Practical · 7 min read
Using AI to survive your annual admin
Year end, audits, policies and the paperwork nobody wants to do
AI is most useful on the admin around compliance rather than compliance itself: building document checklists, drafting policies, turning your accountant's requests into a plan, and rehearsing what you will be asked. The submissions themselves belong with a registered practitioner.
Who this is for: Owners facing year end, a verification, or a pile of policies they have been avoiding.
Turn the request list into a plan
Your accountant sends a list of what they need. Paste the list (not the documents) and ask for it to be turned into a sequenced plan with who does what and how long each takes.
Try this prompt
Turn this list of documents my accountant needs for year end into a practical checklist, grouped by where I would find each one (bank, filing cabinet, accounting system, staff), with the quickest ones first: [paste list].
Draft the policies you keep postponing
Leave policy, disciplinary code, IT and AI use policy, petty cash rules. Ask for a draft against South African law, then have it checked. A checked draft is far cheaper than a document written from scratch.
Try this prompt
Draft a one-page acceptable use policy for AI tools for a small South African business, covering approved tools, what may never be entered, and who to ask. Plain English, suitable for staff who are not technical.
Understand a SARS letter before you panic
Remove the reference numbers and personal details, then ask what it means and what the deadline implies. Then phone your accountant, knowing what you are talking about.
Try this prompt
Explain in plain English what this type of SARS letter means, what the deadline usually is, and what is normally required in response. I have removed the personal details: [paste the redacted body].
Rehearse the conversation
Before a bank meeting, a verification or a difficult staff discussion, ask the AI to play the other side and push back hard. It is a surprisingly effective way to find out which answers you have not thought through.
Try this prompt
Play the role of a sceptical bank manager. I am asking for [purpose]. Interview me, one question at a time, and do not accept a vague answer.
Before you do this
- Redact before you paste: reference numbers, tax numbers and names come out first.
- A drafted policy is a draft. Employment documents that have never been checked are the ones that fail at the CCMA.
Read next: What you must never paste into an AI chatbot · Prompts that actually work for a business owner
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