---
name: owner-monthly-summary
description: "Use when the monthly financials are final and the user needs the one-page summary a business owner will read: what happened, what it means for cash, and the one decision in front of them. Triggers: owner summary, monthly client email, financials cover note, month-end recap."
---

# Turn the monthly financials into a one-page owner summary

Write the one page a business owner will actually read: what happened, what it means for cash, and the one decision in front of them.

## When to use it

After the close, when the statements are final and you owe the client something they'll read. Most owners don't read a P&L. They read the email you send with it. This prompt drafts that email from the statements, in the order an owner cares about: cash, then profit, then what to do.

It works best when you tell it what the owner already worries about, because that's what the summary should answer first.

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

## Ask the user for

- The income statement and balance sheet for the month, with the prior month or prior year beside them.
- The cash balance and anything known about the next 60 days of cash.
- What the owner is focused on right now (hiring, a loan, a slow season).

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 one-page monthly summary for the owner of [kind of business]. They're not an accountant. Right now they're focused on [their current concern].

From the statements below, write:
1. The headline: one sentence on how the month went, with the one number that proves it.
2. Cash: where cash ended, why it moved, and whether the next 60 days look tight, using only what I've told you about upcoming cash.
3. Profit: revenue, gross margin and net income against [prior month / prior year], with the main reason for each change.
4. One thing to decide or watch, connected to their current concern.

Plain English, no jargon, no more than 300 words. Use numbers from the statements only, and don't calculate anything you can't show from them. If something they'd want to know isn't in the data, say what I'd need to add.

Statements:
[paste]

Known upcoming cash:
[paste]

## Before you hand it over

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

- Tie every number to the statements.
- Check any explanation of *why* against what you know. The assistant infers causes from movements, and it can be wrong.
- Make sure the recommendation is yours. Edit it until you’d sign it.

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

## What a good answer looks like

**August was the best revenue month of the year, and cash still fell.** Revenue was $186,400, up 12% on July.

**Cash** ended at $94,200, down $21,800. Customers are paying more slowly: receivables grew by $28,000 as August's larger invoices went out late in the month. The quarterly tax payment of $18,000 goes out on 09-15, so September starts tighter than the revenue suggests.

**Profit.** Gross margin was 41%, up from 38%, because the higher-margin service line was a bigger share of sales. Net income was $22,300, against $14,900 in July.

**To decide.** You asked about hiring a second technician in October. The margin supports it; cash is the constraint. If the $28,000 in receivables comes in by mid-September, the hire is affordable. It's worth calling the two largest open accounts this week.

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From the Harbinger FinLab skill library: https://harbinger.finance/skills/owner-monthly-summary