MONTHLY INVOICE RECONCILIATION
Schedule: 15th of every month at 9:00 am

Before using this prompt:
1. Connect Gmail to ChatGPT.
2. Give ChatGPT Work/Codex access to the folder containing your invoices.
3. Replace both folder placeholders below with your real folder locations.
4. Paste this into Scheduled > Work and set it to run monthly.
5. Review the first run carefully.

COPY-AND-PASTE PROMPT

On the 15th of each month, reconcile invoices for the most recently completed accounting period, where each accounting period runs from the 21st of one month through the 20th of the next month.

First, scan all invoice files already present under <YOUR ACCOUNTS PAYABLE FOLDER>, including overdue, due-month, and paid-archive folders. Extract or infer the vendor, invoice number, invoice date, due date, amount, and paid/unpaid status. Do not pay invoices, approve payments, delete files, or take any other financial action.

Then search my connected Gmail account for genuine invoice or bill emails that may belong to that accounting period. Search with a reasonable date buffer around the period because an invoice may be emailed after its invoice date. Inspect the email and attachment rather than relying only on the subject. Exclude statements, quotes, purchase orders, promotions, unrelated attachments, and receipts that are clearly already paid unless they are needed to identify a missing invoice.

Compare the Gmail candidates with the files already in <YOUR ACCOUNTS PAYABLE FOLDER> using the vendor, invoice number, amount, and invoice date. Download only missing invoice attachments. Save each missing unpaid invoice into the appropriate existing due-month folder, creating a <YYYY-MM>_Due folder only if needed. Use the filename format "Invoice - YYYY-MM-DD - Vendor - Invoice Number - UNPAID.ext" and never overwrite an existing file.

Put anything uncertain in <YOUR NEEDS REVIEW FOLDER> and clearly flag it. Do not reply to senders, archive messages, alter mailbox labels, or pay anything.

At the end, email me with the subject "Monthly invoice reconciliation complete — <period start> to <period end>". Include the number already found locally, downloaded from Gmail, skipped as duplicates, and sent for review. List the vendors, invoice numbers, due dates, and amounts, and highlight anything overdue or due within 14 days. Also post the same concise summary back to this task.

IMPORTANT
AI can misread invoices or payment status. Check the summary against your accounting system and bank records before paying anything. Depending on your permissions, ChatGPT may ask you to approve downloading attachments or sending the summary email.

Free resource from Josh Byford-Pothan
https://go.joshbyfordpothan.com/farm-admin-prompt/