Subscribe now

Welcome to Beyond the 10-Key, a regular article discussing powerful and unique ways to utilize AI in the tax, accounting, and financial services industry. With the influx of new AI-based platforms and the ease at which these tools can be used, hardly a day goes by where a typical conversation doesn’t migrate to how AI can improve our processes, client interactions, and more.

Topic: Superpower Your AI With Clawdbot (Well, Maybe...)

While many people are still gaining just a comfort with utilizing an AI-platform through a chat system or integrated into an application they are using, one of hte top questions I receive is, “When can it actually do something for me?” Well, my friends, that time has come!

Many platform providers have been teasing interactive skills, but the actual deployment falls quite sure of their promises and targets. People are looking for the next Jarvis from Iron Man, but have only been getting an 80’s children’s cartoon replica.

But, let me introduce Clawdbot. Clawdbot has taken the technology industry by storm and actually delivers on the promises many other platforms have failed.

Clawdbot is a new AI platform built to make working with information and tasks feel easier and more intuitive. It acts like a smart assistant that can understand requests in plain language and help get things done without needing to dig through complex tools or systems. The focus is on daily use and ease of task management while helping move from questions or ideas to answers and actions quickly, allowing the research to work on the backend.

What sets Clawdbot apart is how it blends into everyday life. It can support planning, communication, research, and problem-solving while staying out of the way, stepping in only when it’s needed for input or clarification.

One of the most powerful features of Clawdbot is that it can be installed locally (we will get to that below) and has long-term, persistent memory.

Ok, but what does that actually mean?

What Clawdbot Can Actually Do

The beauty and power of Clawdbot is that it can be fully customized with added “skills” to expand its ability to interact and control systems as well as gain access to data.

I installed Clawdbot (listed below), configured it, and have worked with it for the last week. During this time, I built out a cool collection of skillsets:

• Added Text-To-Speech capabilities (through an add-on named Qwen) allowing me to speak to the system and for it to respond back to me. This, honestly, gave it the most Jarvis-feel out of anything.

• Much like my dated phone with a pop-up notification, I added text and voice call reminders for important events.

• Connected to my interactive display alarm clock to provide me a weather and calendar summary each morning when I wake up.

• Provides me an 8am summary of the cryptocurrency I currently own and those I am monitoring.

• Connect my X account and focused on receiving updates, although I could have also used it to post. This saved a ton of time from monitoring the individual X accounts manually.

• Connect to my file management (it even helped me locate a file without having to browse through a subfolder labyrinth).

• Connected to my home automation to control my lights, charging, and even my EV.

• Connect to my e-mail (well, e-mails) and provide summaries as well as assist to prioritize certain responses over general tasks.

• Plus about two dozen more that performed a myriad of tasks beyond the above.

Oh my gosh. So I have to be honest here. This has kinda rocked my world. The previous “go fetch feedback from this AI platform” has been replaced with “the AI platform interacts with your data and your world to bring actions and insight to your daily life.”

The Installation

Ok, so before we chat all rainbows and raspberries, we do need to address the most technical piece of Clawdbot and that is the complicated setup.

• I decided to install it on my Mac Mini. While this isn’t a required step, I chose this path to keep a test environment off of my primary computer. Additionally, running Clawdbot on a laptop that may be on/off defeats some of the purpose of its 24/7 features. Additionally, it is relatively resource-heavy tool and I would have noticed a lag on my individual computer running it there. The Mac Mini was $599, so not a huge investment for a tool that saves so much time.

  • The second benefit of using a local machine is that my data was all kept and managed inside of my own firewall, behind the custom configurations I have made to protect my personal environment.

• The install is very technical. I was able to get Clawdbot installed and operational in under 15 minutes, but imagine a non-technical individual might require over an hour. More so, the fears over the potential problems that could arise from a. mis-configured installation are pretty big.

• The most nuanced part of the entire installation is adding, linking, and configuring the skills. Each feature and integration you make requires specific technical skills to install, link it to the systems you already have designed (through an API usually), and then spending effort to configure the skill - all before it can be used.

  

The Good

I have to be real here. There was so much positive here. All of the skills that I have installed, I immediately began using and every skill I configured has proven to be useful.

