into Claude — even rough data helps. Format: "Project: [name], [year]. [size] SF [type] in [city]. Trade costs: Drywall $X/SF, MEP $Y/SF, Total $Z/SF."

1. In the Project Knowledge panel, click Add content
2. Select Upload files if you have PDFs or text files of bid summaries
3. For spreadsheet data: open your Excel file, select the relevant rows/columns, copy, then paste as text into a new document upload
4. Add a brief description of each document when prompted (e.g., "Bid summaries 2022-2025, office TI projects")
5. Repeat for each document — you can add up to 20 files in a single project

Troubleshooting: If a file is too large (>10MB), break it into smaller documents by year or project type. Claude can reference across multiple documents.

In the project settings, add a brief description of what this project is for — Claude uses this to frame every conversation:

1. Click the project name or Edit project at the top
2. In the Instructions field, add: "You are my estimating cost reference assistant. When I ask about historical costs, search the uploaded project data and give me specific answers with the project name and year as your source. If you don't have data on a specific type, say so clearly rather than guessing."

In the chat window, try a query you'd actually ask:

• "What did we price drywall and metal studs per SF on office TI projects in the $100-$200/SF total range?"
• "What was our typical MEP cost split (plumbing vs. HVAC vs. electrical) on healthcare projects?"
• "Did we ever bid a data center? What were the major cost drivers?"

What good output looks like: Claude should cite specific projects by name and year, give you actual numbers from the documents, and flag when it's giving you an average versus a single data point.