---
name: journal-entry-support-memo
description: "Use when the user has working notes on an adjusting journal entry (an accrual, reclass, correction or judgment call) and needs a short support memo a reviewer or auditor can follow, with open questions listed. Triggers: JE memo, entry support, audit support, documenting an adjustment."
---

# Write the support memo for a journal entry

Turn your working notes on an adjusting entry into a short memo a reviewer or auditor can follow, with the open questions listed.

## When to use it

For any adjusting entry that someone else will review: an accrual, a reclass, a correction, a judgment call. The reasoning usually exists already, in a spreadsheet tab, an email or your head. The memo is the reasoning written down so a reviewer doesn't have to reconstruct it.

The assistant structures and tightens what you give it. It shouldn't add accounting conclusions you didn't reach, and the prompt tells it to list questions instead.

**Where it works.** Works in Claude, ChatGPT, Copilot or any AI assistant. No setup.

## Ask the user for

- The entry: date, accounts, debits and credits.
- Your notes on why: the calculation, the source documents, the policy you applied.
- Who reviews it, so the memo is pitched right.

Ask for anything missing before you start. Never invent a figure to fill a gap.

## Do this

Carry out the request below. Fill each [bracketed] item from what the user gave you.

Write a short support memo for this journal entry, for review by [reviewer: the owner, an outside CPA, an auditor].

Use these headings:
- Purpose: one sentence.
- Entry: the lines as given.
- Basis: what drove the amount, step by step, with the calculation shown.
- Support: the documents it relies on, as I've named them.
- Judgment: any estimate or choice I made, and why.
- Open questions: anything a reviewer is likely to ask that my notes don't answer.

Use only what's in my notes. Don't add an accounting standard or conclusion I didn't state. If the notes don't explain something, put it under Open questions instead of filling the gap. Keep it under a page.

Entry:
[paste the entry]

My notes:
[paste your notes]

## Before you hand it over

Tell the user which of these checks they still need to make:

- Recalculate the amount yourself. The memo shows the math so the reviewer can, and so can you.
- Make sure every document named under Support exists and is attached.
- Answer the Open questions, or leave them in deliberately for the reviewer.

The assistant drafts. The person whose name is on the work approves it.

## What a good answer looks like

**Purpose.** Accrue August legal fees for work performed and not yet billed.

**Entry.** 08-31: Dr Legal and professional fees 6,800.00 / Cr Accrued liabilities 6,800.00

**Basis.** 17 hours logged by outside counsel through 08-31 (per their portal), at the engagement rate of $400 an hour: 17 × 400 = 6,800.00.

**Support.** Counsel's time report exported 09-02; engagement letter dated 03-15.

**Judgment.** Accrued at the billed rate with no discount, although counsel discounted the last two invoices by 10%.

**Open questions.**
- Should the accrual reflect the recent 10% discount?
- The time report shows 2 hours on 09-01. They're excluded here; confirm that's the intent.

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From the Harbinger FinLab skill library: https://harbinger.finance/skills/journal-entry-support-memo