The data is kept inside my own environment and I control who has access to what depth or level of information that I choose.

Clawdbot uses persistent memory (although I question the true persistence) which means it is supposed to remember everything it knows about you and adapts its work to match your patterns. I am a bit skeptical here, but hopeful.

There are about a dozen messaging apps (iMessage, Telegram, etc) that Clawdbot can interact with. I was able to send a reminder about upcoming calls with some friends directly through the system rather than having to remember myself.

Overall, I would say that Clawdbot is currently saving me a little bit of time; however, given the time it has taken to setup and configure, I am still significantly behind. However, it has acted like a “power-up” to the systems and tools that i use today. And that I am excited about.

The Bad

I am so frustrated to respond here because, as much as Clawdbot has been helping me, it is definitely not mainstream yet. If you are a technophile and don’t mind investing hours in setting up and designing a system, this could be a cool new toy to try.

Secondly, and this one is kinda big. Clawdbot does require pretty deep, intrusive access to your systems and data. It needs this for what it does, but it does introduce a huge security problem and could lead to a significant breach if a vulnerability is ever discovered. More so, a non-technical install may leave gaps and open systems allowing external access. Clawdbot really is designed for the technical user.

Finally, each skill requires additional time and effort to setup. I imagine this being a barrier to entry and growth for the product moving forward if it is not improved.

Brad’s Final Thoughts

Honestly, I love it. I think the product is cool. I think it has saved me effort and empowered me to work better and more efficiently.

However, it is very technical. For that reason, I really would not encourage moving forward until a less technical option is available.

I would love to hear your feedback! Is this the type of tool you are interested in?

Subscribe now

Financial Guardians is the premiere provider of cybersecurity and technology assistance, education, and support to the tax preparation, accounting, and financial services industry. With a network of several thousand firms and professionals, we are the largest source of unbiased security information in the industry. More information can be located at www.cybersecurity.tax.

Financial Guardians has partnered with NAEA to provide access to our monthly Guardian Tier membership at a 30% discount.

Active NAEA members can access the online discount here.

Subscribe to NAEA Guardian Tier

Financial Guardians is a proud member of InCite, the recently launched online community exclusively for tax professionals, bookkeepers, and accountants. InCite members receive a 30% discount.

Join today at www.incite.tax.

Join InCite Today

Financial Guardians has partnered with the California Society of Tax Consultants to provide a 30% access discount as well as many other offers. More info can be found at www.cstcsociety.org

Join CSTC Today

Subscribe now

Welcome to Beyond the 10-Key, a regular article discussing powerful and unique ways to utilize AI in the tax, accounting, and financial services industry. With the influx of new AI-based platforms and the ease at which these tools can be used, hardly a day goes by where a typical conversation doesn’t migrate to how AI can improve our processes, client interactions, and more.

Topic: Using AI to Help Interpret Those Complicated K1’s

Let’s be honest for a moment. We all pause when we receive that K1 and take a heavy breadth before diving in. The complexities of passthrough entities can require extra time to manage, whether we are dealing with S Corporations, Partnerships, Trusts, Estates, or similar. More so, we are also challenged with the fact that many tax professionals who generate K1’s do not fully understand them and may just accept the software calculations. Don’t worry, this isn’t a conversation about Circular 230….I promise.

While we may understand how to correctly apply the K1 contents, we may not always have a clear and solid way to explain the document to our clients. And if your clients are similar to mine, they don’t always understand how the passthrough documents impact their personal returns.

One addition we make to our prompt for this is a line-by-line return mapping just to assist our preparers by confirming where each line of content form the K1 should be placed.

This is one prompt where you will typically receive a better response when using a Higher / Professional Tier, but the cost is a significant bump. If you do not have this tier, just spend a bit more time reviewing the content for accuracy.

The Basic Process

You can perform the similar analysis using the standard interface in ChatGPT, Gemini, CoPilot, or any of the dozens of other tools. No matter the tool or platform, the process is pretty much the same and this week is much simpler than last:

1. We export the K1 we generate, or use the K1 provided by the client, and perform a basic redaction. Our redaction process will be discussed another week. Then, use a prompt similar to below. Note that the prompt will shift by platform and as new or different version are released. You should tweak and adjust to your needs.

