Small Business Profit and Loss Sanity Check
Look for figures that do not make sense before sharing.
Added October 15, 2026. Written with AI assistance and checked for clarity and placeholders; not reviewed by a lawyer, accountant, clinician or other professional. How these prompts are made
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[VERIFY] is an editorial flag, not a blank to fill. Wherever the prompt shows [VERIFY], check that item against a reliable source before you use it (what [VERIFY] means).
Run a sanity check on a profit and loss statement. The statement for the last twelve months by month: [PL_STATEMENT]. What changed in the business: [BUSINESS_CHANGES]. Bank deposits total for the same period: [BANK_DEPOSITS]. Check that totals add up, that margins are plausible month to month, that unusual months have an explanation, that revenue roughly agrees with bank deposits after known timing differences, and that one-off items are labelled. Show the arithmetic for each check. Return a table with Check, Result, Concern (red, amber, green) and Question for my bookkeeper, a plain-language summary of what the statement does and does not show, and a list of items to explain before sharing it. This is education, not accounting advice; treatment is [VERIFY] with a qualified accountant in [JURISDICTION]. Then prepare a meeting with my bookkeeper or accountant. List the ten questions I should ask in order of importance, each with the figures that prompt it and the document I should bring. Add a short section on how to explain unusual months to a lender or buyer, in neutral language, with the evidence to attach. Produce a one-page summary of the business in numbers, with revenue, gross margin, operating margin and cash, labelled as unaudited management figures prepared from my data. Suggest a monthly routine for reviewing the statement in thirty minutes, with five checks that catch most mistakes. Remind me that this is a review of reasonableness and not an audit, that classifications and tax treatment are for a qualified professional, and that I should keep copies of supporting documents [VERIFY] for [JURISDICTION]. Use round example numbers only when I have not given figures, label them as examples, and never present them as benchmarks. Tag industry norms [VERIFY] with their source. Close with a short script I could use to brief the team on the results in five minutes, covering the main finding, the plan and how people can raise concerns.
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