Whether you're a CFO juggling strategic decisions, a CP of Finance driving planning cycles, or an accountant buried in reconciliations, you’ve probably wondered: Can AI actually make this easier?

The answer: yes, when you ask the right questions.

We’ve compiled 25 AI prompts tailored to five finance roles. Each one is designed to solve a real pain point, deliver fresh insight, and make your job just a little bit easier.

Even if a specific prompt doesn’t fit your needs, this list can help inspire you to use AI in new ways.

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AI Prompts for Treasurers

AI Prompts for Finance Leaders

AI Prompts for CFOs

AI Prompts for Controllers

AI Prompts for Accountants

For Treasurers

Treasurers are responsible for safeguarding liquidity, managing risk, and optimizing capital, often across multiple markets and currencies. It’s highly strategic work, but much of it depends on wrangling scattered data and tedious analysis.

These prompts help treasurers make faster, more informed decisions about cash management, investments, and financial risk, without living in spreadsheets or calling six banks. Ok, maybe you’ll still live in spreadsheets, but the rest still stands.

1. Cash Flow Optimizer

Prompt:
Act as a Sr. treasury analyst. I want an analytical report with data validation on my top 10 customers I could likely convert to pay invoices, and a vendor list with conditional formatting showing me who I’m ok to pay in the following categories, “on-time”, “+5 days late”, “+10 days late”, “+20 days Late”. Make it simple and include tips to improve working capital.

Expected output: An analytical snapshot of levers to improve and optimize working capital, no spreadsheet wrestling required.

Files to attach: Required - AR/AP aging reports and current cash balances will enhance accuracy.

2. Investment Decision Analyzer

Prompt:
Analyze our historical excess cash balances and recommend the best allocation strategy between short-term treasuries, money market funds, or paying down debt. Include risk-return tradeoffs and ensure alignment with either our investment policy or standard industry best practices.

Expected Output: A faster process for an important but nuanced capital decision treasurers face regularly. 

Files to attach: Recommended - monthly cash reports, PDF of the investment Portfolio Policy.

3. FX Exposure Scanner

Prompt:
Evaluate our company's FX exposure across currencies based on typical transaction types. Provide a risk score for each and recommend suitable hedging strategies for a multinational company, including pros and cons for each option. 

Expected Output: A quick bypass of the complexity of currency exposure and hedging, typically a manual, spreadsheet-driven task.

Files to attach: Strongly recommended - recent FX transaction data and exposure reports.

4. Debt Maturity Risk Review

Prompt:
Help me identify and visualize risks in our capital strategy. Assess whether our current capital is sufficient, highlight potential risk triggers, and outline key terms to focus on during upcoming refinancing or capital renegotiation.

Expected Output: Proactive flags on refinancing risks and support for capital planning conversations.

Files to attach: Required - a detailed debt amortization schedule or repayment plan, usage/draw history and credit facility agreement.

5. Bank Relationship Tracker

Prompt:
Create a tracker that not only monitors our bank relationships, credit facilities, and fees, but also benchmarks service usage against peer companies to identify potential savings opportunities.

Expected Output: Makes opaque banking fees and relationships more transparent and manageable.

Files to attach: Optional - bank fee statements and current credit facility terms enhance depth.

How Nilus helps: Nilus gives treasurers real-time visibility into cash, automates reconciliation across X+ banks, and surfaces risks before they hit the balance sheet. No more spreadsheet stitching. Just clarity, speed, and control. Book a demo today to learn more.

For Finance Leaders

Finance leaders like VPs of Finance and Heads of FP&A connect the dots between performance and strategy. They own planning cycles, analyze KPIs, and guide leadership with insights that shape the business.

These prompts give finance leaders tools to accelerate forecasting, sharpen storytelling, and improve how their teams communicate risk, opportunity, and outcomes.

1. Monthly KPI Summary

Prompt:
Act as a VP of Finance. Create a summary of key financial KPIs (revenue, gross margin, OPEX, EBITDA) with bullet points highlighting major variances vs. plan.

Expected Output: Faster KPI reporting and surfaces key insights for leadership, without building a slide deck.

Files to attach: Optional - current month's P&L and forecast variances improve specificity.

2. Scenario Planning Assistant

Prompt:
Build three financial scenarios (base case, upside, downside) for the next two quarters using drivers like sales growth, churn, and headcount costs.

Expected Output: A scenario framework without needing a full-blown financial model.

Files to attach: Recommended - assumptions file with historical trends and cost drivers and forecasted P&L.

3. Budget vs. Actuals Explainer

Prompt:
Help me analyze and narrate this month's budget vs. actuals, highlighting root causes for each major variance and suggesting corrective actions for next month.