   Assuming the role of an experienced tax professional and accountant, you provide thorough analysis of financial document review and specialize in complicated pass-through income scenarios related to K1 content. 
   
   Review the attached K1 for an S Corporation return. The client is a relatively new business owner and does not always understand the impact of how business decisions impact their personal tax return.
   
   Analyze the attached document and draft the following: 
   
   1.) A high-level response to provide a brief explanation of the K1 and its impact on their personal income tax return.
   
   2.) A thorough, detailed response summarizing the K1 for the client and providing a high-level line-by-line summary.
   
   3.) A detailed explanation for a technical tax professional to help them explain the K1 to their client.
   
   4.) Based upon the entire document, highlight any potential numbers or content that may be inaccurate.
   
   Provide citations where possible. Please humanize all of your responses to a 10th grade level of comprehensive and speech. Additionally, think about your responses a second time prior to creation. Finally, if anything is unclear, please ask questions.

Given that we use an API, we format the returned response into a clean PDF. You could simply modify the prompt to request the response in a formatted version to your layout and liking. And, obviously, once we receive the response, we still review it for accuracy (but that is a conversation for another day).

Sample Output

While the output is comprehensive, it is also, quite long. Here are some sample outputs you may receive:

• Reminder that the prompt is thinking a second time:

• Explanation of High-Level Process

  

• Review and Verify Return Mapping and Explanations

• Review and Verify Return Mapping and Explanations

  

This is just partial output, but you can see the analysis is detailed and can provide significant insight.

What Would You Do?

We hope you are enjoying Beyond the 10-Key. Now, we would love to hear your thoughts? How would you adjust the prompt for your needs?

Thanks so much!

Subscribe now

Financial Guardians is the premiere provider of cybersecurity and technology assistance, education, and support to the tax preparation, accounting, and financial services industry. With a network of several thousand firms and professionals, we are the largest source of unbiased security information in the industry. More information can be located at www.cybersecurity.tax.

Financial Guardians has partnered with NAEA to provide access to our monthly Guardian Tier membership at a 30% discount.

Active NAEA members can access the online discount here.

Subscribe to NAEA Guardian Tier

Financial Guardians is a proud member of InCite, the recently launched online community exclusively for tax professionals, bookkeepers, and accountants. InCite members receive a 30% discount.

Join today at www.incite.tax.

Join InCite Today

Financial Guardians has partnered with the California Society of Tax Consultants to provide a 30% access discount as well as many other offers. More info can be found at www.cstcsociety.org

Join CSTC Today

Subscribe now

Welcome to Beyond the 10-Key, a regular article discussing powerful and unique ways to utilize AI in the tax, accounting, and financial services industry. With the influx of new AI-based platforms and the ease at which these tools can be used, hardly a day goes by where a typical conversation doesn’t migrate to how AI can improve our processes, client interactions, and more.

Topic: Allow AI to Make Those Tough Disengagement Decisions

We are all human. And whether we like to admit it all the time or not, we all have human feelings and emotions. As we entire the time of year when we evaluate client engagements and make decisions as to which clients we invite back and which clients we disengage, those emotions sometimes leak in. We forget why Client A was a challenge or why Client B has an uneasy feeling in the back of our mind. Or we have had months to calm down and the emotions and frustrations from a client interaction in April seem less frustrating.

We shifted our process and now allow AI to assist, especially for clients to whom we may have historical or emotional attachments. We also recognize that we may be slightly emotional and strained during filing season so sometimes that “no” really wasn’t supposed to be a no; maybe we just forget our coffee or tea that morning.

During season and through the remainder of the year, we add notes and comments to the note section of our software (we primarily use two applications for notes). We type actions, decisions, and client comments. We also enter our feedback and thoughts from the conversation or interaction.

At the end of the year (now), we utilize AI to review that data and provide preliminary feedback on client retention and disengagement.

The Basic Process

You can perform the similar analysis using the standard interface in ChatGPT, Gemini, CoPilot, or any of the dozens of other tools. No matter the tool or platform, the process is pretty much the same and this week is much simpler than last:

1. We upload and export of notes from our software and perform a basic redaction. Our redaction process will be discussed another week. Then, use a prompt similar to below. Note that the prompt will shift by platform and as new or different version are released. You should tweak and adjust to your needs.

