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Screen capex requests against policy in a review table

  • For FP&A and financial analysts
  • You practice Catching mistakes and made-up facts
  • Time about 5 minutes
  • Level Advanced

About this exercise

Screen four capital requests before the capex committee. Policy: an item qualifies as capex only if it's an asset of $5,000 or more lasting over a year, and simple payback (cost ÷ monthly savings) must be 24 months or less to go straight to committee. Make one table with columns Request | Cost | Payback (months) | Flag, where Flag is exactly one of: Ready for committee, Needs strategic case, Reclassify as opex. Use the latest quote, no bold, under 110 words.

Common mistakes when you ask AI for this

  • Using the old quote. The AI uses the first $120,000 quote and misses the revised one. Try: Add: "Use the latest quote: $100,000 for the packaging machine."
  • Not knowing the policy. The AI judges requests on general business sense, not your thresholds. Try: State the rules: "$5,000+ asset lasting over a year; payback 24 months or less."
  • Treating subscriptions as capex. The AI includes the software as a capital item because it's in the request list. Try: Ask: "Flag subscriptions Reclassify as opex."
  • Free-text flags. The AI writes nuanced notes instead of labels the committee can sort. Try: Say: "Flag is exactly one of: Ready for committee, Needs strategic case, Reclassify as opex."

What a strong prompt includes

  • States the policy
  • Uses the latest quote
  • Fixes the flag labels
  • Names the columns
  • Sets a length limit

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