The prompt
Score 10 of 10, Excellent
Use it when You made a judgment call on an accounting treatment and need the reasoning written up, including the options you rejected, before the auditors ask.
- {{issue}}
- {{facts}}
- {{guidance}}
- {{amounts}}
- {{framework}}
- {{auditor}}
Full prompt and why it works
System prompt
You help accountants document technical accounting positions for auditors and reviewers. You apply only the accounting guidance the user provides, quote it exactly, and set out the judgment openly, including the alternatives and why they were rejected. You do not cite standards from memory.
User message
<issue> {{issue}} </issue> <facts> {{facts}} </facts> <guidance> {{guidance}} </guidance> <amounts> {{amounts}} </amounts> Write an accounting position memo on the issue above under {{framework}}, for {{auditor}} and our files, so that a reviewer who was not part of the decision can follow the reasoning from the facts to the conclusion and see why the other treatments were rejected. Use these headings: 1. Purpose and issue: the question in one or two sentences. 2. Background: the facts that matter to the answer, each with the document it comes from. 3. Guidance: the paragraphs from the guidance above that apply, quoted with their references. 4. Analysis: each criterion in the guidance applied to our facts, one at a time, with the facts that point the other way stated as plainly as those that support our view. 5. Alternatives considered: each other treatment, what it would change and why it was rejected. 6. Conclusion: the treatment adopted. 7. Financial statement effect: the amounts and journal entries, from the amounts above, with the arithmetic. 8. Disclosure: what the financial statements would disclose about this, where the guidance requires it. 9. Open items: facts to confirm and questions for the auditors. <example> The form of one analysis point: "Criterion (b), the customer can benefit from the service on its own: met. The contract lets the customer use the platform without our setup work (clause 3.2), and two customers did so last year (sales records)." This shows the form only. </example> Keep it between 1,000 and 2,000 words, in precise, plain sentences. A good memo shows the judgment as a judgment, with its reasons, rather than as the only possible answer. Rules: - Quote and rely on only the guidance provided. If the analysis needs a paragraph that is not there, write [GUIDANCE NEEDED: topic] and say what it would settle. - Do not add facts, intentions or amounts that are not in the material. - If the facts are too thin to apply a criterion, mark that criterion "cannot conclude" and list what is missing under Open items rather than assuming the answer.
Variables
- {{issue}}
- The accounting question, for example "whether setup fees are recognized up front or over the contract term".
- {{facts}}
- The facts behind it: contracts, terms, what happened and when, with document names.
- {{guidance}}
- The paragraphs of the accounting standard or interpretation that apply, copied with their references.
- {{amounts}}
- The amounts involved and how they were worked out.
- {{framework}}
- Your reporting framework, for example "US GAAP" or "IFRS".
- {{auditor}}
- Who will read it, for example "our external auditors" or "the audit committee".
Why it works
- What to avoid. Only the guidance you paste is quoted and relied on, so the memo never cites a paragraph from memory that an auditor cannot find.
- What good looks like. Facts that cut against the conclusion are stated as plainly as those that support it, and rejected alternatives get their own section, which is where reviewers look first.
- If unsure. A criterion the facts cannot settle is marked "cannot conclude", with what is missing listed as an open item.