   Assuming the role of an experienced tax professional and accountant, you need to review and analyze your client relationships to devaluate retention plans. You are to be impartial from emotions and rely heavily the facts. 
   
   The attached document includes the following information for all of our anonymized clients:
   - Initial Client Start Date (improved evaluation criteria)
   - Enrollment Date
   - Document Drop Off Date
   - Return Completion Date
   - Number of Minutes for Return Completion (strengthened evaluation criteria)
   - Number of Contacts (strengthened evaluation criteria)
   - Thorough Client Notes (strengthened evaluation criteria)
   
   Out of the total clients, we wish to retain 80%.  Review the client data and provide an Excel document back including an additional column for a "Yes/No" for client retention and a second column with a brief reason.
   
   Provide citations where possible. Please humanize all of your responses to a 10th grade level of comprehensive and speech. Additionally, think about your responses a second time prior to creation. Finally, if anything is unclear, please ask questions.

Given that we use an API, we format the returned response into a clean PDF. You could simply modify the prompt to request the response in a formatted version to your layout and liking. And, obviously, once we receive the response, we still review it for accuracy (but that is a conversation for another day).

Sample Output

While the output is comprehensive, it is also, quite long. Here are some sample outputs you may receive:

• Reminder that the prompt is thinking a second time:

• Summary of Delivered Product

• Explanation of Evaluation Process

  

• Sample of Output / Results

This is just partial output, but you can see the analysis is detailed and can provide significant insight.

What Would You Do?

We hope you are enjoying Beyond the 10-Key. Now, we would love to hear your thoughts? How would you adjust the prompt for your needs?

Thanks so much!

Subscribe now

Financial Guardians is the premiere provider of cybersecurity and technology assistance, education, and support to the tax preparation, accounting, and financial services industry. With a network of several thousand firms and professionals, we are the largest source of unbiased security information in the industry. More information can be located at www.cybersecurity.tax.

Financial Guardians has partnered with NAEA to provide access to our monthly Guardian Tier membership at a 30% discount.

Active NAEA members can access the online discount here.

Subscribe to NAEA Guardian Tier

Financial Guardians is a proud member of InCite, the recently launched online community exclusively for tax professionals, bookkeepers, and accountants. InCite members receive a 30% discount.

Join today at www.incite.tax.

Join InCite Today

Financial Guardians has partnered with the California Society of Tax Consultants to provide a 30% access discount as well as many other offers. More info can be found at www.cstcsociety.org

Join CSTC Today

Subscribe now

Welcome to Beyond the 10-Key, a regular article discussing powerful and unique ways to utilize AI in the tax, accounting, and financial services industry. With the influx of new AI-based platforms and the ease at which these tools can be used, hardly a day goes by where a typical conversation doesn’t migrate to how AI can improve our processes, client interactions, and more.

Topic: Using AI to Provide Business Consultation Services

We work with a lot of diverse clients: businesses, farms, rentals, and more. One of the biggest questions we consistently hear is, “What could I be doing to make more? Is there something different we could be offering? How could I diversify my income?”

Years ago, we had small internal lists we would keep by industry of suggestions we could offer. However, AI has introduced new opportunities for business consultation and advisory. Now, we are able to add additional context and variables we either hadn’t thought about prior or didn’t have access to previously.

As with several of our previous examples, we leverage AI to encourage clients into engagement. AI requires just a few moments for research and application, but very commonly opens the door for a full advisory or consultation opportunity. This is the prompt that we would use to provide a high-level summary to our clients and then dive deeper into a paid consultation to help the client scope our potential expansion opportunities.

The Basic Process

You can perform the similar analysis using the standard interface in ChatGPT, Gemini, CoPilot, or any of the dozens of other tools. No matter the tool or platform, the process is pretty much the same and this week is much simpler than last:

1. There is nothing we upload, but you could easily upload a pre-written summary if you already had it in your client documents. Then, use a prompt similar to below. Note that the prompt will shift by platform and as new or different version are released. You should tweak and adjust to your needs.

