Ask the AI to poke holes in your cash-flow forecast, not to write it

Don't ask an AI to produce your cash-flow forecast. It'll give you numbers, and you won't be able to say where any of them came from.

What it's good at is the second look. You've been staring at your own model for a week and you've stopped seeing it. A reviewer who hasn't might notice a quarter where VAT isn't in, or a customer you've got paying in 20 days when your own history says 45. It can only catch that last one if you give it the history, so paste a short summary of how long your biggest customers really take.

You're a sceptical finance reviewer. Below are the assumptions behind my
cash-flow forecast, the monthly figures from my own model, and how long
my biggest customers have taken to pay in the past.
Review the assumptions. Use the figures only to see where cash gets
tight. Tell me:
1. Where the timing looks optimistic compared with the payment history.
2. What's missing that I'd normally expect for [TYPE OF ORGANISATION]:
   VAT and payroll tax dates, annual renewals, bonuses, equipment.
3. Any month where cash gets tight and the assumptions are doing all
   the work.
Don't recalculate anything and don't suggest new figures.

Assumptions: [PASTE]
Monthly figures: [PASTE]
Payment history: [PASTE A SUMMARY]

"Don't recalculate" is there so that invented numbers don't creep into your forecast. It won't guarantee it, so check that nothing in the reply is a figure you didn't give it.

Treat everything it flags as a reason to go and look at your own data. Some of it will be wrong, because it doesn't know your customers. When the forecast is going in front of someone senior, the sceptical finance director tip gets you the questions you'll be asked.

Keep customer names out unless the tool is approved for that data, and lock the numbers first so what you're reviewing doesn't move halfway through.