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Turn an auditor's request list into a team checklist by due date
Practice: Keeping the AI to your sources. About 5 minutes.
About this exercise
Your external auditors sent their document request list, and you're assigning it to your accounting team. You want exactly 5 numbered lines sorted by due date, each as due date - document - owner, under 70 words, plain text. Drop the item the auditors said they no longer need, and use the new owner where someone was swapped. Write a prompt that gets you exactly that.
Common mistakes when you ask AI for this
- Keeping the skipped item. The debt item is in the official list, so the AI keeps it. Try: Add: "Drop item 5, the auditor said to skip it."
- Missing the swap. Kevin is assigned AR in your notes, and the swap is in a chat below. Try: Add: "Marcus took over AR from Kevin."
- Not sorting by date. The AI keeps the auditor's numbering. Try: Add: "Sort by due date, earliest first."
- Letting the AI pick the layout. The AI makes a table with bold headers. Try: Be exact: "Exactly 5 numbered lines like '1. Dec 19 - Fixed asset rollforward - Ana'. Plain text."
- Trusting the AI to count words. AI is bad at counting. Ask for "under 70 words" and it often lands well over. Try: Cap each part instead: "each line under 9 words."
What a strong prompt includes
- Says how many lines
- Sorts by due date
- Drops the skipped item
- Uses the new owner
- Sets a word limit
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