{"id":"fpa-inflation-adjustment-nonlabor-lines","audience":"fpa","category":"finance-work","track":"finance","technique":"constraints","level":"beginner","title":"Apply an inflation adjustment to non-labor budget lines only","free":false,"task":"You're drafting a department's FY27 budget ask. Write a prompt for plain text with lines starting \"Labor:\", \"Non-labor:\", \"New total:\" and \"Increase:\", each with the math. The 3% inflation adjustment applies to non-labor lines only. Increase shows dollars and percent of the current total to one decimal. Don't mention the department head's request for 5% on everything. Under 70 words. No bullets or numbering.","materialLabel":"Current budget and adjustment rule (attached to your prompt automatically)","material":"FY27 BUDGET ASK INPUTS - Operations department, Birchwood Retail\n\nCurrent (FY26) budget:\n  Labor (salaries and benefits): $800,000\n  Non-labor (supplies, software, services): $200,000\n  Total: $1,000,000\n\nPlanning guidance from FP&A: apply a 3% inflation adjustment to non-labor lines only. Labor is planned separately in the headcount plan and is not changed by this adjustment.\n\nNotes: the department head wrote 'we really need 5% on everything, costs are up across the board'. The guidance doesn't allow that. New labor costs from the hiring plan will be added separately and are not part of this view.","rules":[{"type":"plainText"},{"type":"maxWords","max":70},{"type":"maxBullets","max":0}],"promptHints":[{"label":"Names the four lines","patterns":["labor:","non-labor:","new total","increase:"]},{"label":"Applies 3% to non-labor only","patterns":["3%.*non-labor","non-labor.*only"]},{"label":"Shows the sum","patterns":["\\$800,000 \\+"]},{"label":"Bans the 5% request","patterns":["(do not|don'?t).*(5%|request)"]},{"label":"Caps length","patterns":["\\d+\\s*words","plain"]}],"mistakes":[{"title":"Inflating labor too","why":"The AI applies 3% to the whole $1,000,000 and gets $1,030,000.","fix":"Say: \"The 3% applies to non-labor lines only.\"","checks":["r0","r1"]},{"title":"Using the department head's 5%","why":"The AI follows the request.","fix":"Add: \"Do not mention the department head's 5% request.\"","checks":["r2"]},{"title":"Percent on the wrong base","why":"The AI computes 3.0% of the total.","fix":"Add: \"Increase as a percent of the current total ($1,000,000).\"","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":"An inflation adjustment applies to some lines, not all. State which, and ban the larger request.","rubricLabels":["The line starting \"Labor:\" shows $800,000 unchanged and the line starting \"Non-labor:\" shows $200,000 x 1.03 = $206,000","The line starting \"New total:\" shows $800,000 + $206,000 = $1,006,000","The line starting \"Increase:\" shows $6,000, which is 0.6% of $1,000,000, and the output never mentions the 5% request"]}