ChatGPT found a $30k mistake in my files

My files were getting bigger.

Worried one of them was wrong, I gave them to ChatGPT. 20-mins later it found a formula error that had overstated my numbers by $30k.

I've trained 10,000+ finance pros - and a big worry is about hidden risks in their data. So to help you fix this, I’m running this free masterclass with Zenskar. You will see:

• How to reconcile revenue and spot every mis-match (before your auditors)
• How to turn a non-standard contract into an audit-ready ASC 606 schedule
• How to build a CFO close memo from raw data (every number traceable)

Plus, this is only 3 of the 6 use cases you’ll be able to use to automate finance.

So. To stop worrying about your data, and start focusing on where you can add value. Save your free seat here before it’s gone.

Some startups now plan to hit $1B with just 3 people

That means a billion-dollar company. Run by 3 people. [NFX - The 3-Person Unicorn Startup] How? They write down how they work. Then they hand the boring, repeat parts to AI.

Every week I run calls, classes and webinars. Each one makes a transcript, and most tools will capture this.

For two years, I ignored them. But, then I realised. When I explain how I do a task out loud, I'm also writing a how-to guide.

I keep telling finance leaders to scale with AI. But you can't give AI a task if it only lives in your head.

Now, growth isn’t just how but your hiring budget is. It's how much of your work is written down. And how well it can be understood by your team (and by AI).

A CFO in my community recently asked what the best tool is to be able to record and document their processes to make it easier for AI to carry out their tasks.

But today, I’ll show you how to do this, without needing a fancy tool.

A Big Mac is fried for 37 seconds

A 16-year-old starting at McDonalds has never fried a burger before. But the burger they make is the same as one made by a 20-year pro.

They don't hire chefs. They hire beginners. Then they give them a manual that spells out every step. Fry time: 37 seconds. Weight: 1.6 ounces. Even the words to greet you.

Why should a CFO care in 2026? Because AI is the same as a beginner hire.

Think about your month-end close. One person knows the order and the quirks. The "ignore that line, it's always wrong." But none of it is on paper yet. So when they go on holiday, the knowledge goes too. Which means you can't hand it to a junior, or AI.

How you reconcile the intercompany balances might make sense to you.

But when you give it to AI, you’re asking it to make a perfect burger without a recipe.

Creating Your Agent Operating Procedure

The tech world has a name for this now. They call the AI-ready version "Agent Operating Procedures." Write it so a beginner, human or machine, can just follow it.

By the end of this, you can have your tasks written down well enough to give to AI. Or to a new hire.

1. Pick an easy manual task.

Choose one job you repeat every month. Not the hard one. The dull one. The one that eats 30+ minutes and feels beneath you. Start small. That's how you build trust with no risk.

2. Record yourself doing it

Open a Teams or Gemini meeting with just you in it. Share your screen. Say what you click, and why. Doing it in Copilot in Teams (or Gemini) keeps the video and the transcript inside your company. No sensitive data goes to an outside tool. And no need for a fancy tool.

You can also do this with your regular meetings if they contain context, or instructions for doing things.

Just make sure you have recording and transcription enabled.

3. Turn the transcript into a clear guide.

Paste it into your AI. Use my CSI + FBI recipes (you can find the detailed Prompting 101 guide here).

Give it the setting, the exact job, and the output you want. Ask for the steps, the key points for each, and the why. The why is really useful in AI understanding context.

Here's how I do it personally.

1. I keep a Project that already knows my company and my team, so I never waste time re-explaining who does what. This is my digital twin, and you can learn more about creating one here.
2. I narrate the task out loud using voice capture. I drop in a screenshot only where words aren't enough. And get AI to give me a first draft.
3. Then I go through it point by point and give feedback: "no, not like that - like this." And, in ten minutes, I’m done.

One warning: keep it short. A good SOP is clear and simple. If you let AI respond unchecked, you will get pages and pages of text that is unnecessary.

4. Hand it off

Save it as a Skill so AI can run it.

A Skill is a saved set of instructions that you can create in Claude or ChatGPT. You build it once. AI runs it again and again, the same way each time. You can learn more about how to build skills here.

You can also save it as a one-page SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) for a person. Then test it once. Check the work like you would a junior team member. Then improve it. Don’t just accept the first output.

But, before you give any tasks to AI or a person, run it through this quick check.

The AI Task Decision Matrix

The rule of thumb: hand off the low-risk, easy-to-check tasks first. Prove the concept there. Then move up to more complicated tasks.

Plus, it’s even ok for tasks to be half done by AI.

For example, we get a lot of emails. And a lot of them are the same questions. So I ask AI to review a batch of e-mails we’ve replied to, and then create an FAQ. The AI can then answer automatically based on this FAQ, so we can get back to our audience really fast.

But, we don’t do this for client e-mails, or partner e-mails where the e-mail is not transactional. Any conversion that requires more advanced communication and relationship building is still a human.

This is why using your judgement is still really important.

The One Thing To Remember

You don’t always need a bigger hiring budget.

You just need your processes documented clearly enough for any person, or any AI, to be able to follow them.

The future is a mix of human and AI skills.

And you’ll scale much faster with a clear process that makes the most of both of them ;)

Best,

Your AI Finance Expert,

- Nicolas

P.S - The best way to learn from me directly is to join my weekly masterclasses. 60-mins + Q&A where I’ll get all your AI in Finance questions answered. Join me here.

P.P.S - Documented your SOP? Here's how to turn it into a Claude Skill → How To Use Claude Skills For Finance Like a PRO (2026)​

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