Client quarterly review recap prompt: free ChatGPT template
Updated · By Robert Breen
Use this after a quarterly review with a bookkeeping or accounting client, when you need to send a recap the client will act on. The parts that matter most are the client's to-dos and their dates, plus anything you agreed to leave for later. AI recaps tend to blur those, or add advice nobody gave. This prompt sorts the recap into four sections, keeps decisions as stated, and flags any task without an owner or date before the client sees it.
The prompt
Copy it into ChatGPT (or Claude, Gemini or Copilot) and replace every [BLANK] with your own details. It uses the four parts from Prompt Writing 101: Role, Context, Task and Format.
Role: You are the client manager at [FIRM], writing to [CLIENT] after their quarterly review. Context: Who was there: [ATTENDEES]. Use only what is in the transcript or notes below. Keep each decision exactly as stated, including anything we agreed to leave for a later meeting. Don't add recommendations, tax or accounting opinions, or reasons nobody said. If a task has no owner or no date, write "date to be confirmed" in the email and list it for me above the email. Task: Write the recap email: a one-line thank-you, what we decided, what we'll do and by when, what we need from them and by when, and what we're leaving for later. Format: First, for me only: a list of tasks missing an owner or date. Then the email with a subject line and four short labeled sections: Decisions, We'll do, We need from you, Later. Under 200 words. Plain and friendly, first names only. Transcript or notes: [TRANSCRIPT OR NOTES]
Fill in the blanks
[FIRM]- Your firm's name.
[CLIENT]- The client business and the people the email goes to.
[ATTENDEES]- Everyone in the meeting and their role, so the AI can assign owners correctly.
[TRANSCRIPT OR NOTES]- The meeting transcript or your notes. Leave out account numbers and tax IDs.
Example, filled in
A made-up example from the free lesson Turn a Client Meeting into Action Items and a Follow-Up Email (Accounting Firms). This uses the made-up Q3 review from the client meeting lesson, between Millbrook Accounting and its client Cedar Lane Landscaping, as short notes.
Role: You are the client manager at Millbrook Accounting, writing to Grace and Jordan at Cedar Lane Landscaping after their quarterly review. Context: Who was there: Maya Brooks (our CPA), Tom Alvarez (our bookkeeper), Grace Whitfield (owner) and Jordan Pike (office manager). Use only what is in the transcript or notes below. Keep each decision exactly as stated, including anything we agreed to leave for a later meeting. Don't add recommendations, tax or accounting opinions, or reasons nobody said. If a task has no owner or no date, write "date to be confirmed" in the email and list it for me above the email. Task: Write the recap email: a one-line thank-you, what we decided, what we'll do and by when, what we need from them and by when, and what we're leaving for later. Format: First, for me only: a list of tasks missing an owner or date. Then the email with a subject line and four short labeled sections: Decisions, We'll do, We need from you, Later. Under 200 words. Plain and friendly, first names only. Transcript or notes: Jordan uploads September checking and card statements by the 20th. Tom closes Q3 by October 30. Tom sends Grace the 23 uncategorized transactions by Friday. Truck bought August 12 for $38,000, mostly financed: set up as equipment with a loan, not an expense. Jordan sends the purchase agreement and loan paperwork. How to depreciate the truck: leave for year-end planning. Jordan gets W-9s from three subcontractors by end of October. Maya sends a quote for monthly bookkeeping.
What a good answer looks like
- A note to you first: the truck paperwork and the monthly quote have no dates.
- "We need from you" with three items for Jordan, each with its date or "date to be confirmed."
- Depreciation under Later, stated as left for year-end planning, with no opinion on how it will be handled.
- The truck decision worded as it was said: equipment with a loan, not an expense.
How to check it before you use it
An AI draft can sound right and still say something you never told it. Use the habit from the Reply Faster lesson: check every promise, name, date and number against what you gave it before anything goes out.
- Fill in the missing dates before sending, as the client meeting lesson does.
- Check every owner and date against the transcript. A wrong date in a recap becomes the client's deadline.
- Delete any advice the AI added, even if it sounds right. If it wasn't said, it doesn't go in.
- Make sure nothing confidential beyond what the client already knows made it into the email.
Why this prompt works
The four labeled sections in the Format separate your work from the client's, which is what makes a recap usable. The "for me only" list catches gaps before the client sees them. For a general version, see the meeting recap email prompt or the action items table prompt.
Practice it in the free lesson
Turn a Client Meeting into Action Items and a Follow-Up Email (Accounting Firms): Turn the transcript of a client's quarterly review into the decisions, an action items table with owners and due dates, and a follow-up email to the client. You do every step yourself in a practice copy of ChatGPT, and nothing touches your real accounts.
Also useful: Summarize a Meeting Transcript with ChatGPT
Terms used here
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