{"id":"fpa-labor-variance-rewrite-store-managers","audience":"managers","category":"finance-work","track":"finance","level":"beginner","technique":"tone","title":"Rewrite a jargon-heavy labor variance note for store managers","free":false,"task":"You manage a group of stores and got this note from finance. Rewrite it for your store managers in at most 3 sentences, plain text, written to them as \"you\". Keep the $42,000, 6% and 300 overtime hours exactly, and don't use the words variance, favorable, unfavorable, accrual, YoY or OT.","materialLabel":"Source material (attached to your prompt automatically)","material":"From: Regional FP&A\nRe: Q3 store labor\nTo: Regional ops leads\n\nSummary for the quarter ended Sep 30. Q3 store labor came in $42,000 unfavorable to budget (a 6% variance), driven primarily by 300 OT hours above plan at the Eastgate and Millbrook locations, partially offset by a $5,000 favorable accrual true-up from Q2 that hit in August. The remaining stores were within 1% of plan. YoY, labor as a share of sales moved from 18% to 19%, mostly because sales were flat while wage rates rose after the June adjustment. Hiring at Eastgate closed two open positions in September, which should reduce the overtime need, but we are not forecasting that benefit yet. Go-forward, all OT requires pre-approval in ShiftDesk per the staffing policy, effective Nov 15. Please cascade to store leads before the weekly huddle. Q4 budget is unchanged.\n\nRegional FP&A team","rules":[{"type":"maxSentences","max":3},{"type":"plainText"}],"mistakes":[{"title":"Keeping the jargon","why":"The AI tidies the sentences but keeps words like variance and accrual.","fix":"List the banned words: \"Don't use variance, favorable, unfavorable, accrual, YoY or OT.\"","checks":["r1"]},{"title":"Rounding the numbers","why":"The AI rounds or drops figures while simplifying.","fix":"Say: \"Keep $42,000, 6% and 300 overtime hours exactly.\"","checks":["r0"]},{"title":"Writing about them, not to them","why":"The AI writes a third-person summary instead of talking to the managers.","fix":"Say: \"Write to store managers as 'you'.\"","checks":["r2"]},{"title":"Too long","why":"The AI explains the accrual and the share of sales, which store managers don't need.","fix":"Say: \"At most 3 sentences, plain text.\"","checks":["maxSentences","plainText"]}],"promptHints":[{"label":"Says who reads it","patterns":["store manager","frontline","you"]},{"label":"Bans the jargon","patterns":["variance","jargon","accrual","plain (words|english|language)"]},{"label":"Keeps the numbers","patterns":["42,?000","keep (the )?(numbers|figures)","exact"]},{"label":"Limits sentences","patterns":["\\d+ sentences","(three|3) sentences"]},{"label":"Asks for plain text","patterns":["plain","no bold","no markdown","no formatting","no headings"]}],"hint":"Store managers act on plain words. Tell the AI exactly which terms to drop and which numbers must stay.","rubricLabels":["Keeps the figures $42,000, 6% and 300 overtime hours exactly as given","Doesn't use any of the words variance, favorable, unfavorable, accrual, YoY or OT","Is written directly to store managers as \"you\" and says overtime needs approval in ShiftDesk before it's worked, starting Nov 15"]}