{"id":"fpa-pricing-tier-revenue-variance-table","audience":"fpa","category":"finance-work","track":"finance","technique":"constraints","level":"intermediate","title":"Compare tier revenue to plan counting paying customers only","free":false,"task":"You're comparing monthly subscription revenue with plan by tier. Write a prompt for a markdown table with columns Tier, Plan revenue, Actual revenue and Variance, showing the multiplication in each cell like \"600 x $20 = $12,000\" for the revenue columns, followed by a last line starting \"Total variance:\". Count only paying customers (a free-trial customer is not paying). Under 120 words.","materialLabel":"Source material (attached to your prompt automatically)","material":"SUBSCRIPTION REVENUE VS PLAN - November 2026 (monthly price per customer)\n\nPrices: Basic $20, Pro $50, Enterprise $120\n\nCustomers, plan vs actual:\n- Basic: plan 600, actual 650\n- Pro: plan 300, actual 260\n- Enterprise: plan 50, actual 55\n\nNote from RevOps: the 260 Pro customers include 20 on a free three-month trial who are billed $0 until February. They are not paying customers this month.\n\nRevenue here means billed subscription revenue for the month, not bookings or contract value.\n\nThe VP of Sales asked why revenue is below plan even though total customers are above plan (565 actual vs 450 plan paying seats were assumed in the original plan deck, but that deck counted trial users). The table should let her see which tier explains the gap.","rules":[{"type":"maxWords","max":120}],"promptHints":[{"label":"Names the columns","patterns":["tier","plan revenue","actual revenue","variance"]},{"label":"Counts paying only","patterns":["paying","trial"]},{"label":"Shows the multiplication","patterns":["x \\$","customers x","multipl"]},{"label":"Adds a total line","patterns":["total variance"]},{"label":"Caps length","patterns":["\\d+\\s*words","under \\d+"]}],"mistakes":[{"title":"Counting trial customers","why":"The AI bills 260 Pro customers.","fix":"Say: \"Count only paying customers; remove the 20 on free trial.\"","checks":["r1","r2"]},{"title":"Hiding the multiplication","why":"The AI shows only totals.","fix":"Add: \"Show customers x price in each revenue cell.\"","checks":["r0"]},{"title":"Missing total variance","why":"The AI forgets the last line or the sign.","fix":"Add: \"Last line: Total variance with the sum of tier variances.\"","checks":["r2"]},{"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 part short.","checks":["maxWords"]}],"hint":"Revenue per tier is customers times price. The trial note changes the Pro count, so say who counts.","rubricLabels":["The header is Tier, Plan revenue, Actual revenue, Variance; Basic shows 600 x $20 = $12,000 plan and 650 x $20 = $13,000 actual, variance +$1,000; Enterprise shows 50 x $120 = $6,000 plan and 55 x $120 = $6,600 actual, variance +$600","Pro shows 300 x $50 = $15,000 plan and 240 x $50 = $12,000 actual (260 minus 20 trial customers), variance -$3,000","The last line is \"Total variance:\" showing +$1,000 - $3,000 + $600 = -$1,400, with total plan $33,000 and actual $31,600 if mentioned"]}