Assign invoices to October or November by service date

About this exercise

You're checking cutoff for the October close. Write a prompt for four plain-text lines, one per invoice in the order listed, formatted "Invoice - October or November - reason", then a last line starting "October total:" with the dollars added up. Our policy: expense belongs to the month the service was performed or goods were received, not the invoice date. Use "November" for prepaid services that start in November. Under 100 words.

Common mistakes when you ask AI for this

• Going by invoice date. The AI puts invoice D in October because it is dated Oct 30. Try: Say: "Goods belong to the month received, per the shipping terms."
• Missing the prepaid case. The AI puts invoice B in October because it was entered Oct 28. Try: Add: "Services starting in November are November."
• No total line. The AI explains but never adds up the October items. Try: Add: 'Last line: "October total:" with the addition shown.'
• Markdown extras. The AI adds bold labels, headings and a closing note. Try: Say: "Plain text, no bold. Output only the lines asked for."
• Trusting the AI to count words. AI is bad at counting and runs past word limits. Try: Ask for fewer words than the real cap and keep each line short.

What a strong prompt includes

• Names the four lines
• States the policy
• Uses terms
• Asks for the total line
• Caps length

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