PromptSharp › Daily briefs › Finance › August 21, 2026

Finance prompt of the day

August 21, 2026 · for Investment banking, sales & trading, equity research, FP&A. One sharp, copy-paste prompt — free, every weekday.

You are a forensic-minded analyst assessing earnings quality for [COMPANY]. I will paste the relevant financials. Produce:
1. A cash-conversion read: how does net income compare to operating and free cash flow over the periods provided, in a TABLE, and what explains the gap?
2. A working-capital analysis: DSO, DIO, DPO and the cash-conversion cycle trend, flagging deterioration.
3. Accruals and one-time items that may be inflating reported earnings.
4. The 3 signals most worth watching for an earnings-quality problem, and what to verify in the filing.
Use only figures I provide; write "not provided" for any metric I did not give and never estimate cash flows.

Rules: Do not invent, estimate, or extrapolate any figure — if a number is not in what I give you, write "not provided" and flag it. Mark every claim I should verify externally before relying on it. Never use, infer, or request material non-public information (MNPI) or client-confidential data.

How to run “Working-capital & cash-conversion diagnostic”, step by step

The situation this prompt is built for: You want to know whether reported earnings are actually converting to cash. Below is exactly what to feed it and what comes back — no model-specific tricks, it runs the same in any chat AI.

What each placeholder does

Demo profile for the example fills: an equity research associate on a mid-cap sector coverage team, working in Excel, a chat AI model, and your firm's data terminal. Swap in your own context — or save it once at /profile and copied prompts arrive pre-filled.

• [COMPANY] — this is the input the whole output quality hangs on. Demo fill: what you sell in one plain sentence, plus who buys it. Leave it vague and the model pads with boilerplate; make it concrete and every section downstream sharpens.

What the model hands back

The prompt forces a fixed deliverable shape, so you get a document, not a ramble:

1. A cash-conversion read: how does net income compare to operating and free cash flow over the periods provided, in a TABLE, and what explains the gap?
2. A working-capital analysis: DSO, DIO, DPO and the cash-conversion cycle trend, flagging deterioration.
3. Accruals and one-time items that may be inflating reported earnings.
4. The 3 signals most worth watching for an earnings-quality problem, and what to verify in the filing.

Why this structure works

Earnings quality shows up in cash conversion and the working-capital cycle long before it shows up in headlines; a structured accruals/conversion diagnostic is a classic tell that separates real earnings from managed ones.

On Pro, the cash-conversion benchmarks and working-capital norms are tuned to your sector's typical cycle from your profile, so a 'deteriorating' flag reflects the right baseline.

When to use it — and when not to

Reach for it when

• You want to know whether reported earnings are actually converting to cash.
• You can actually supply the inputs it asks for ([COMPANY]) — this prompt is an amplifier for real context, not a substitute for it.
• You need the output in a shape you can forward as-is — the fixed structure above is the point.

Skip it when

• You don’t yet have the source material — the prompt is built to refuse to fake it. Its own guardrail: “Do not invent, estimate, or extrapolate any figure — if a number is not in what I give you, write "not provided" and flag it.” With nothing to work from, you’ll get a list of “not provided” flags, which is honest but not useful. Collect the inputs first.
• The task is genuinely one sentence long — a structured prompt earns its overhead when the output has parts. For quick one-off questions, just ask.

Adapting today’s prompt for adjacent roles

“Working-capital & cash-conversion diagnostic” sits in the Financial Analysis & Modeling lane of the finance pool. If your seat is one desk over, these are the same craft-move rebuilt for the neighbouring workflow — pulled from the same curated pool, each free in full at its permalink:

You are an IB associate drafting marketing materials for [TARGET]. I will paste the key facts/data pack. Produce: 1. A CIM OUTLINE with numbered sections (Executive…

You are a macro strategist writing a cross-asset read. I will paste the current levels/moves across [rates, equities, credit, FX, commodities]. Produce: 1. A…

You are a risk-aware PM reviewing whether and how big to size [TICKER] in a portfolio I describe [current positions/factor/sector exposures, mandate, risk limits].…

Common failure modes (and the fixes)

• Failure: letting the model drift past the prompt’s own guardrail — “Do not invent, estimate, or extrapolate any figure — if a number is not in what I give you, write "not provided" and flag it.” Fix: keep that line in when you edit the prompt; it exists because this is exactly where outputs go wrong without it.
• Failure: letting the model drift past the prompt’s own guardrail — “Mark every claim I should verify externally before relying on it.” Fix: keep that line in when you edit the prompt; it exists because this is exactly where outputs go wrong without it.
• Failure: letting the model drift past the prompt’s own guardrail — “Never use, infer, or request material non-public information (MNPI) or client-confidential data.” Fix: keep that line in when you edit the prompt; it exists because this is exactly where outputs go wrong without it.
• Failure: filling [COMPANY] with a vague summary. The output can only be as specific as this input — generic context in, generic deliverable out. Fix: paste raw specifics (real names, real numbers, real constraints), then trim the model’s output, not your input.
• Failure: accepting the first pass. Fix: reply with one line — “now cut everything that is generic to any company and keep only what is specific to mine” — the cheapest quality doubling available.

Quick answers

Is “Working-capital & cash-conversion diagnostic” free to use?

Yes — every weekday issue of the PromptSharp Finance publishes one full pool prompt free on the web, and it stays free in the archive. Pro is the daily full prompt set, personalization, and MCP delivery — not a paywall on this page.

Which AI model does this prompt work with?

Any of them. Every PromptSharp prompt is model-agnostic plain text — ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Copilot, or a local model. No plugins, no custom GPTs; paste and run.

How is the finance prompt of the day chosen?

Deterministic rotation over the curated finance pool — currently 75 prompts across 5 sections — the same single source the paid brief reads. Same date, same prompt: the archive never silently changes under you.

What goes in the [BRACKETED] placeholders?

Your context — the walkthrough above covers each one. The short rule: the more concrete the fill (real names, numbers, constraints), the sharper the output. Save your details once at /profile and web copies arrive pre-filled.

How do I get this in my inbox instead?

The capture form above — PromptSharp Finance status is honest: live briefs send every weekday; pre-launch verticals email their free list the day the email edition starts.

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