   Assuming the role of an experienced tax professional and accountant, you provide thorough analysis of financial review and specialize in [type of business client]. 
   
   One of my clients owns a sheep farm with about 80 acres in southwest PA. They currently are utilizing about 30 acres for their sheep. A lot of the land is currently undeveloped. As wool is increasing in price, they are finding themselves with typically larger profit. 
   
   They would like to invest further in their offerings rather than just retain the profit. Provide me a list of similar or complementary services or products they offer to expand their business; provide a high-level startup-cost estimate and potential income estimate.
   
   Provide citations where possible. Please humanize all of your responses to a 10th grade level of comprehensive and speech. Additionally, think about your responses a second time prior to creation. Finally, if anything is unclear, please ask questions.

Given that we use an API, we format the returned response into a clean PDF for each client. You could simply modify the prompt to request the response in a formatted version to your layout and liking. And, obviously, once we receive the response, we still review it for accuracy (but that is a conversation for another day).

Sample Output

While the output is comprehensive, it is also, quite long. Here are some sample outputs you may receive:

• Reminder that the prompt is thinking a second time:

• Snapshot of a List of Several Dozens Prospective Ideas

• Assistance to Prioritize Opportunities

  

• High-Level Qualitative Findings

This is just partial output, but you can see the analysis is detailed and can provide significant insight.

What Would You Do?

We hope you are enjoying Beyond the 10-Key. Now, we would love to hear your thoughts? How would you adjust the prompt for your needs?

Thanks so much!

Subscribe now

Financial Guardians is the premiere provider of cybersecurity assistance, education, and support to the tax preparation, accounting, and financial services industry. With a network of several thousand firms and professionals, we are the largest source of unbiased security information in the industry. More information can be located at www.cybersecurity.tax.

Financial Guardians has partnered with NAEA to provide access to our monthly Guardian Tier membership at a 30% discount.

Active NAEA members can access the online discount here.

Subscribe to NAEA Guardian Tier

Financial Guardians is a proud member of InCite, the recently launched online community exclusively for tax professionals, bookkeepers, and accountants. InCite members receive a 30% discount.

Join today at www.incite.tax.

Join InCite Today

Financial Guardians has partnered with the California Society of Tax Consultants to provide a 30% access discount as well as many other offers. More info can be found at www.cstcsociety.org

Join CSTC Today

Subscribe now

Welcome to Beyond the 10-Key, a regular article discussing powerful and unique ways to utilize AI in the tax, accounting, and financial services industry. With the influx of new AI-based platforms and the ease at which these tools can be used, hardly a day goes by where a typical conversation doesn’t migrate to how AI can improve our processes, client interactions, and more.

Topic: Using AI to Help Determine the Land and Structure Values of Investment Real Estate

I hear challenges and problems many other tax professionals face on a regular basis and one that I have heard recently is the struggle they, and their clients, face to determine the land value and structure value of an investment property they purchased. Sadly, this is information that is not typically provided at time of sale.

Firms attempts to research, but values are not always available. Some firms use a sketchy flat percent such as 25%, but that is rarely accurate and can drastically shift values. Investors and their tax professionals get stuck. There is no perfect solution.

One hurdle the prompt has to overcome is wording. Typically, land is an equalizing term, but then many use property, structure, improvements, or the similar - some even listing different values for each. Sadly, the data is not structured, but this is where an AI platform is able to apply logical reasoning and derive value.

In our firm, we use AI to conduct a review what information we have access to and, sadly, the information is typically lacking and that leaves a gap for our clients. We will then use the below process to determine split values. We have found, especially in cases where a value cannot be fully located (even when contacting the local tax assessment office!) that this value has been realistic. At the beginning of using this prompt, we would reach out to the local office again to determine reasonableness and unilaterally received acceptance.

The Basic Process

You can perform the similar analysis using the standard interface in ChatGPT, Gemini, CoPilot, or any of the dozens of other tools. No matter the tool or platform, the process is pretty much the same and this week is much simpler than last:

1. There is nothing we upload, but you could easily upload a PDF of the property and its description. Then, use a prompt similar to below. Note that the prompt will shift by platform and as new or different version are released. You should tweak and adjust to your needs.

