# Monthly P&L Advisory Letter

Turns a monthly P&L into a one-page plain-English letter for the client. Use it when the financial package goes out and you want commentary instead of bare statements.

## Prompt

## Context
You are drafting a monthly advisory letter for an accountant who serves small businesses. The client runs a [CLIENT BUSINESS TYPE]. The client skims, does not know accounting terms, and pays for insight, not statements. The letter goes out with the monthly financial package. The accountant will edit and sign it — every conclusion must be one the accountant can defend as their own.

## Task
Write a one-page advisory letter that turns this P&L into plain English. Cover, in order:
1. How the month went, in one sentence.
2. Revenue against [PRIOR PERIOD COMPARISON] and what drove the change.
3. The two or three expense lines that moved most, with the dollar impact.
4. Net income and the margin, stated as cents kept per revenue dollar.
5. One specific action the owner should take this month. Address this issue directly: [ONE ISSUE TO ADDRESS].

P&L summary for [PERIOD]:
[P&L SUMMARY]

## Standards
- 250 to 350 words. Short paragraphs under bold sub-heads.
- Translate every accounting term the first time it appears. Say what net income means before using the phrase.
- Use the client's actual numbers. Do not round so far a figure changes meaning.
- No praise padding. State what happened and what to do.
- Tone: [TONE NOTE].
- Flag any figure you computed yourself (percentages, differences) so the accountant can recheck it.
- End with one question that opens a conversation, not a pitch.
If any figure in the summary is unclear, missing, or contradicts another, ask before writing.

## Variables

- [CLIENT BUSINESS TYPE]
- [PRIOR PERIOD COMPARISON]
- [ONE ISSUE TO ADDRESS]
- [PERIOD]
- [P&L SUMMARY]
- [TONE NOTE]

## Input checklist

- [ ] Final P&L for the period — closed books, not a draft with pending entries
- [ ] Prior-period or prior-year P&L for the comparison
- [ ] One issue you already know you want raised (pricing, a cost creep, a tax move)
- [ ] Anonymize the client name and any identifying details, or confirm your AI tool is approved under your firm's confidentiality policy before pasting financials
- [ ] A note on the client's reading style — blunt, gentle, detail-hungry

## Verification checklist

- [ ] Recompute every percentage and dollar difference in your workpapers or a spreadsheet — AI arithmetic is unreliable
- [ ] Check each cause claim: did the AI invent a reason for a variance, or does it match what you know from the GL detail?
- [ ] Confirm the action item is one you would recommend yourself — the letter carries your professional judgment, not the AI's
- [ ] Verify no accounting jargon slipped through untranslated
- [ ] Confirm the margin figure matches your closed trial balance, not a rounded restatement
- [ ] Read it as the client: does anything sound like blame or a sales pitch?

## Sample output

Sample output — AI-generated from sample inputs:

**How May went**
May was your strongest month this year. Revenue hit $48,200, up 12% from April, and you kept $6,940 of it as profit.

**Where the money came from**
Wedding bookings drove the gain. Event revenue rose $5,100 over April. Corporate lunch orders held flat near $9,000.

**What it cost you**
Food costs rose with revenue, which is normal. But they rose faster — 34% of sales in May against 31% in April. That three-point slide cost about $1,450 [recheck: computed]. Worth a look at supplier invoices before June events are quoted. Two other lines moved: the $1,200 van repair (one-time) and overtime running $800 above usual.

**Bottom line**
Net income — what the business earned after every cost — was $6,940, or 14 cents of each revenue dollar. April was 16 cents. Good month, slightly thinner margin.

**One thing to do this month**
Re-check per-plate pricing on summer weddings against current food costs. Quotes made in March used January prices.

Is there a week in June we can spend 30 minutes on summer pricing?

## Customization notes

Set [TONE NOTE] per client — a contractor who likes it blunt gets a different letter than an anxious first-year owner. For clients on cash-basis books, swap the net income framing for cash kept. If you send this quarterly instead of monthly, raise the word cap in Standards and add a trend paragraph.

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From The Accountant & Bookkeeper Advisory Library — vetslearn.com/libraries/accountant