7 Ways Accountants Can Use ChatGPT [Step-by-Step Tutorial]

Many accountants recognize the potential of AI tools like ChatGPT but feel stuck between curiosity and confusion about how to apply these tools to their daily workflows without risking accuracy or client trust.

This guide walks you through 7 practical, ready-to-use ChatGPT applications specifically designed for accounting professionals, with no technical expertise required. We’ll cover specific prompts and workflows to help you:

• Double-check financial statement accuracy to identify potential errors and concerning trends
• Convert bank statements into CSV files to streamline bookkeeping and minimize data entry errors
• Create concise meeting summaries and client follow-up emails based on call transcripts
• Transform PDF financial statements into table format for Excel analysis
• Research non-accounting topics like Excel formulas without feeling embarrassed to ask basic questions
• Break down complex tax guidance from the IRS into clear, client-specific summaries
• Generate custom charts of accounts tailored to specific business types and accounting software

1. Double-Checking Financial Statement Accuracy

When preparing financial statements for clients, it can be helpful to get an extra pair of eyes on your work. If a colleague is unavailable (or you’d like to save them from this tedious task), you can use ChatGPT instead. 

Of course, without access to the client’s full transaction history for the period, the tool isn’t able to tell you with full certainty if the financial reports are accurate. However, it can be an easy way to double-check your calculations and flag anything that looks too out of the ordinary compared to previous periods. 

On an important security note, by default, the free version of ChatGPT will store any conversations for future training of its AI model. 

To ensure the privacy of confidential financial information, always anonymize data inputs, meaning you remove any specific identifiers like the client’s name or address. You can also adjust the tool’s privacy settings so that your conversations are not used for training purposes. 

Example Prompt to Use

“I’m going to share with you the [financial statement] for this year and the previous year. I want you to pretend that you’re a CPA and tell me whether there are any potential errors, and also tell me whether there is anything about the numbers that gives you cause for concern. Please wait until I provide both financial statements to offer your assessment.” 

What This Looks Like in Action

First, enter the prompt and let ChatGPT know that you’ll have some follow-up information before you need its help. 

After entering the prompt, copy and paste the financial statement for the current and previous years. Here, we used the two most recent years’ income statements for Walmart (which are publicly available). 

With this added context, ChatGPT provided its assessment of the current year’s income statement. Given that these are the finalized financial statements of a publicly traded company, it didn’t identify any errors. 

However, it did highlight some of the outliers and significant changes that may require a closer look from an analysis standpoint. Here’s an example of part of its assessment:

2. Convert Bank Statements into CSVs

If you offer bookkeeping services for clients, you often end up with a bank statement that you need to convert into a CSV file so it can be properly imported into accounting software. 

Rather than have someone on the team complete this time-consuming data entry task by hand, ChatGPT can get the job done in a matter of seconds. 

This provides the dual benefit of keeping staff from tedious work and also minimizing the risk of errors when copying over transaction data by hand. 

Example Prompt to Use

“Here are some lines from a bank statement. I need a CSV of the transactions, with a date column, a details column, amount (positive for paid in, negative for paid out), and balance.”

What This Looks Like in Action

Start off with the bank statement for the period. Here, we’re using a sample bank statement for a hypothetical local bakery:

Enter the prompt into ChatGPT, then copy and paste the text with the transaction details. Again, to maintain client privacy, you’ll want to avoid any sensitive information like the business name, account number, etc. 

ChatGPT provides its output of the transactions in CSV format: 

3. Easier Client Follow-Ups After Meetings

Monthly or quarterly check-ins with clients can cover a broad range of topics, from reviewing recent performance to discussing future deliverables. 

While you can do your best to take notes during the call, it’s hard to catch everything, and it’s possible for certain details to slip through the cracks or be forgotten. 

This is another area where ChatGPT can be of assistance. It can help you avoid needing to make sense of your hand-scribbled notes or sending awkward follow-ups where you need to ask the client what you had talked about on the call. 

To take advantage of this capability, you’ll need to use a call transcription software to generate written logs of your conversations with clients and colleagues. Just make sure to inform participants beforehand if the transcription tool also records the call. 

Using the transcribed call details, ChatGPT can provide a summary of actionable next steps and also help you draft an email to send to clients with this information.  

Example Prompt to Use

“I’m going to provide you with a written transcript of a recent call with a client. Give me a bullet list of helpful things I can send a follow-up email about. Be sure to call out anything I promised I would follow up on. Wait until I provide the transcript in the next message to get started.” 

What This Looks Like in Action

Enter the initial prompt into ChatGPT, which will wait until you provide the call transcript to get to work. 

Then, you can copy and paste the written transcript into the conversation (we’re using a sample call here):

This gave us the following output:

This bulleted list provides a concise summary of what you discussed with the client, without needing to re-read through the entire transcript. 

You can take things one step further and have ChatGPT draft an email to send to the client to confirm the action steps for both parties. Here’s a follow-up prompt you can use, where you identify the most relevant or high-priority items from the prepared list. 

