Demo Prompts: Quick Live Demos for the Day
NECA Accounting Peer Group · Tuesday, October 27, 2026 · Adam Murphy, ImpactMe.AI
Short demos Adam runs from the front of the room, plus a few the room can try. Each section has the exact prompt, what to expect, and a facilitator note. All names and data are fictional.
| # | Demo | When | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Live audience poll (voice to table to chart) | Opener, right after the quick round | 8 min |
| 2 | Halloween party flyer | Block 5 or the extension, as a fun break | 3 to 5 min |
| 3 | Lunch photo | Lunch, optional | on their own |
| 4 | Your job description vs. AI | Block 6, workforce | 10 min |
| 5 | Task audit from a voice ramble | Block 5, before the email drafter build | 10 min |
| 6 | Second opinion: check a variance memo | Block 3, after "Iterate" | 5 min |
1. Live audience poll
Setup: Open your phone's voice recorder, or the voice/dictation button in the AI app. Go around the table. Each person says, in one breath: role, how many people on their team, how many employees at their company, and their pets. First names are optional. Nobody has to share anything they'd rather not; "no pets" and "pass" are fine answers.
Then paste the transcript (or the dictated text) with this prompt:
Below is a rough voice transcript of about 10 accountants at electrical contracting firms introducing themselves. Each person gave their role, their team size, their company's employee count, and their pets.
1. Turn it into a table with these columns: #, First name (if given), Role, Team size, Company size (employees), Pets (type and count).
2. Use only what was said. If something wasn't said or you can't tell, write "?" and do not guess. Transcripts mishear numbers, so flag any number that looks odd (for example "two fifty" vs "250" vs "2 to 50").
3. Tell me how many people are in the table, so I can check nobody was missed or counted twice.
4. Then make two clean, simple charts: company size by person (bar chart, sorted smallest to largest), and pets by type (count of each). Plain labels, no 3D, no decoration.
Follow-up prompt (the setup for the lesson):
What patterns do you see?
Then the punchline prompt:
How confident should we be in that pattern? There are only about 10 people here. Tell me the sample size, how many people are in each group you compared, and whether this could easily be chance. Be blunt.
2. Halloween party flyer
The email (fictional):
From: Denise Harper, Finance Manager, Ridgeline Electric To: Accounting team Subject: Halloween thing??
Hi all! Close is going to be brutal so let's do something fun first. Can someone throw together a flyer for an after-work Halloween party for the finance team? Friday, October 31, 4:30 to 7:00 in the big conference room at the office. Potluck, so everyone bring something (sign-up sheet on my door). Costumes optional but there's a $25 gift card for best costume. Spouses and kids welcome. Please keep it work-friendly, nothing too scary! Thanks, Denise
Prompt (image or flyer):
Create a fun, work-friendly Halloween party flyer from the email below. Style: friendly autumn colors, pumpkins and bats, nothing gory. Letter size, portrait.
Use exactly this text and nothing else:
- Title: Finance Team Halloween Party
- Date and time: [DATE], 4:30 to 7:00 pm
- Place: Big conference room, Ridgeline Electric office
- Potluck! Sign up on Denise's door
- Costumes optional. $25 gift card for best costume
- Spouses and kids welcome
Before you make it, check the email for anything that doesn't add up and ask me about it.
[paste the email]
Tool notes: ChatGPT, Gemini, and Copilot can generate an image directly. Claude doesn't generate images, but it can build a one-page flyer as a document or web page you can print. If the image tool garbles the words (common), ask for "the artwork with a blank area at the top," then add the text yourself in Word or PowerPoint.
3. Lunch photo (optional)
Totally optional. Some people would rather not talk about calories, and that's fine; there's an alternative below.
Prompt (attach a photo of your plate):
Estimate the calories in this meal. Give me a range, not a single number. List each item you can see with its own range, and tell me what you assumed about portion size and how it was cooked.
