{"id":"acct-owner-flash-profit-lines","audience":"small-business","category":"finance-work","track":"finance","technique":"audience","level":"beginner","title":"Give an owner a four-line monthly profit flash","free":false,"task":"You're the bookkeeper sending the owner a quick October flash. Write a prompt for plain text with lines starting \"Revenue:\", \"Costs:\", \"Profit:\" and \"Margin:\", each with the math. Costs are cost of goods plus operating expenses. Margin is profit / revenue to one decimal. These are preliminary bookkeeping figures. Don't mention the owner's hoped-for profit. Under 60 words. No bullets or numbering.","materialLabel":"October figures and notes (attached to your prompt automatically)","material":"OCTOBER FLASH INPUTS - Maple Row Hardware (preliminary, books not yet closed)\n\nRevenue: $48,200\nCost of goods sold: $21,000\nOperating expenses: $18,500\n\nNotes: the owner told Beth last week 'I'm hoping we cleared $12,000 this month'. The preliminary figures are not that high. Payroll taxes for October were paid Nov 3 and are already in operating expenses. The bookkeeper will update the flash after the close on Nov 9.\n\nBackground: October included the fall garden sale, which brought higher traffic than September. Inventory was counted on Oct 31 and the cost of goods figure uses the count. Operating expenses include rent of $3,200, payroll of $11,400, utilities of $640 and other costs. Sales tax collected is not included in revenue.","rules":[{"type":"plainText"},{"type":"maxWords","max":60},{"type":"maxBullets","max":0}],"promptHints":[{"label":"Names the four lines","patterns":["revenue:","costs:","profit:","margin:"]},{"label":"Gives the formulas","patterns":["cost of goods \\+","profit / revenue"]},{"label":"Asks for arithmetic","patterns":["arithmetic"]},{"label":"Bans the hope","patterns":["(do not|don'?t).*(hoped|owner)"]},{"label":"Caps length","patterns":["\\d+\\s*words","plain"]}],"mistakes":[{"title":"Costs without operating expenses","why":"The AI uses only cost of goods and shows $27,200 profit.","fix":"Say: \"Costs = cost of goods + operating expenses.\"","checks":["r0","r1"]},{"title":"Comparing to the owner's hope","why":"The AI adds how far this is from $12,000.","fix":"Add: \"Do not mention the owner's hoped-for profit.\"","checks":["r2"]},{"title":"Margin on costs","why":"The AI divides profit by costs.","fix":"Add: \"Margin = profit / revenue.\"","checks":["r2"]},{"title":"Markdown extras","why":"The AI adds bold labels, headings and a closing note.","fix":"Say: \"Plain text, no bold. Output only the lines asked for.\"","checks":["plainText","maxBullets"]},{"title":"Trusting the AI to count words","why":"AI is bad at counting and runs past word limits.","fix":"Ask for fewer words than the real cap and keep each line short.","checks":["maxWords"]}],"hint":"A profit flash is revenue, all costs, profit and margin on revenue. Give the formulas and ban the comparison.","rubricLabels":["The line starting \"Revenue:\" shows $48,200 and the line starting \"Costs:\" shows $21,000 + $18,500 = $39,500","The line starting \"Profit:\" shows $48,200 - $39,500 = $8,700","The line starting \"Margin:\" shows $8,700 / $48,200 = 18.0%, and the output never mentions the owner's hoped-for $12,000"]}