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Reporting and Analysis

Draft a Client Financial Health Review from an Income Statement

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What the source describes

CPA Practice Advisor walks through pasting an anonymized landscaping company's income statement into ChatGPT and Gemini Advanced and asking how financially healthy the business is and what to recommend. Both tools identified the net loss, flagged salaries as a large share of expenses, and suggested cost and revenue actions. The author stresses anonymizing data, getting client permission, having an expert check every answer, and reviewing terms of service.

Result or outcome

According to the source, both AI tools produced competent recommendations that could serve as a starting draft for a client report; the author describes the time savings as not huge, maybe 15 minutes, with an added benefit for people who dislike writing.

How to run it

  1. Get the client's permission, ideally in writing, and strip the company name and any other identifying details from the income statement.
  2. Upload the file if your assistant accepts uploads on your plan, or paste the figures directly into the chat with your prompt.
  3. Run the prompt on this page in ChatGPT, Claude, Grok or Gemini, asking for overall health, problem areas and recommendations with the arithmetic shown.
  4. Have an expert check every number and recommendation, then edit the output into a draft section of your client report.
  5. Read the AI tool's terms of service, including any disclosure requirements, before using the output in a client deliverable.

Try it yourself

Copyable prompt

Below is an anonymized [year] income statement for a [industry] business with about [number] employees. All identifying details have been removed. [paste income statement]. Please: 1) calculate total revenue, total expenses, net income and each expense category as a percent of revenue, 2) summarize overall financial health in one paragraph, 3) identify the three biggest problem areas with the numbers that support each, 4) suggest practical actions for cost control and revenue growth, and 5) list questions I should ask the owner before finalizing advice. Write it as a draft section of a client report in a friendly, non-technical tone. Show your arithmetic so I can verify it.

Replace the [bracketed] placeholders. Remove client names, account numbers, and personal data before pasting into any AI tool.

What to review

Recheck total revenue, total expenses, net income and each expense percentage against the income statement before using any of the narrative. Treat suggestions such as cutting staff or raising prices as discussion points for the owner, not conclusions. Confirm nothing identifying remained in what you pasted and that the client agreed to the use of AI.

Related free download: 50 AI Prompts for Bookkeepers (Prompt pack (PDF))

Source: CPA Practice Advisor

Not professional advice. This is general information, not accounting, tax, legal or financial advice. Check AI output yourself and consult a licensed professional for your situation. See our Terms of Use.

This entry summarizes a public source. Features, plans, and availability change, so confirm details with the vendor. Tool names are trademarks of their respective owners.

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If you want somewhere to check the numbers from this report or analysis, the Small Business Bookkeeping Spreadsheet Bundle is on our sister store.