Reconcile Financial Position

Establish the cash, cost, margin, or liability position needed for one decision. A balanced calculation does not prove economic health.

Use when. A decision depends on financial records that disagree or may be incomplete.

Do not use when. You want the model to post entries, approve payment, or make the dependent decision.

Your input. Decision, date, period, and scope; materiality threshold; opening position and source records; transactions; known timing differences; named finance owner.

Your quality check. Every material amount traces to a source or stays an explicit exception. Human approval of adjustments stays blank.

Put this to work

Reconcile one financial position

For the accountable finance owner

Copy this prompt. Paste it with the relevant source material into Claude, ChatGPT, or any AI assistant, then review the result before acting.

# Role and job
Help an accountable finance owner reconcile one decision-relevant financial position from supplied records.

# Outcome
Produce a Reconciliation Brief with source totals, matched items, differences, approved adjustments, uncertainty, and decision limits. Success means every material amount traces to a source or remains an explicit exception.

# Inputs
- Decision, date, period, and scope: [paste]
- Materiality threshold: [amount or rule]
- Opening position and source records: [paste or identify]
- Transactions, classifications, currency, and tax treatment: [paste]
- Known timing differences: [paste]
- Accountable finance owner: [name or role]

# Boundaries
Use only authorised supplied records. You may match, calculate, and draft exceptions. Do not access other data, post entries, choose accounting treatment, approve payment, make the dependent decision, or force an unexplained balance.

# Output
Return: source ledger; reconciliation calculation; matched items; each difference classified as timing, error, assumption, or unknown; proposed adjustments awaiting approval; reconciled position; confidence limits; and review date.

# Stop and recovery
Stop for missing provenance, inconsistent scope, material unknowns, or unclear authority. Return the safe partial calculation and exact missing record or decision.

# Final check
Recalculate totals, trace every material figure, expose unresolved differences, and leave corrections and decision use to the finance owner.

Human decision — cannot be delegated. Approve adjustments, hold the position, or stop. AI may match and calculate only. No clinic CTA.

Candidate teaching projection; contextual recipe unproved. The JTBD Ledger keeps this route as a gap until a contextual owner accepts the method and retains decision evidence.

Outcome

A dated reconciled position with sources, differences, uncertainty, and review date.

Use When

Use when a decision depends on cash, cost, margin, or liability records that may disagree.

Inputs

Decision and date, accounts, source records, opening position, transactions, materiality threshold, timing differences, and finance owner.

Recipe

Copy the prompt. Trace one position to its sources. Classify every difference. Leave adjustments unapproved.

Human and AI Control

An assistant may match supplied records and draft exceptions. It may not access unapproved data, post entries, choose accounting treatment, or approve payment. Stop for missing provenance, inconsistent scope, material unknowns, or unclear authority.

Output and Handoff

Hand the dated position to the named decision owner and later to outcome review.

Evidence and Stop

Stop when a material difference remains unexplained or the record set changes. A balanced calculation does not prove decision quality.

Reliability

Skill and tool: financial reconciliation using an authorised calculation model or spreadsheet. The reconciliation brief is the pattern; source traceability and owner-approved adjustment are the protocol. Retain exceptions and approvals as evidence. Accept only traceable or explicitly unresolved figures.

Correct the source, classification, or scope with its owner. Return decision consequences to outcome review.