Simple AIWhat it does: Compares last month to your budget, finds the transactions behind each gap and builds a 13 week cash forecast from your real invoices and bills.
Use it when: You made a profit on paper but you aren't sure you can cover payroll next month.
You get: One page: a 3 line summary, the over budget lines, a 13 week cash table marked known or guess, and 3 moves with each one's effect.
This one runs in Claude: paste it there.
The prompt
You are my bookkeeper, a senior finance pro with 20 years of helping small owners understand their money. Goal: show me where my money went last month against my budget, and what my cash looks like for the next 13 weeks, so I know if I am safe and what to fix. Context: I run [your business]. Profit on paper does not pay the bills. The cash left after the costs that keep the doors open is what I can really spend, because rent and payroll come due whether or not customers pay on time. First, check that you can open my QuickBooks or Xero and my Google Drive. Tell me the last closed month, my bank balance and the date it is from, and the budget sheet you found. If you can't open them, stop and ask me to upload my profit and loss, open invoices, bills and budget instead. Ask me these, then run. Skip any I already answered. 1. Which month? (Default: the last full month, plus the year so far.) 2. Where is the budget? (Default: my newest Drive sheet with "budget" in the name. No budget? Use the same month last year.) 3. What is the lowest cash you are OK with? (Default: one month of fixed costs, using 2 paydays.) Do this: 1. For each line in the budget, show actual, budget, the gap in dollars and the gap in percent. Check that the actual total matches the profit and loss. 2. Flag lines over budget by more than 10% and more than $500. 3. For each flagged line, find the 3 biggest transactions behind the gap. Name the vendor and date. 4. Work out last month's money in, money out and fixed costs (rent, payroll, loans, software). Cash left after fixed costs is my spending money. 5. Build a 13 week cash forecast. Start with today's bank balance. Add open invoices in the week they are due. If a customer usually pays late, move their invoice by their usual days late. If an invoice is already later than that, put it in week 2 as a guess and flag it. Take out bills by due date and repeat costs on their normal day. Mark each line known or guess. 6. Fill the gaps the same way every week, starting in week 1. New sales: my average weekly deposits for the last 3 months, less the open invoices already counted. Running costs: my last 3 months of money out that is not already in the bills list, so nothing counts twice. Show both as guess lines. A week is known only if every line in it is known. 7. Mark any week that drops below my lowest cash from question 3. Give the low weeks with and without the guess lines. 8. Give 3 moves, like chase one invoice, push one bill or cut one cost, each with the dollar amount. For each move, rerun all 13 weeks with the change and list every week still under the floor, including any week the move pushes a cost into. For a cut, take it out only from payments due after the cut starts, on their normal pay day. Name each payment you removed with its date and amount. If the cost is inside a guess line, say so and mark the saving as a guess. Example of a summary, match this tone: "You spent $2,400 over budget, mostly on ads. Cash stays above your floor until week 9, when payroll and the tax bill land in the same week." The numbers are made up, only copy the tone. Give me one page, under 400 words plus the tables, not counting the connect check, your checks and the skill line: a 3 line summary, a table of the flagged budget lines plus the total, a 13 row cash table (week, cash in, cash out, end balance, known or guess) and the 3 moves. Before you show me, check your work: - The actual column total matches the profit and loss for that month, and the budget column total matches the budget sheet. - The forecast starts at the real bank balance, and each week's end balance adds up. - Every invoice and bill in the forecast is in my books, or marked as a guess. - For each move, list the exact payments it changes, with dates, and check that each one falls after the move starts. Rules: - Drafts only. Read only. Never pay, send, move, change, sort or delete anything until I say yes. Saving this skill is fine. - Don't make up an amount, date, invoice or bill. - If something is missing, write [check: what is missing] and keep going. - This is not tax or legal advice. Flag anything that needs my accountant. - Plain words. Short sentences. No em dashes, no semicolons. Last, save these steps as a skill called "Monthly Money Check" so you do it this way each time I ask. To run it again on the 5th of every month, I just say: run Monthly Money Check.
You need
Google Drive
QuickBooks
Any AITested on sample data
Built on: The Bezos Letters. Watch free cash flow, the "spending money" left after the costs that keep the doors open.
Copilot version
Needs a Microsoft 365 Copilot work license. Grounded in your work email, files and meetings. Run it once, then save it in Copilot Prompt Gallery.
Goal: You are my bookkeeper, a senior finance pro with 20 years of helping small owners understand their money. Show me where my money went last month against budget, and my cash for the next 13 weeks, so I know if I am safe and what to fix. Context: I run [your business]. Profit on paper does not pay the bills. The cash left after the costs that keep the doors open is what I can really spend. Source: Use only /[profit and loss export], /[open invoices export], /[bills export], /[budget file] and my bank balance of [amount on date]. First, check that you can open them. Tell me the month and the balance date. If you can't find one, tell me which one is missing. Or I will paste it in instead. Expectations: 1. For each budget line show actual, budget, gap in dollars and gap in percent. 2. Flag lines over by more than 10% and more than $500. Find the 3 biggest transactions behind each. 3. Work out money in, money out and fixed costs. Cash left after fixed costs is my spending money. 4. Build a 13 week cash forecast from today's balance. Add invoices in the week due, moved by each customer's usual days late. Take out bills and repeat costs. Mark each line known or guess. Fill gaps the same way every week from week 1: new sales from my average weekly deposits for the last 3 months, less the open invoices, and running costs not already in the bills list. Show these as guess lines. 5. Mark weeks below [lowest cash I am OK with], or one month of fixed costs if I don't say. 6. Give 3 moves with dollar amounts. For each move, rerun all 13 weeks and list every week still under the floor. A cut only changes payments due after it starts. Example of a summary, match this tone: "You spent $2,400 over budget, mostly on ads. Cash stays above your floor until week 9, when payroll and the tax bill land in the same week." The numbers are made up, only copy the tone. Give me one page under 400 words plus tables: a 3 line summary, the flagged lines, a 13 row cash table and 3 moves. Before you show me, check that the budget totals match the profit and loss, and that each week's end balance adds up. Rules: Drafts only. Leave it as a draft for me. Don't pay, send or change anything. Don't make up an amount, date or invoice. If something is missing, write [check: what is missing]. This is not tax advice. Plain words, short sentences, no em dashes, no semicolons. When it works, save this in Copilot Prompt Gallery as "Monthly Money Check" and run it again on the 5th of every month.
See a real example
Tested on sample data Sample data run (simulated tool). failed 2 runs, fixed, third run passed
Watch: no video for this one yet.
AuthorCorey Leon
