How to effectively learn AI Prompting, with the 'AI for Vice Presidents of Finance (Prompt Course)'?

Start Here: Make AI an Everyday Finance Advantage for VPs of Finance

This course helps Vice Presidents of Finance integrate practical AI prompting into daily decision-making across planning, analysis, reporting, and communication. It shows how to use AI consistently and safely to shorten turnaround times, increase analytical depth, and improve clarity with stakeholders-all without replacing rigorous judgment, governance, and controls.

What this course covers

The curriculum spans the full finance portfolio so you can apply AI where it has the highest return in your role. Modules include industry and competitive analysis, budgeting, investment analysis, cash flow management, financial reporting, debt and treasury, tax strategy, M&A, currency and exchange risk, employee compensation plans, capital expenditure planning, audit preparation, risk management, performance metrics, and stakeholder communication.

Each area provides prompt frameworks that map to common VP Finance responsibilities: building analyses from incomplete inputs, running scenarios, validating figures, drafting summaries, and translating numbers into actions and narratives. The modules are meant to be combined across workflows so the outputs of one area feed the next.

How you will work with the prompts

Rather than offering one-off tricks, the course focuses on repeatable steps that you can standardize across your team. You will learn how to:

• Frame the assistant with role, objective, constraints, and success criteria so outputs align with executive-level expectations.
• Feed structured data (headings, bullet lists, CSV summaries) to reduce ambiguity and enable consistent formatting on output.
• Request transparent assumptions, sensitivity bands, and reconciliation checks to support auditability and internal review.
• Iterate with quick refinement loops: ask for clarifications, side-by-side comparisons, and alternative viewpoints.
• Create templates that your team can reuse, ensuring consistent analysis while still allowing for business-specific nuances.
• Direct the assistant to produce deliverables ready for spreadsheets, BI tools, and presentation decks.
• Control scope: define what to do, what to exclude, and what to flag for human follow-up.

Key outcomes for finance leaders

• Faster cycle times: Move from question to draft analysis in minutes, then spend your time validating and deciding.
• Better scenario thinking: Prompt for alternative cases, drivers, and trade-offs to surface hidden risks and opportunities.
• Stronger governance: Embed checks, variance explanations, and version notes into every output.
• Clearer communication: Convert technical findings into board-ready talking points and visuals specifications.
• Team enablement: Equip analysts and managers with shared prompt playbooks that keep work consistent and reviewable.

How the modules connect as a cohesive course

The course is structured to mirror how a VP of Finance steers the business through the year, with each module informing the next:

• Industry and competitive analysis set the context for budgeting and investment priorities.
• Budget analysis and performance metrics inform cash flow planning, capex, and resource allocation.
• Investment analysis links to funding choices-debt management, equity considerations, and currency exposure.
• Tax strategy and entity structuring influence cash timing, effective rates, and M&A modeling.
• M&A prompts connect due diligence findings with integration plans and post-close reporting.
• Compensation and incentives are aligned with performance metrics and cash flow constraints.
• Audit preparation benefits from consistent documentation, traceable calculations, and control narratives built into every module.
• Stakeholder communication wraps it all together in clear narratives for the CEO, board, investors, banks, auditors, and employees.

By linking these modules, you build an integrated prompt system that supports both daily decisions and long-range plans.

What you will learn, module by module

• Industry analysis: Structure prompts that translate external data into implications for pricing, costs, and strategy.
• Budget analysis: Create iterative prompts for reforecasts, variance bridges, drivers, and mitigation options.
• Investment analysis: Prompt for capital allocation frameworks, hurdle-rate tests, scenarios, and exit considerations.
• Cash flow management: Guide weekly and monthly cash planning, liquidity buffers, and working capital focus areas.
• Financial reporting: Draft management commentary, summarize variances, and prepare board-level highlights.
• Debt management: Standardize covenant tracking, refinancing options, and interest coverage reviews.
• Tax strategy: Frame entity implications, timing of cash taxes, and alignment with business priorities.
• M&A: Support screening, diligence workstreams, integration risks, and synergy tracking.
• Currency and exchange risk: Structure exposure maps, hedging policy summaries, and impact scenarios.
• Employee compensation plans: Align incentives with financial objectives and affordability constraints.
• Capital expenditure planning: Build priority lists, evaluation criteria, and post-investment review prompts.
• Audit preparation: Produce evidence checklists, control narratives, and reconciliation summaries.
• Risk management: Map financial and operational risks, early indicators, and response playbooks.
• Performance metrics: Define measures, thresholds, reporting cadences, and alert criteria.
• Stakeholder communication: Turn analysis into concise, audience-specific messages and Q&A prep.

