Help me prepare a scoped accounting-services brief and a working schedule for review by a qualified accountant or bookkeeper. Do not present tax, legal, audit, or financial advice as definitive; identify where jurisdiction, entity structure, or source records require professional confirmation. Business details: [BUSINESS DETAILS] Period and accounting basis if known: [REPORTING PERIOD] Services I need: [REQUESTED SERVICES] Available records and known gaps: [RECORDS AVAILABLE] Transactions, balances, or questions to analyze: [FINANCIAL DETAILS] Produce five sections. 1) Scope: list the requested work, exclusions, deliverables, cadence, and decisions that need my confirmation. 2) Records checklist: name the source documents required for each service, including bank and card statements, sales reports, invoices, payroll reports, loan statements, and prior reconciliations where relevant. 3) Transaction schedule: make a table with date, description, amount, proposed account, debit/credit direction, supporting record, confidence, and question or assumption. Use numbers exactly as supplied; show arithmetic. 4) Reconciliation and close checklist: include bank-to-ledger comparison, outstanding items, duplicate checks, cut-off testing around period end, owner draws versus expenses, sales-tax/payroll-tax handling, and balance-sheet reasonableness. 5) Questions for the accountant: prioritize missing facts and compliance issues. Do not invent account balances, tax rates, classifications, invoices, or reconciled results. Clearly label estimates and assumptions. Before answering, verify debits equal credits in any journal entry you create and flag every figure that cannot be traced to my inputs. Ask up to 3 clarifying questions only if a required input is missing.
Fill in
| Placeholder | What to enter | Example |
|---|---|---|
| [BUSINESS DETAILS] | Provide the entity type, location, industry, and any relevant registrations. | Ohio LLC, one-member design studio, taxable retail sales are occasional. |
| [REPORTING PERIOD] | State the dates to cover and cash or accrual basis if you know it. | January 1-March 31, 2026; cash basis. |
| [REQUESTED SERVICES] | List the accounting work you want, such as monthly bookkeeping, cleanup, payroll review, or reports. | Quarterly bookkeeping cleanup, bank reconciliation, profit and loss draft, and questions for CPA. |
| [RECORDS AVAILABLE] | List the files and records you have and identify missing statements or documents. | Checking CSV, Stripe payout report, receipts folder, and February card statement; March card statement is missing. |
| [FINANCIAL DETAILS] | Paste transactions, balances, account questions, or a concise summary of the issue. | Checking ending balance $12,480.22; $1,200 laptop purchase; Stripe payouts total $18,904.51; owner transferred $2,000 to personal account. |
How to use
- Paste facts from source records and mark anything you are unsure about instead of guessing.
- Check the proposed account labels against your existing chart of accounts before changing your books.
- Give the resulting records checklist and unresolved questions to your accountant or bookkeeper.
- Follow up with: “Convert the transaction schedule into a CSV-ready table and preserve every uncertainty flag.”
Variations
Bookkeeping cleanup
Use for a backlog of uncategorized activity before a monthly or year-end close.
Create a bookkeeping-cleanup plan from [BUSINESS TYPE], [PERIOD], [ACCOUNTS], and [KNOWN ISSUES]. Output a prioritized checklist, a transaction-review table, and a list of documents to request. For each issue, state the accounting risk, evidence needed, and who should answer it. Include duplicates, personal-versus-business charges, transfers, missing statements, sales payouts, and period cut-off where relevant. Do not classify transactions without evidence; mark a proposed category as provisional. Ask up to 3 questions only if an input is missing. Check that no balance is presented as reconciled without a statement.
Monthly close
Use to create a repeatable month-end procedure for a small business.
Build a monthly close checklist for [BUSINESS], using [ACCOUNTING BASIS] and [SYSTEMS]. The close must finish by [DEADLINE]. Include bank, card, payment-processor, payroll, accounts receivable, accounts payable, debt, inventory, fixed-asset, owner-equity, and revenue cut-off steps only where applicable. For each step give owner, source record, review evidence, and exception rule. Add a one-page management report outline. Do not invent controls or tax rules. Check that every balance-sheet account has either a reconciliation step or an explicit reason it is excluded.
Accountant brief
Use before meeting an accountant about a specific financial, tax, or reporting question.
Turn my notes into a concise brief for an accountant. Business facts: [BUSINESS FACTS]. Issue: [ISSUE]. Relevant amounts and dates: [AMOUNTS AND DATES]. Documents available: [DOCUMENTS]. Produce a 250-word background, a chronology, a numbered list of precise questions, and a document index. Distinguish confirmed facts from my assumptions. Do not answer the tax or legal question yourself or invent missing records. Check that dates, totals, and entity names match my notes exactly.
Tips
- Keep source files separate from the AI-produced schedule; the schedule is a workpaper, not evidence.
- Payment-processor payouts are not automatically revenue because fees, refunds, and timing differences can sit inside a net deposit.
- Transfers between your own accounts should be identified before categorization so they are not counted twice as income or expense.
- Treat owner payments, loans, payroll, and sales tax as items requiring special review because their accounting and compliance treatment often differs from ordinary expenses.
FAQ
Can AI file my taxes or certify financial statements?
No. Use it to organize data and questions, then have a qualified professional review filings, compliance, and financial statements.
Why does the prompt ask for the accounting basis?
Cash and accrual accounting recognize income and expenses at different times, affecting the schedule and close checks.
Can I paste a bank statement?
You can provide needed transaction data, but remove account numbers, taxpayer IDs, and other sensitive information first.