ChatGPT and Claude prompts for finance professionals

Variance commentary draft

Here are budget vs. actuals for [period]:
[paste table]

Draft plain-English commentary for the 5 largest variances by dollar amount. Mark any line where the cause is a guess, and don't invent figures.

Explain and build a formula

In Excel, column A has invoice dates and column B has amounts. Write a formula that sums amounts for the current month, explain each part, and give one test case I can check by hand.

Starter tip: protect the data

Don't paste confidential or customer data into a tool your company hasn't approved. Build and test your prompt with dummy numbers, then run it in the approved tool, and always re-check the math.

Memo first draft

Summarize this policy or contract excerpt for a finance audience: [paste]. Give a 5-bullet summary, the accounting questions it raises, and quote the exact sentence behind each point.

Reconciliation helper

I have two lists of transactions (bank and ledger) pasted below. Identify items that appear in one but not the other, and items with matching descriptions but different amounts. Show results as a table.