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Handling a first real case from start to finish
A deliverable produced by Claude is not settled until you have reread it yourself, an announcement of success or a document's clean appearance is never proof of substance.
Claude almost always announces that a task is finished, with a confident tone and a document that presents well, aligned headings, neat columns, a boxed total. This announcement and this presentation say nothing about the substance: they describe the form delivered, not the accuracy of the content. The only way to know whether a deliverable is correct is to compare it, line by line, against the source it came from.
A real case, in the project already created
Open the project named after your team, created during the lesson on the project as a container for context, and start a Cowork session on a reasonably sized folder that holds real documents from your job, meeting notes to be formatted, or invoices to be sorted by supplier. Follow the same breakdown into small passes taught in the lesson on Cowork as the default mode, never a whole folder processed in one go. Ask for a precise result: a structured report, or a record that lists every source document with its date, supplier and amount.
The test that replaces trust
Once processing is finished, do not accept the end-of-task message as proof. First count the items produced and compare that total to the number of documents present in the source folder: a record that lists eleven lines for twelve source documents has already missed something, however carefully it was laid out. Then check every numerical value, an amount, a date, a name, by finding it in the corresponding original document. A single figure that cannot be found anywhere in the source is enough to send the document back for correction, even if the rest is correct.
Traitement terminé. 12 factures classées par fournisseur, total calculé : 4 218 euros.This message proves neither the count of twelve invoices, nor the total of 4,218 euros. Only opening the source folder, counting invoices one by one and adding up the amounts by hand or with a calculator, establishes whether these two figures are correct.
What a review that counts actually does
A thorough review covers three checkable points: the number of items processed matches the number of source documents, every numerical value in the produced document can be found in an identifiable source document, and nothing from the source document has been left out without explanation. These three points are ticked off one at a time, not with a single glance at the layout. A document that fails on just one of these three points is not finished, however it was announced.
This same habit of personal review applies to any deliverable produced by Claude, whatever the team or the subject involved. The glossary sheet that follows brings together the vocabulary needed to formulate a precise request and to describe a blocker to a colleague or an administrator.
Document accepted on the announcement, document validated by review
The end-of-task message and the clean layout are enough to class the document as finished, without comparing it to the source folder.
The number of lines is counted and compared to the source folder, every amount is traced to a specific invoice, an invoice missing from the first record is identified and added.
An employee asks Cowork to sort twelve scanned invoices from the Training expenses folder and to produce a summary record with the total per supplier. Cowork displays an end-of-processing message stating twelve invoices sorted and a total of 4,218 euros. The record produced contains eleven lines. The employee adds up the amounts shown on the twelve invoices in the source folder and gets 3,946 euros.
Write in one sentence what this situation establishes, and in one sentence what it does not establish.
What this establishes: It establishes two distinct discrepancies, eleven lines against twelve invoices and 3,946 euros counted by hand against 4,218 euros announced, and that the second is not explained by the first: a missing invoice would lower the total, not raise it.
What this does not establish: It does not establish which invoice is missing from the record, nor where the excess in the announced amount comes from, only a review invoice by invoice would say.
The three most common miscalibrations
- Too broad This discrepancy shows that Cowork must never again be used to sort invoices in this project.
- Too narrow This discrepancy only concerns the presentation of the record, saying nothing about the amounts it contains.
- Beside the point It establishes that all twelve invoices in the source folder carried a legible amount.
- The end-of-task message displayed by Claude describes that processing has stopped, never that its content is accurate.
- The number of items produced must be compared to the number of source documents before any other check.
- Every numerical value in the produced document must be traced back to a precise source document, or it remains suspect.
- A polished layout provides no information about the accuracy of the content it presents.
Produce a first document useful to your job in the project you created in the module Keeping the thread from one day to the next, then check the item count and every numerical value against the source folder before considering it finished.