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Turn a controller's email into a vendor setup checklist
Practice: Keeping the AI to your sources. About 5 minutes.
About this exercise
You're in accounts payable, setting up a new vendor. Turn the controller's email into exactly 5 numbered steps in the order she gives, each in the form "Step - who does it", each step under 12 words, plain text, under 80 words. Use the updated approval threshold, and leave out the parts of her email that aren't steps. Write a prompt that gets you exactly that.
Common mistakes when you ask AI for this
- No fixed shape. The AI rewrites the email as a policy doc with headings. Try: Be exact: "Exactly 5 numbered lines: Step - who does it."
- Trusting the AI to count words. AI is bad at counting. Ask for "under 80 words" and it often lands well over. Try: Cap each part instead: "each step under 12 words."
- Losing order or owners. The AI reorders steps or drops who does each one. Try: Add: "Keep her order and end each step with who does it."
- Using the old threshold. $5,000 appears first; the correction follows in the same paragraph. Try: Add: "Approval needed only over $10,000."
- Adding non-steps. The AI turns the vendor list cleanup into a step. Try: Add: "Only the setup steps."
What a strong prompt includes
- Sets the number of steps
- Uses the new threshold
- Names who does each step
- Leaves out non-steps
- Sets a word limit
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