How to get the most value from the prompts

• Be explicit about goals: Define the decision, audience, and timeline. Ask the assistant to confirm its understanding before proceeding.
• Use structured inputs: Provide bullet points, short data tables, or summarized extracts rather than raw dumps.
• Enforce quality gates: Instruct the assistant to check calculations, cite sources where applicable, and list open questions.
• Drive assumptions into the open: Ask for the assumptions that matter most and require sensitivity tests on those drivers.
• Iterate in small steps: Generate a quick draft, then refine sections instead of requesting a perfect all-in-one output.
• Standardize templates: Save high-performing prompts as team templates. Keep a changelog so improvements are shareable.
• Protect sensitive data: Use approved tools and scrub or mask data where policies require. Keep private identifiers out of general chats.
• Close the loop: After decisions, prompt for a concise postmortem-what worked, what to refine, and how to improve the template.

Governance, controls, and responsible use

AI is a drafting assistant, not a system of record. The course emphasizes:

• Segregation of tasks: Keep final calculations in governed tools. Use AI for analysis framing, scenarios, commentary, and drafting.
• Documentation: Request explicit assumptions, sources, and version notes to support internal and external review.
• Accuracy checks: Require the assistant to show reconciliation steps or methods used to cross-check figures.
• Compliance: Align with company policies on data privacy, model usage, and retention.

Who should take this course

VPs of Finance, finance directors, FP&A leaders, controller teams supporting executive reporting, and strategic finance managers who want a consistent approach to AI-assisted analysis and communication.

Prerequisites

• Comfort with financial statements, budgeting, and corporate finance concepts.
• Access to an AI assistant and basic familiarity with chat-based workflows.
• Awareness of company data policies.

What sets this course apart

• Built for executive-level use: The prompts reflect board-facing standards-clear, concise, and defensible.
• End-to-end cohesion: Modules interlock so outputs from one area inform the next.
• Audit-ready habits: Quality checks and documentation are embedded into every step.
• Team scalability: Promotes shared templates and repeatable practices to reduce rework and improve consistency.

Common use cases you will handle more efficiently

• Preparing budget reforecasts with clear narrative and proposed actions.
• Comparing investment options with consistent criteria and sensitivity testing.
• Creating cash flow visibility and early warning signals for liquidity risks.
• Drafting MD&A-style commentary and board summaries.
• Organizing diligence questions and integration workplans for transactions.
• Producing audit-ready supporting materials and control narratives.
• Turning metrics into management updates and stakeholder communications.

Course format and time commitment

• Self-paced modules that you can adopt in any order, with guidance on sequencing for maximum coherence.
• Each module includes learning objectives, context-setting, and prompt frameworks, along with tips for refinement and QA.
• Plan for short sessions that produce immediate, reusable outputs for your current priorities.

How this course improves decision quality

AI can broaden the set of options you consider, surface risks earlier, and help you communicate decisions more clearly. The course equips you to apply it consistently, so you get faster drafts without sacrificing depth, and you keep a documented trail of why choices were made. You stay focused on judgment and leadership while the assistant accelerates synthesis, structure, and presentation.

What you will be able to do by the end

• Stand up a working library of prompts covering the finance office from planning through reporting.
• Adopt a standard process for scoping, drafting, refining, and validating AI-assisted analyses.
• Reduce time spent on first drafts and repetitive formatting while improving comparability across reports.
• Engage stakeholders with concise narratives that link strategy, metrics, and actions.
• Embed QA steps and documentation so outputs withstand internal and external scrutiny.

Final note

This course respects the expertise required of a VP of Finance. It does not promise shortcuts that bypass professional judgment. Instead, it provides structured prompting methods that help you and your team work faster, think more broadly, and communicate more effectively-so finance can lead with clarity and discipline.