Expected Output: An explainer of the gap between numbers and action for faster decision-making and next-step determination.

Files to attach: Required - current variance analysis and department input notes.

4. Strategic Initiative Tracker

Prompt:
Create a tracker to monitor the financial impact of strategic initiatives, including real-time ROI analysis and alerts for underperformance against planned milestones.

Expected Output: A system to align finance with business outcomes, turning FP&A into a performance partner.

Files to attach: Optional - initiative ROI projections and milestone reports support full tracking.

5. Team Finance Q&A Coach

Prompt:
Give me a list of 10 smart questions I should ask my finance team in our next team meeting to surface insights, risks, or assumptions worth revisiting.

Expected Output: Questions to drive deeper, more strategic conversations across finance functions.

Files to attach: None needed.

How Nilus helps: Nilus equips finance leaders with real-time reporting, variance analysis, and performance tracking: all in one place. No chasing numbers across systems. Just faster insight-to-action, every time. Book a demo today to learn more.

For CFOs

CFOs operate at the intersection of finance and vision. They’re not just the head of numbers, they’re the financial strategist who helps drive growth, allocate capital, and build trust with investors and boards.

These prompts support high-leverage work like capital planning, investor readiness, and organizational design, helping CFOs make smarter decisions, faster.

1. Board Deck Generator

Prompt:
Draft a high-level financial summary slide for the upcoming board meeting, covering revenue trends, cash runway, burn rate, and key financial risks. Include a templated slide for deep-dive coverage if needed. 

Expected Output: A head start on presentation prep and highlights of what actually matters to board members.

Files to attach: Recommended - recent KPI dashboards and board slides for context.

2. Capital Allocation Evaluator

Prompt:
Evaluate the return profile, risk, and strategic alignment of using $10M excess cash for debt paydown, R&D investment, or a tuck-in acquisition. Recommend the best path.

Expected Output: A description to help frame one of the CFO’s hardest strategic choices with clarity.

Files to attach: Strongly recommended - capital planning models and cash flow forecasts.

3. Operating Model Stress Test

Prompt:
Stress-test our current operating model using a 15% drop in revenue scenario. What areas would break and what levers could we pull?

Expected Output: Preparation for downturns with a proactive, decision-ready mindset.

Files to attach: Optional - operating assumptions, departmental budgets improve precision.

4. Investor Q&A Coach

Prompt:
Give me 5 challenging investor-style questions about our financial performance and suggest strong, data-backed answers.

Expected Output: Questions to sharpen your investor narrative and build confidence before earnings calls.

Files to attach: Optional - investor decks, past Q&A transcripts useful for alignment.

5. Finance Org Design Helper

Prompt:
Suggest an org structure for a 20-person finance team at a mid-size company. Include roles, responsibilities, and reporting lines.

Expected Output: A suggested guide to scaling and clarity during finance org growth or restructuring.

Files to attach: None needed.

How Nilus helps: Nilus gives CFOs real-time visibility into cash, performance and risk, plus the tools to act on it. From board prep to capital strategy, Nilus supports high-stakes decisions with clarity and confidence. Book a demo today to learn more.

For Controllers

Controllers ensure financial accuracy, compliance, and process integrity. From close to audit to policy enforcement, they keep the books clean and the controls tight.

These prompts help controllers streamline routine work, surface hidden issues, and drive proactive oversight, with less manual effort and fewer surprises.

1. Month-End Close Checklist

Prompt:
Create a comprehensive month-end close checklist for a mid-size company, grouped by function (AP, AR, payroll, reconciliations, journal entries).

Expected Output: A system to prevent close bottlenecks and help onboard new team members quickly.

Files to attach: None needed.

2. Audit Prep Organizer

Prompt:
List the key documents and schedules needed to prepare for a year-end financial audit, organized by category (P&L, balance sheet, controls, etc.).

Expected Output: Documentation to reduce last-minute audit panic and gives you an early edge.

Files to attach: Optional - last year's audit checklist or sample request list.

3. Policy Draft Assistant

Prompt:
Help me draft an internal policy for expense reimbursements, including approval flow, limits, and common violations to avoid.

Expected Output: A head start on policy documentation to help keep the team compliant.

Files to attach: None needed.

4. Reconciliation Summary

Prompt:
Generate a monthly reconciliation summary that highlights unresolved differences, aging issues, and recurring exceptions, with recommendations for resolution.

Expected Output: An organized summary that makes your reconciliation work leadership-ready.

Files to attach: Optional - general ledger extracts or aging reports.