“Create a short follow-up email to send to this client after the check-in call. It should thank the client for their time, and include points [X, X, X, etc].”

Here’s how the email turned out for us:

You can further tweak the email or ask ChatGPT for additional edits before copying and pasting the email to send to the client. 

4. Convert PDF Financial Statements into Table Format for Excel

Similar to converting a bank statement into a CSV file, you can also use ChatGPT to turn a PDF financial statement into a table format. 

This makes it easier to copy and paste the data into a spreadsheet for further financial analysis or import it into a software program. 

Otherwise, you’ll copy the data from the PDF, and it will all be pasted in one cell, which isn’t necessarily helpful. So, you’ll have to spend time transferring over each figure into the spreadsheet before any data analysis. 

It’s a relatively quick and simple prompt, though it can save your team a great deal of time in the long run. 

Example Prompt to Use

“Present this [financial statement] in table format.”

What This Looks Like in Action

Using Walmart again in this example, we can take this PDF of its most recent quarterly and annual income statements. 

Go to ChatGPT and enter the prompt, then paste the text from the PDF. 

And here is the output we received, neatly formatted into a table:

5. Research Non-Accounting-Related Topics

One of the most valuable applications of ChatGPT is to use it as a research assistant. More specifically, it’s a great resource if you need help understanding a non-accounting-related topic that you and others on the team are unfamiliar with. 

For instance, you can probably turn to your colleagues if you have an accounting-specific question. However, if you have a tech-related question or need help understanding how to use a specific Excel formula, ChatGPT can help. 

The benefit of an AI assistant like ChatGPT is that it’s a non-judgmental resource for even the most basic questions. You don’t have to feel embarrassed about not understanding a term you feel like you should have known. 

And, you can continue asking as many follow-up questions as needed, receiving custom responses in terms you can understand.  

Example Prompt to Use

“I don’t know much about [topic]. Explain them to me like I’m 15 years old.”

What This Looks Like in Action

Let’s say we want to know how to use the SUMIFS formula in Excel. We’re hoping to use it to quickly total up client sales data based on certain characteristics, like dates, regions, or product type. 

First, we enter the prompt into ChatGPT, which gives us this initial response: 

It even provides an explanation of why it’s useful: 

If this response still has you puzzled, you can continue asking follow-up questions until you have a better grasp. 

We followed up by asking for further instructions on how to actually use SUMIFS in Excel. Here is part of the response, which provides more explanation on the basic components of the formula:

You can even have it prepare a specific formula for you, based on existing data in a spreadsheet: 

6. Preparing Tax Summaries

For a tax accountant, keeping up with the latest tax code updates and interpreting their impact on different clients can feel daunting. 

With ChatGPT, you essentially have a personal research assistant to help you break down the specifics of new regulations or guidelines from the IRS.

The potential applications here are quite broad. You might use ChatGPT to gain a better understanding of a new ruling, to provide inspiration for a blog post on the topic, or as a way to determine how new guidelines might impact a client’s tax strategy. 

Example Prompt to Use

“I am going to provide you with some tax guidance notes from the IRS. Respond with ‘I have those notes’ once I have sent them and await my next instruction.” 

Follow-up Prompt(s): 

• “Summarize in less than 500 words.”

• “How does this apply to a client in the [industry name] industry?”

• “Provide a bulleted list of the most important takeaways from this publication.”

What This Looks Like in Action

We can use this prompt to identify the key takeaways from the recent IRS Bulletin published on March 24. 

First, enter the prompt: 

Then, we’ll upload a file of the Bulletin (ChatGPT has a limit for the length of a message you can copy and paste into the platform). 

From there, we can ask additional questions to suit our specific needs. Here’s part of the response when asking for a simple summary of the publication: 

We also asked if anything in the publication applies specifically to individual filers, which provided this response: 

7. Create a Custom Chart of Accounts (COA) for Clients

When you’re getting a new client set up in online accounting software, you may want to create a custom chart of accounts that’s specific to their business and the types of transactions they incur. 

Previously, you would need to start from scratch, considering the typical accounts for a business in their industry, the accounting method they use, and the specific subaccounts they need for accurate reporting. 

With ChatGPT, this can be a much more streamlined process. You can provide the AI assistant with details about the client’s business to get a general COA framework, then adjust it as needed so it’s relevant to the specific client. 

Plus, ChatGPT can generate a CSV file so it’s easy to upload into your cloud software system without relying on manual data entry. 

Example Prompt to Use

“Could you generate a table representing a chart of accounts specific to a [Business Type], operating as an [Entity Type] in [Location]. The chart should be compatible with [Cloud Accounting Software Name] and should use the proper Account Type and Detail Type Categories. The table should have columns for Account Name, Account Type, and Detail Type.”

What This Looks Like in Action

Get started by entering the prompt into ChatGPT, customizing it as needed for a specific client. Here’s an example we used:

ChatGPT produced a very thorough chart of accounts, tailored to the specific business type, entity, and location. Here is part of the response: 

This is a good starting point for you to organize the client’s chart of accounts. The more specific details you provide in the prompt, the more relevant the COA will be to your client’s needs.