   Assuming the role of an experienced tax professional and accountant, you provide thorough analysis of financial review and specialize in real estate valuation. 
   
   I specialize in real estate investors as clients and my clients do not typically know the land value vs structure value of the new investment properties they purchase. 
   
   I have a client who purchased [Insert Full Address]. Research reference sites and local government sites, then determine the land and property/structure/improvement values for this investment.
   
   Provide citations where possible. Please humanize all of your responses to a 10th grade level of comprehensive and speech. Additionally, think about your responses a second time prior to creation. Finally, if anything is unclear, please ask questions.

Given that we use an API, we format the returned response into a clean PDF for each client. You could simply modify the prompt to request the response in a formatted version to your layout and liking. And, obviously, once we receive the response, we still review it for accuracy (but that is a conversation for another day).

Sample Output

While the output is comprehensive, it is also, quite long. Here are some sample outputs you may receive:

• Reminder that the prompt is thinking a second time:

• Review Records

• Provide Verification Options

  

• Firm and Qualitative Findings

This is just partial output, but you can see the analysis is detailed and can provide significant insight.

What Would You Do?

We hope you are enjoying Beyond the 10-Key. Now, we would love to hear your thoughts? How would you adjust the prompt for your needs?

Thanks so much!

Subscribe now

Financial Guardians is the premiere provider of cybersecurity assistance, education, and support to the tax preparation, accounting, and financial services industry. With a network of several thousand firms and professionals, we are the largest source of unbiased security information in the industry. More information can be located at www.cybersecurity.tax.

Financial Guardians has partnered with NAEA to provide access to our monthly Guardian Tier membership at a 30% discount.

Active NAEA members can access the online discount here.

Subscribe to NAEA Guardian Tier

Financial Guardians is a proud member of InCite, the recently launched online community exclusively for tax professionals, bookkeepers, and accountants. InCite members receive a 30% discount.

Join today at www.incite.tax.

Join InCite Today

Financial Guardians has partnered with the California Society of Tax Consultants to provide a 30% access discount as well as many other offers. More info can be found at www.cstcsociety.org

Join CSTC Today

Subscribe now

Welcome to Beyond the 10-Key, a regular article discussing powerful and unique ways to utilize AI in the tax, accounting, and financial services industry. With the influx of new AI-based platforms and the ease at which these tools can be used, hardly a day goes by where a typical conversation doesn’t migrate to how AI can improve our processes, client interactions, and more.

Topic: Using AI to Sell Reasonable Compensation Reviews

One of the biggest challenges many business owners face is determining reasonable compensation for themselves. This is never a “one-size fits all” solution and many business owners either underpay OR overpay themselves. The former can result in significant penalties while the later can result in paying additional tax.

Your firm can assist its business clients conduct a review to ensure they are within compliance as well as reducing tax. However, these reviews should not be completed for free; many firms charge well over $1,000 (larger firms even scale up to $7,500). And sometimes it takes effort to convince a client to invest in a reasonable comp review. Amazing tools such as RCReports provide amazing detail with verifiable information, but they can be costly. I want to be clear that the findings in this prompt are basic, but a good guide and we still leverage another tool to provide a through review that includes full benefits and through position-related details.

In our firm, we use AI to conduct a preliminary reasonable compensation review and then use that information as a basis to engage the client in a full, paid review. We currently have a 100% close rate without any initial software purchase before paid engagement.

The Basic Process

You can perform the similar analysis using the standard interface in ChatGPT, Gemini, CoPilot, or any of the dozens of other tools. No matter the tool or platform, the process is pretty much the same and this week is much simpler than last:

1. There is nothing we upload, but you could easily upload the individual’s job description if one exists. Then, use a prompt similar to below. Note that the prompt will shift by platform and as new or different version are released. You should tweak and adjust to your needs.

   Assuming the role of an experienced tax professional and accountant, you provide thorough analysis of financial review and specialize in compensation. 
   
   Assuming the following position details, conduct the following analysis: 
   
   Position Details: 
   
   - Position: Vice-President (40% shareholder) 
   - Degree in Field: Yes 
   - Experience: 8 years 
   - Average Hours Per Week: 45 
   - Current Salary: $89,000 
   - Primary Duties: Operations Manager, Oversight of 10 Employees, Basic Accounting 
   - Non-Standard Position Duties: Assist with Sales 
   - Company Size: 45 employees 
   - Company Zip Code: 15213 
   
   Analysis: 
   
   1.) Please review comparable positions for companies of this size in this zip code, or neighboring zip codes. Write a qualitative summary comparing these positions. 
   