5. Controls Health Check

Prompt:
Generate a list of 10 questions I can use to evaluate whether our internal controls are working as intended this quarter.

Expected Output: Questions to drive proactive, risk-aware controller leadership.

Files to attach: None needed.

How Nilus helps: Nilus automates reconciliation, flags exceptions, and brings order to the close. Controllers get audit-ready faster—with cleaner books, stronger controls, and fewer surprises. Book a demo today to learn more.

For Accountants

Accountants live at the core of transactional finance. They manage data entry, reconciliations, fixed assets, and the foundational records that power the rest of the org.

These prompts handle recurring tasks with speed and precision, helping accountants catch errors faster, automate documentation, and spend less time in clean-up mode.

1. Accrual Entry Explainer (by Transaction Type)

Prompt:
Explain how to record a journal entry for a vendor prepayment under accrual accounting, including the initial entry and any month-end adjustments.

Expected Output: An explanation of how to enter new or unusual transactions where journal entry logic isn’t obvious

Files to attach: Optional - invoice image and chart of accounts.

2. Month-End Close Issue Finder

Prompt:
What are 10 unusual patterns I should look for when reviewing a trial balance at month-end that could indicate booking or classification errors?

Expected Output: A starting list of where to look when numbers aren’t adding up.

Files to attach: None needed.

3. Month-End Close Bottleneck Plan

Prompt:
Assume I have 3 accountants and 12 close tasks. Help me prioritize which tasks to finish on Day 1 versus which can be deferred to Day 5 without delaying month-end reporting.

Expected Output: A plan to help you adjust for reduced capacity in a given month due to PTO.

Files to attach: None needed.

4. Depreciation Logic Checker

Prompt:
Review this fixed asset’s profile and recommend the appropriate depreciation method: a $15,000 computer server with a 3-year useful life. Justify the choice.

Expected Output: Review or sanity-check depreciation methods with additional critical thinking.

Files to attach: fixed asset profile

5. Audit Prep Mini-Checklist (Self-Service)

Prompt:
Give me a short checklist of the 8 most important things to prepare for a smooth year-end audit as a staff accountant, especially from a documentation and support perspective.

Expected Output: A list of items to set the table for a smooth and successful year-end audit.

Files to Attach: None

How Nilus helps: Nilus takes the manual work out of reconciliation, asset tracking, and close prep. Accountants get clean data, fewer errors, and more time to focus on what actually needs their judgment. Book a demo today to learn more.

Final Thoughts

These prompts aren’t just “fun AI tricks.” They’re real productivity unlocks tailored to the exact jobs finance professionals do daily.

AI chatbots are great options to assist your work, but at Nilus we’re building AI driven treasury management tools tailored to the needs of finance teams. From automated transaction tagging to AI driven forecasting, we’re enabling the next generation of finance teams.

Book a demo today to learn more

Frequently asked questions

1. What strategic decisions can CFOs make more effectively with AI?

AI enables CFOs to move faster on capital allocation, liquidity planning, scenario modeling, and board communications. With real-time access to reconciled data and predictive insights, CFOs can evaluate tradeoffs (like R&D vs. debt paydown) with more clarity. It’s not about replacing judgment, it’s about reducing friction between questions and answers to give more time for strategic thinking.

2. Should finance leaders use ChatGPT or Gemini for their financial prompts?

Generic AI tools are a good starting point, but they weren’t built for the nuance of finance. Prompts often rely on context those models don’t have, like audit rules, treasury constraints, or reporting timelines. That’s why tools like Nilus pair human-centric AI with structured financial data to deliver usable, real answers, not generic advice.

3. How do AI tools like ChatGPT support treasury and cash management decisions?

They help translate fragmented data into working capital insights, faster. Whether you're identifying idle cash, testing debt scenarios, or building variance explanations, AI accelerates the work finance teams already do without waiting for custom spreadsheets or tech tickets. That’s where treasury leaders find real leverage: in speed and accuracy.

4. Are AI-generated insights reliable for strategic financial decision-making?

AI is reliable when paired with source data, context, and review. At Nilus, we see AI as a thinking partner, not a final approver. It should surface questions, catch anomalies, and make the first draft better. The best finance teams use AI to raise the floor on accuracy and free up time for the strategic calls that still require judgment.

5. Do AI prompts for finance require special training or finance-specific models?

Absolutely. Finance work has edge cases, compliance constraints, and timing sensitivities that generic models can miss. That’s why Nilus trains on treasury workflows and finance operations, not just general language. The result is finance-aware outputs (like reconciliations, KPI summaries, and audit checklists) that don’t need rework before they’re useful.