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Explain the biggest budget variances to your CFO

Practice: Keeping the AI to your sources. About 5 minutes.

About this exercise

Your CFO wants a quick note on October's three largest budget variances for the marketing department. Write exactly 3 numbered lines, largest dollar variance first, each in the form "Line item: $X over/under budget (Y%) - reason", with the reason taken only from the finance notes. Keep it under 75 words and plain text, and label a timing issue as timing, not savings. Write a prompt that gets you exactly that.

Common mistakes when you ask AI for this

  • Listing every line item. The AI walks through all five lines with a header and commentary. Try: Be exact: "Exactly 3 numbered lines, largest dollar variance first."
  • Trusting the AI to count words. AI is bad at counting. Ask for "under 75 words" and it often lands well over. Try: Cap each part instead: "each reason under 10 words."
  • Getting the order or math wrong. The AI sorts by percent or by table order, and may compute % against actual. Try: Add: "Sort by dollar variance, largest first. % = variance / budget."
  • Calling timing a saving. Under budget looks like savings, so the AI calls the postponed show a win. Try: Add: "Label Events as timing (moved to Q1), not savings."
  • Repeating the rumor. The competitor theory is in the notes, so the AI uses it as the reason. Try: Add: "Use only confirmed reasons from the notes."

What a strong prompt includes

  • Sets the number of lines
  • Sorts by size
  • Shows the percent math
  • Separates timing from savings
  • Sets a word limit

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