   2.) Conduct a comprehensive review of compensation packages for similar positions at companies of this size in this zip code, or neighboring zip codes and provide a details comparison of this position against the average salaries, minimum salaries, and maximum salaries you located. 
   
   3.) Do you believe this individual is currently receiving reasonable compensation? Provide a Yes or No answer and then explain your reasoning. 
   
   Provide citations where possible. Please humanize all of your responses to a 10th grade level of comprehensive and speech. Additionally, think about your responses a second time prior to creation. Finally, if anything is unclear, please ask questions.

Given that we use an API, we format the returned response into a clean PDF for each client. You could simply modify the prompt to request the response in a formatted version to your layout and liking. And, obviously, once we receive the response, we still review it for accuracy (but that is a conversation for another day).

Sample Output

While the output is comprehensive, it is also, quite long. Here are some sample outputs you may receive:

• Reminder that the prompt is thinking a second time:

• Initial Review of the Role

• Detailed Salary Comparison

  

• Qualitative Findings

This is just partial output, but you can see the analysis is detailed and can provide significant insight.

What Would You Do?

We hope you are enjoying Beyond the 10-Key. Now, we would love to hear your thoughts? How would you adjust the prompt for your needs? What scenarios would you use a preliminary reasonable comp audit?

Thanks so much!

Subscribe now

Financial Guardians is the premiere provider of cybersecurity assistance, education, and support to the tax preparation, accounting, and financial services industry. With a network of several thousand firms and professionals, we are the largest source of unbiased security information in the industry. More information can be located at www.cybersecurity.tax.

Financial Guardians has partnered with NAEA to provide access to our monthly Guardian Tier membership at a 30% discount.

Active NAEA members can access the online discount here.

Subscribe to NAEA Guardian Tier

Financial Guardians is a proud member of InCite, the recently launched online community exclusively for tax professionals, bookkeepers, and accountants. InCite members receive a 30% discount.

Join today at www.incite.tax.

Join InCite Today

Financial Guardians has partnered with the California Society of Tax Consultants to provide a 30% access discount as well as many other offers. More info can be found at www.cstcsociety.org

Join CSTC Today

Subscribe now

Welcome to Beyond the 10-Key, a regular article discussing powerful and unique ways to utilize AI in the tax, accounting, and financial services industry. With the influx of new AI-based platforms and the ease at which these tools can be used, hardly a day goes by where a typical conversation doesn’t migrate to how AI can improve our processes, client interactions, and more. However, this feels like a constant uphill battle for most small and mid-sized firms as the technology is constantly changing, costs continue to rise, inaccuracies abound, and concerns over data privacy and ownership linger.

Beyond the 10-Key was created to reduce these concerns and worries for firm-owners and their staff. Each article, we will discuss how to design and implement these concepts, but also how to operationalize AI into your firm. All without compromise your firm’s identity and brand.

But I Don’t Need Another Person Talking About Ethics or Writing Funny E-Mails

Good! That isn’t what this is. Yes, we do need to talk about ethics and we will include ethical and proper uses in our discussions as one factor. But, we will include platform discussions and comparisons. We will include prompt engineering and design. And we hope that subscribers will join in with suggestions and tweaks to improve the total discussion.

But more so, we hope to bring powerful use cases and examples you can use in your firm. Examples and ideas that you can use to improve your firm and drive client engagement while also improving internal efficiencies.

Let’s dive in…

Topic: Analyzing That Profit & Loss Statement

I work with a lot of business. Like a lot. And there are two scenarios that arise with each business I chat with:

1. Confirmation of accuracy (or honesty). There are a lot of our clients who do their own books and we like to think they do their bookkeeping accurately, but we like to perform a deeper, comparative analysis on their Profit & Loss Statement to confirm accuracy. Additionally, this review we conduct is also a way to highlight any potential areas for fraud or dishonesty on the clients’ side, which would be an immediate disengagement.

