Paste a raw bank transaction export into ChatGPT and get back a categorised cash flow dashboard — operating, investing, and financing totals by week, plus a runway calculation, in minutes instead of hours.
ROLE You are a treasury analyst building a weekly cash flow dashboard in Excel. OBJECTIVE Take a bank transaction export and produce a categorised cash flow dashboard with weekly columns, a monthly summary, and a runway calculation. DATA Opening cash balance as of [date]: $[amount] Date format: DD/MM/YYYY Week definition: [Monday–Sunday / Monday–Friday] Transactions (columns: Date, Description, Amount, Reference): [Paste your bank transactions here] CATEGORISATION RULES Assign each transaction to exactly one category: - OPERATING INFLOW: customer payments, refunds received, interest earned - OPERATING OUTFLOW: supplier payments, payroll, rent, utilities, insurance, tax, professional fees - INVESTING: equipment/asset purchases, asset sales, software purchases, security deposits - FINANCING: loan drawdowns, loan repayments, equity injections, dividends, line of credit - INTERNAL TRANSFER: movements between the company's own bank accounts - UNCATEGORISED: anything you cannot classify with confidence — flag these, do not guess CONSTRAINTS - Do NOT guess categories for ambiguous transactions — mark them UNCATEGORISED and flag for review. - Do NOT fabricate transaction amounts or descriptions. - Internal transfers must NOT appear in Operating, Investing, or Financing totals. - Every transaction must appear in exactly one category. No double-counting. OUTPUT FORMAT 1. TRANSACTION LOG: Date | Description | Amount | Reference | Category 2. WEEKLY DASHBOARD: Rows grouped by category (Operating Inflows, Operating Outflows, Net Operating, Investing, Financing, Net Cash Change, Closing Balance). One column per week. 3. MONTHLY SUMMARY: Same structure, one column for the full month. 4. RUNWAY: Current cash balance ÷ average weekly net burn (trailing 4 weeks). 5. FLAGGED ITEMS: All UNCATEGORISED and INTERNAL TRANSFER transactions. Format as tab-separated tables I can paste directly into Excel.
Replace all bracketed sections with your real data, then paste the prompt into ChatGPT.
My cash flow dashboard's Operating totals look inflated. I suspect internal transfers between our own bank accounts are being counted as real cash flow. Here are the flagged transactions and their current category: [Paste: Date, Description, Amount, Reference, Current Category] Please identify which of these are internal transfers between our own accounts (not real inflows or outflows), re-categorise them as INTERNAL TRANSFER, and recalculate the weekly Operating, Investing, and Financing totals with those transfers excluded.
Moving cash between your own accounts is a reclassification, not a cash flow — it inflates both Operating Inflow and Outflow if miscategorised.
Calculate my cash runway from the following weekly Net Cash Change figures. Current cash balance: $[amount] Weekly Net Cash Change for the trailing [4-8] weeks: [Paste: Week label and Net Cash Change for each week] Please calculate the average weekly net burn (or net gain) across these weeks, then divide the current cash balance by that average to estimate weeks of runway. If the average is positive (cash is growing), say so explicitly instead of forcing a runway number.
Use 4-8 weeks of trailing data — a single volatile week (e.g. a payroll week) will distort a one-week runway estimate.
| A | B | C | D | E | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Date | Description | Amount | Reference | Category |
| 2 | 03/06/2026 | Customer payments | +$29,000 | DEP-1082 | Uncategorised |
| 3 | 05/06/2026 | Payroll run | −$32,000 | PAY-0605 | Uncategorised |
| 4 | 06/06/2026 | Supplier invoices | −$18,000 | AP-771 | Uncategorised |
| 5 | 07/06/2026 | Transfer to savings | −$50,000 | INT-552 | Uncategorised |
| A | B | C | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Weekly Cash Dashboard | Wk 1 | Source |
| 2 | Operating Inflows | +$29,000 | Customer payments |
| 3 | Operating Outflows | −$50,000 | Payroll + suppliers |
| 4 | Net Operating | −$21,000 | |
| 5 | Investing / Financing | $0 | |
| 6 | Net external cash change | −$21,000 | Transfers excluded |
| 7 | Opening consolidated cash | $500,000 | |
| 8 | Closing consolidated cash | $479,000 | $500k − $21k |
| 9 | Internal transfer | −$50,000 | Excluded from consolidated flow |
Operating inflow: +$29,000 Operating outflows: −$32,000 − $18,000 = −$50,000 Net operating / external cash change = −$21,000 Closing consolidated cash: $500,000 − $21,000 = $479,000 ✓ The $50,000 transfer is excluded only because both company accounts are part of the consolidated cash view.
Bank exports often include "Opening Balance", "Closing Balance", and "Total Debits" rows. Delete them. ChatGPT should see only individual transactions — one row, one cash movement.
Positive = cash in. Negative = cash out. If your bank uses separate debit and credit columns, consolidate into a single Amount column before pasting, and tell ChatGPT which convention you're using.
ChatGPT needs a starting point. State it clearly: Opening cash balance as of 01/06/2025: $500,000. Without this, the Closing Balance row is meaningless.
Monday-to-Sunday or Monday-to-Friday? Some teams use the calendar week, others the working week. Tell ChatGPT so the groupings match how your team already thinks about cash.
Movements between your own bank accounts are not real cash flow — they're a reclassification. Left uncategorised, they inflate both Operating Inflow and Outflow and distort your burn rate.