Library › Finance AI › Accountants
Check a purchase order against remaining budget and route it
- For Accountants
- You practice Setting limits and rules
- Time about 5 minutes
- Level Beginner
About this exercise
You're checking a new purchase order before approval. Write a prompt for plain text with lines starting "Remaining budget:", "PO amount:", "Over by:" and "Routing:". Remaining budget is annual budget minus spend to date minus open commitments. Routing is exactly "Needs director approval" if the PO exceeds the remaining budget, otherwise "Within budget". Don't mention the supplier's price deadline. Under 60 words. No bullets or numbering.
Common mistakes when you ask AI for this
- Ignoring open commitments. The AI computes $6,800 remaining and says within budget. Try: Say: "Remaining = budget - spend to date - open commitments."
- Echoing the price deadline. The AI mentions the supplier's Friday deadline. Try: Add: "Do not mention the supplier's price deadline."
- Free-form routing. The AI writes 'should probably get approval'. Try: Quote the exact routing words.
- 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
- Gives the formula
- Quotes the routing words
- Bans the deadline
- Caps length
Related exercises
- Accept the buyer's counteroffer on three stated conditions (Sales AI · Sales and customer success)
- Accrue goods received but not invoiced at PO price (Finance AI · Accountants)
- Add dark mode by overriding your existing CSS variables (Coding AI · Software developers)
- Add input checks to your number guessing game (Coding AI · High school students)
- Add labels to a signup form without rewriting the page (Coding AI · High school students)