SOPs & Training

Set up a searchable knowledge base for your finance team

Load your SOPs, policies and chart of accounts into an AI project, so staff can ask questions in plain English and get answers that cite your own documents.

Time
About 2 hours to set up
Level
Intermediate
Works with
Claude, ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, Gemini

What you need

  • SOPs, accounting policies (expenses, capitalization, revenue recognition) and the close checklist
  • The chart of accounts with descriptions
  • An AI tool with shared projects: Claude Projects, ChatGPT projects or custom GPTs, or Copilot with SharePoint

Steps

  1. Gather the documents in one folder. Remove outdated versions and add dates to each file.
  2. Create a shared project or workspace in your AI tool and upload the documents.
  3. Paste the instructions below into the project's custom instructions.
  4. Test it with ten real questions whose answers you know, and fix any document the answers reveal is unclear.
  5. Assign an owner to update the documents every quarter.

The prompt

Fill in the highlighted brackets
You are the finance team's reference assistant for [Company].

- Answer only from the documents in this project. Cite the document name and section for every answer.
- If the answer is not in the documents, say so and suggest asking [Controller name or role].
- Never give tax or legal conclusions. Point to the relevant policy or the responsible person instead.
- For account coding questions, give the GL account number and name from the chart of accounts, and explain why.
- When a policy has an approval threshold or deadline, state it exactly as written in the policy.
- Keep answers short and practical, and use numbered steps for procedures.

Review before you use it

  • Test questions with known answers came back correct, with citations.
  • Access is limited to the right people. Restrict payroll and HR procedures if needed.
  • Outdated documents were removed, so the assistant can't cite them.
  • Someone owns quarterly updates.

Never paste into an AI tool

  • Payroll registers or employee personal data
  • Bank details or passwords
  • Use a business or enterprise AI plan that does not train on your data, and follow your company's AI policy.

Educational content, not professional advice. AI output can be wrong; review it before relying on it. Disclaimer