Turn a PTA's bank exports into year-end charity accounts in four minutes with Claude

Posted

Jun 11, 2026 by Pete Hickerton (LinkedIn)

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Last checked

Oct 19, 2026

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Method:

How we verify

Evidence: Described by posterThe person describes what happened in words, without screenshots or video.

Beginner-friendlyNo logins, payments or coding needed. Low risk: paste the prompt and you should get something useful.

Outcome

Pete Hickerton, chair of their school's PTA, wanted to save the treasurer an evening on the year-end accounts. The job meant exporting bank transactions, categorising everything, reconciling and formatting it for the Charity Commission. They gave the bank exports to Claude, and four minutes later had a set of accounts ready to upload. Claude explained what it had done, flagged where it had checked the formulas and showed the reconciliation. Hickerton and the treasurer went through it looking for errors and found none.

Agent

Claude

The source didn't share its exact prompt, so we wrote this from what it describes.

Run this task now, exactly as written below. Everything you need is here, so start straight away and only stop if something required is missing or a rule below tells you to.

Goal: Turn our small group's bank transactions into simple year-end accounts we can file.

Fill in before running:
- Bank exports for the year (CSV or PDF): [UPLOAD]
- Our income and spending categories, or last year's accounts: [CATEGORIES]
- Who we file with and their format or form: [REGULATOR]

Two people should review the accounts before filing; the treasurer remains responsible for them.

Rules:
- Categorise every transaction and list any you're unsure of.
- Reconcile to the opening and closing bank balances, and show the check.
- Lay it out in the format the regulator asks for, with a link to its guidance.
- Explain each step so two of us can check it before filing.
- Check facts that can change (prices, opening hours, dates, availability, rules) against the official source, and tell me anything you couldn't verify.

Output: A finished set of accounts, the reconciliation and a list of items to double-check.

You'll know it worked when: The treasurer and I check it, find nothing wrong and file it.

Run this task now, exactly as written below. Everything you need is here, so start straight away and only stop if something required is missing or a rule below tells you to.

Goal: Turn our small group's bank transactions into simple year-end accounts we can file.

Fill in before running:
- Bank exports for the year (CSV or PDF): [UPLOAD]
- Our income and spending categories, or last year's accounts: [CATEGORIES]
- Who we file with and their format or form: [REGULATOR]

Two people should review the accounts before filing; the treasurer remains responsible for them.

Rules:
- Categorise every transaction and list any you're unsure of.
- Reconcile to the opening and closing bank balances, and show the check.
- Lay it out in the format the regulator asks for, with a link to its guidance.
- Explain each step so two of us can check it before filing.
- Check facts that can change (prices, opening hours, dates, availability, rules) against the official source, and tell me anything you couldn't verify.

Output: A finished set of accounts, the reconciliation and a list of items to double-check.

You'll know it worked when: The treasurer and I check it, find nothing wrong and file it.

Run this task now, exactly as written below. Everything you need is here, so start straight away and only stop if something required is missing or a rule below tells you to.

Goal: Turn our small group's bank transactions into simple year-end accounts we can file.

Fill in before running:
- Bank exports for the year (CSV or PDF): [UPLOAD]
- Our income and spending categories, or last year's accounts: [CATEGORIES]
- Who we file with and their format or form: [REGULATOR]

Two people should review the accounts before filing; the treasurer remains responsible for them. You're not our accountant: flag anything that needs an accountant's or the regulator's view.

Rules:
- Categorise every transaction and list any you're unsure of.
- Reconcile to the opening and closing bank balances, and show the check.
- Lay it out in the format the regulator asks for, with a link to its guidance.
- Explain each step so two of us can check it before filing.
- Check facts that can change (prices, opening hours, dates, availability, rules) against the official source, and tell me anything you couldn't verify.

Output: A finished set of accounts, the reconciliation and a list of items to double-check.

You'll know it worked when: The treasurer and I check it, find nothing wrong and file it.

Before you finish: re-read my goal and constraints, check your answer against each one, and list anything you assumed or couldn't confirm.

Source

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/petehickerton_our-pta-treasurer-was-about-to-lose-an-evening-activity-7470829883548549120-OTsS