2. Opportunity and risk analysis. The most common question we get from most business owners is, “How am I doing? How am I comparing against other X companies?” They want our feedback and guidance on how their business is doing and if they are better/worse/comparable to other businesses in the same industry? More so, they want to know if there are areas they could improve.

Two decades ago, minus the data-analysis capabilities we have today, this was a “gut” or experience-based conversation. Then several years ago, we were able to perform basic calculations using rudimentary tools or, with proper disclosures, comparable client data. Now, this is packaged in a collection of services labelled advisory services.

This basic, automated process leveraging AI is now included in all of our business, farming, and rental-inclusive returns. It allows us the opportunity to introduce advisory discussions and open the door to that higher-level engagement.

Since we have elected to automate this, ease of deployment was more critical than anything. Here is how we perform a basic analysis…

The Basic Process

To minimize effort, but increase impact, we utilize OpenAI’s ChatGPT’s API; however, you can perform the exact same analysis using the standard interface in ChatGPT, Gemini, CoPilot, or any of the dozens of other tools. No matter the tool or platform, the process is pretty much the same:

1. Redact the P&L by removing the company name or any other identifying information. (In a future, we will discuss security, data privacy, and how to cleanse documents prior to upload.)

2. Based upon the industry in which the company would be considered, we locate the NAICS code (North American Industry Classification System) for that industry. We use this classification due to the large collection of data they already have by industry.

3. Upload the P&L with a prompt similar to the following. Note that the prompt will shift by platform and as new or different version are released. You should tweak and adjust to your needs.

   Assuming the role of an experienced tax professional and accountant, you provide thorough analysis of financial documents.
   
   Based upon NAICS code 561730, please review the attached Profit & Loss Statement and provide the following:
   
   1.) A one paragraph summary of the NAICS code and the activities of companies within that code industry.
   
   2.) Typical expense categories listed on a company’s Profit & Loss Statement. Compare those categories with the categories in the attached P&L.
   
   3.) An average percentage of income for each expense category. Compare those percentages to the respective percentages in the attached P&L.
   
   4.) A two-paragraph summary comparing a typical business in this NAICS code against attached P&L. How likely is this business to be within this NAICS category? Are there typical expenses missing? Are there expenses on the P&L that are not in line with this NAICS industry? In line is considered within a 10% variance.
   
   5.) For an expense category not in line, please draft a one paragraph explanation of risks that could result from this variance.
   
   Provide citations where possible. Please humanize all of your responses to a 10th grade level of comprehensive and speech. Additionally, think about your responses a second time prior to creation. Finally, if anything is unclear, please ask questions.

Given that we use an API, we format the returned response into a clean PDF for each client. You could simply modify the prompt to request the response in a formatted PDF. And, obviously, once we receive the response, we still review it for accuracy (but that is a conversation for another day).

Sample Output

While the output is comprehensive, it is also, quite long. Here are some sample outputs you may receive:

• Reminder that the prompt is thinking a second time:

• NAICS Summary

• Typical Expense Ratios

• Risk Note

This is just partial output, but you can see the evaluation is detailed and can provide significant insight.

What Would You Do?

We hope you enjoyed the first installment of Beyond the 10-Key. Now, we would love to hear your thoughts? How would you adjust the prompt for your needs? What scenarios would you use a P&L analysis?

Thanks so much!

Subscribe now

Financial Guardians is the premiere provider of cybersecurity assistance, education, and support to the tax preparation, accounting, and financial services industry. With a network of several thousand firms and professionals, we are the largest source of unbiased security information in the industry. More information can be located at www.cybersecurity.tax.

Financial Guardians has partnered with NAEA to provide access to our monthly Guardian Tier membership at a 30% discount.

Active NAEA members can access the online discount here.

Subscribe to NAEA Guardian Tier

Financial Guardians is a proud member of InCite, the recently launched online community exclusively for tax professionals, bookkeepers, and accountants. InCite members receive a 30% discount.

Join today at www.incite.tax.

Join InCite Today

Financial Guardians has partnered with the California Society of Tax Consultants to provide a 30% access discount as well as many other offers. More info can be found at www.cstcsociety.org

Join CSTC Today