Follow-up:
How sure are you? What would change your estimate the most, and what can't you tell from a photo?
Alternative prompt, for anyone who'd rather skip calorie talk:
What's in this dish, and roughly what would it cost to make one serving at home? Give a range and list your assumptions.
4. Your job description vs. AI
Four short, generic job descriptions. Paste one (or your own, with your firm's name removed) with the prompt below.
Controller
- Lead the month-end close and deliver monthly financial statements
- Prepare and review the WIP schedule and job profitability reports
- Review bank and balance sheet reconciliations
- Supervise AP, AR, and payroll staff
- Coordinate the annual CPA review or audit, and surety and bank reporting
- Forecast cash flow and manage banking relationships
- Maintain internal controls and accounting policies
- Work with project managers on budgets, change orders, and cost to complete
Accounts Payable Specialist
- Enter vendor and subcontractor invoices and code them to job and cost code
- Match invoices to purchase orders and receiving
- Chase project manager approvals
- Collect W-9s, certificates of insurance, and lien waivers from subcontractors
- Run the weekly check and ACH payment run
- Answer vendor calls and emails about payment status
- Reconcile vendor statements
- Prepare 1099s at year end
Accounts Receivable Specialist
- Prepare monthly pay applications (AIA G702/G703) with project managers
- Track retainage receivable and bill retainage releases at closeout
- Apply customer payments
- Make collection calls and send collection emails
- Prepare lien waivers for general contractors
- Upload pay apps to GC billing portals
- Send monthly statements and finance charges
- Track change orders: approved vs. billed
Payroll Specialist
- Process weekly payroll for field and office employees
- Collect and check field timesheets
- Calculate union fringe benefits and remit them to the trusts
- Prepare certified payroll for public works jobs
- Process new hires, terminations, and garnishments
- Make payroll tax deposits and file quarterly returns
- Answer employee pay questions
- Keep prevailing wage rates current by job
Prompt:
Below is a job description from an electrical contractor with about 100 employees. For each responsibility, tell me:
1. How AI could help today, using tools a company this size can realistically get (chat AI like ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, or Copilot, plus AI features built into accounting software).
2. How much: None, Some (AI drafts, sorts, or checks; a person does the work), or Most (AI does the first pass; a person reviews and approves).
3. A rough range for how much time on that task it could save.
Put it in a table. Then give me two sentences on the overall picture. Don't assume we have any software I haven't mentioned.
[paste the job description]
Pushback prompt (the important one):
Now argue against yourself. What are you overestimating? Which of these tasks depend on judgment, relationships, accountability, or information that isn't written down anywhere? What still needs a human, and why?
5. Task audit from a voice ramble
How to run it: Each person opens a voice memo (or the AI app's voice input) and talks for 60 to 90 seconds: "Walk me through a normal week. What do you spend time on?" No editing. Then paste the transcript with this prompt.
Prompt:
Below is me talking through a normal week at work, transcribed from a voice memo, so it's messy.
Turn it into a table with these columns:
Task | How often | Time per week (hours) | Automate / Augment / Keep human | Why
Definitions:
- Automate: a system could do it start to finish, with a person spot-checking.
- Augment: AI drafts, sorts, or checks, and I still do the work and own the result.
- Keep human: needs judgment, relationships, approvals, or accountability.
Rules:
- Use only what I said. If I didn't give a frequency or a time, write "?" and don't estimate it.
- Split tasks I lumped together.
- After the table: total the hours I gave, list any task you weren't sure how to classify, and ask me up to 3 questions that would make this audit more accurate.
