{"id":"ind-fin-pnl-for-bakery-owner","audience":"finance","category":"explaining","technique":"audience","title":"Explain a quarterly P&L to a bakery owner in plain words","free":false,"task":"You're the bookkeeper for a bakery whose owner hates accounting talk. Explain her Q3 profit and loss in exactly 4 numbered sentences, each with one number from the statement, under 90 words, plain text. Use no accounting terms (no COGS, gross margin, net income, EBITDA), and make clear the insurance payout was one-time so profit looks better than normal. Write a prompt that gets you exactly that.","materialLabel":"The Q3 statement and your notes (attached to your prompt automatically)","material":"PROFIT & LOSS - Q3 (Jul-Sep) - Sugar & Stone Bakery LLC (fictional)\nOwner: Rosalind Ibe\n\nRevenue\n  Retail sales                     $96,000\n  Wholesale (2 cafes)              $24,000\n  Total revenue                   $120,000\nCost of goods sold (flour, butter, packaging)   $42,000\nGross profit                       $78,000\nOperating expenses\n  Payroll                          $41,000\n  Rent                             $12,000\n  Utilities                         $4,500\n  Marketing                         $1,500\n  Total operating expenses         $59,000\nOperating income                   $19,000\nOther income: insurance payout (July freezer failure)   $11,000\nNet income                         $30,000\n\nBOOKKEEPER NOTES\n- Q2 net income was $17,500 with no one-time items.\n- Insurance payout is one-time; without it, profit was $19,000.\n- Butter prices up about 18% since spring, which is why ingredient costs rose.\n- Rosalind asked last time: \"Just tell me if we made money and what's eating it.\"\n- Wholesale cafe #2 pays 45 days late, but that's not on the P&L.","rules":[{"type":"numberedItems","count":4},{"type":"maxWords","max":90},{"type":"plainText"}],"mistakes":[{"title":"Copying the statement's layout","why":"The AI rebuilds the P&L with headings and line items instead of explaining it.","fix":"Be exact: \"Exactly 4 numbered sentences, one number each.\"","checks":["numberedItems","plainText"]},{"title":"Trusting the AI to count words","why":"AI is bad at counting. Ask for \"under 90 words\" and it often lands well over.","fix":"Cap each part instead: \"each sentence under 20 words.\"","checks":["maxWords"]},{"title":"Not saying who's reading","why":"The AI explains with terms like gross margin and operating income that Rosalind asked you to skip.","fix":"Add: \"She hates accounting talk: no COGS, gross profit, net income or revenue.\"","checks":["r0"]},{"title":"Letting the one-time payout hide","why":"The AI reports $30,000 profit as a great quarter without flagging the insurance money.","fix":"Add: \"Say the $11,000 payout was one-time; profit without it was $19,000.\"","checks":["r1"]},{"title":"Rounding or inventing numbers","why":"The AI rounds loosely or adds percentages that aren't in the statement.","fix":"Add: \"Use only numbers from the statement, exactly as written.\"","checks":["r2"]}],"promptHints":[{"label":"Names the reader","patterns":["owner","rosalind","hates","not a numbers","plain (words|english)"]},{"label":"Bans accounting terms","patterns":["jargon","accounting (terms|talk|words)","cogs","no .{0,15}net income"]},{"label":"Flags the one-time payout","patterns":["one-?time","insurance","\\$?19,?000"]},{"label":"Sets the number of sentences","patterns":["\\b(4|four)\\b.{0,15}sentences?"]},{"label":"Sets a word limit","patterns":["\\d+\\s*words","word (limit|count)"]}],"hint":"The AI explains money in finance words unless you say who's listening. Name the reader, the words to avoid, and the one thing that makes this quarter misleading.","rubricLabels":["Uses none of the accounting terms COGS, cost of goods sold, gross profit, gross margin, operating income, net income, revenue or EBITDA (plain words like 'sales', 'ingredients' and 'profit' are fine)","Says the $11,000 insurance payout was one-time and that profit without it was $19,000","Every number matches the statement or notes (such as $120,000 in sales, $42,000 ingredients, $41,000 payroll, $30,000 total profit), and each of the 4 sentences includes at least one number"]}