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Working-capital & cash-conversion diagnostic

You want to know whether reported earnings are actually converting to cash.

The prompt — copy and run it

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.

Why this prompt 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.

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Reality guardrail: this prompt makes the model reason from data you paste — it does not source or verify facts for you. Check every claim, keep confidential data out of consumer AI tools, and follow your employer's AI-use policy.

Frequently asked

When should I use this prompt?

You want to know whether reported earnings are actually converting to cash.

Why does this prompt work?

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.

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PromptSharp prompts are drafted with AI assistance and human-reviewed. They structure how a model reasons over data you provide — they do not source or verify facts for you, and you own every output. Nothing here is financial, legal, tax, or investment advice. Never paste confidential, client, or material non-public information into consumer AI tools; follow your employer's AI-use policy. © 2026 PromptSharp.