[paste the transcript]
Sample ramble for the demo (fictional AP and payroll person, 60-person firm):
"Okay so Monday is timesheets, I'm chasing foremen till like ten, then I check them against the schedule, that's most of Monday morning, probably three hours. Then invoices all week really, we get maybe eighty a week, I code them to jobs and send them to the PMs for approval and then I chase the PMs, honestly the chasing is the worst, maybe four or five hours a week just chasing. Tuesday I do certified payroll for the two school jobs, that's two hours, sometimes more if there's a new guy. Wednesday I run payroll, couple hours. Thursday is the check run, an hour and a half plus printing and stuffing. Vendors call me all day asking when they get paid, I don't know, an hour a day? Month end I do the vendor statement recs, that's like a day and a half once a month. And lien waivers, I'm always missing lien waivers from somebody."
6. Second opinion: have a second AI check a variance memo
This replaces any legal example. Legal, tax, and other critical decisions stay with a qualified professional. A second AI is a good checker of work you can verify yourself, like numbers against a spreadsheet.
The memo (fictional, written by "the first AI"):
Northpoint Distribution Center (Job 1051): September 2026 Cost Variance
September costs came in $52,960 over budget (21.7%), driven by two items.
Labor was $19,640 over budget (23.4%). Ironwood accelerated the schedule on September 2, and crews worked 10-hour days plus Saturdays. We're tracking the overtime premium for a possible acceleration change order. Labor burden followed labor, $4,870 over (13.8%).
Subcontract was $32,500 over budget (77.4%) because Kettle Creek Trenching hit unexpected rock on the north trench line and billed for extra excavation. Expect this overrun to continue into October.
Material, equipment, and overhead were all within 3% of budget.
The data (paste this with the memo): Job 1051 rows from 03_Budget_vs_Actual.xlsx (BvA_Detail rows 44 to 55):
| Month | Cost code | Budget | Actual | Variance | % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aug-2026 | 100 Labor | 80,000 | 81,295 | 1,295 | 1.6% |
| Aug-2026 | 150 Labor Burden | 33,600 | 33,131 | (469) | (1.4%) |
| Aug-2026 | 200 Material | 88,000 | 85,670 | (2,330) | (2.6%) |
| Aug-2026 | 300 Equipment | 7,200 | 7,005 | (195) | (2.7%) |
| Aug-2026 | 400 Subcontract | 45,000 | 12,500 | (32,500) | (72.2%) |
| Aug-2026 | 500 Job Overhead | 4,600 | 4,470 | (130) | (2.8%) |
| Sep-2026 | 100 Labor | 84,000 | 101,640 | 17,640 | 21.0% |
| Sep-2026 | 150 Labor Burden | 35,280 | 40,150 | 4,870 | 13.8% |
| Sep-2026 | 200 Material | 71,000 | 69,120 | (1,880) | (2.6%) |
| Sep-2026 | 300 Equipment | 7,200 | 7,040 | (160) | (2.2%) |
| Sep-2026 | 400 Subcontract | 42,000 | 74,500 | 32,500 | 77.4% |
| Sep-2026 | 500 Job Overhead | 4,600 | 4,590 | (10) | (0.2%) |
Project manager notes for Job 1051:
- Sep-2026, 100 Labor: "Ironwood accelerated the schedule (GC directive dated 9/2). Crew ran 10-hour days plus Saturdays. Tracking OT premium for a possible acceleration change order."
- Aug-2026, 400 Subcontract: "Kettle Creek Trenching Aug pay app came in late. Booked in Sept."
Prompt (run it in a different tool from the one that wrote the memo):
You are reviewing a cost variance memo that someone else wrote. Your job is to check it, not rewrite it.
1. Recompute every number in the memo from the data table. Variance = Actual minus Budget; percent = Variance divided by Budget.
2. Check every stated cause against the project manager notes. A cause that isn't in the notes is "unsupported," even if it sounds reasonable.
3. Check any prediction or claim about the future. Is there evidence for it in the data or notes?
4. Give me a table: Claim | What the memo says | What the data or notes say | Verdict (Correct, Wrong, or Unsupported).
5. Then list what the memo missed that a reader should know.
Do not guess. If you can't verify something, say so.
MEMO:
[paste memo]
DATA:
[paste table]
PM NOTES:
[paste notes]