ChatGPT Prompts for CFOs: 10 Board and Cash Prompts

ChatGPT prompts for CFOs are most useful for the writing around the numbers: board memos, variance commentary, investor updates, and the questions you want ready before a meeting. Paste your own actuals, budget, and cash figures, ask ChatGPT to recompute and show its math, and check every number against your model. The 10 prompts below are drafting aids for your review, not financial, tax, or accounting advice.

Never paste confidential board, payroll, or customer data into a public AI tool; use your company's approved tools.

Board reporting

1. Board memo from actuals and budget

Here are [period] actuals and budget by line: [paste]. Write a one-page board memo with a two-sentence summary first, then revenue, margin, spend, and cash. Recompute every variance and show the math for any new number.

2. Variance commentary

For these lines [paste actual vs budget], write one sentence of commentary each, using only these known drivers: [drivers with source]. Where no driver is given, write "driver not provided" and the question I should ask.

3. Likely board questions

My board is [composition]. Based on these numbers [paste], list the eight questions they are most likely to ask, and the answer my data supports for each, or what data I still need.

Cash and planning

4. Runway check

Cash at [date] is [amount]. Net burn over the last [number] months was [amounts]. Calculate average monthly burn and runway in months, show the arithmetic, and tell me how runway changes if burn rises or falls by [percent].

5. Scenario questions, not predictions

We are deciding [decision, for example hiring five people in Q1]. Using these costs [paste], show the monthly cost, the effect on runway at current burn, and the three assumptions I would need to confirm before taking it to the board.

6. Budget vs reality review

Here is the annual budget [paste] and year-to-date actuals [paste]. Find the five lines furthest from plan in dollars, and write a short note on each that I can bring to the department head.

Investors and leadership

7. Investor update draft

Draft a monthly investor update from these facts: [revenue, burn, cash, wins, misses, asks]. Keep it under 300 words, lead with the numbers, and say plainly what went wrong.

8. Explain finance to the leadership team

Explain [metric or change, for example our gross margin drop] to non-finance leaders in plain English, using our numbers [paste], in five bullets, with one action each team can take.

9. Metric definitions sheet

We report these metrics: [list]. Write a one-line definition and formula for each as we calculate it [paste our method], and flag any two metrics whose definitions could be confused.

10. Close review questions for the controller

Here is this month's P&L and balance sheet summary [paste]. List the questions I should ask my controller before signing off: unusual moves, accounts that did not change when they should, and lines that do not tie.

Write the full board memo in one run

The flagship CFO Board Memo Prompt: Variance Story From Your Numbers recomputes a variance table from pasted actuals and budget, pairs the biggest moves with drivers you already know, shows runway math, drafts the memo, and lists the board questions your data can and cannot answer. Its example walks through a quarter where revenue came in 5.7% under budget and opex ran 3.2% over.

Related prompts

For a wider set of finance tasks, see ChatGPT prompts for finance professionals. To read statements before you write about them, use the financial statement ratio pack or the financial statement analysis prompt, and for line-by-line questions to your accountant, the P&L variance review prompt.

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