Vendor bank change verification prompt: free ChatGPT template
Updated · By Robert Breen
Use this when an email asks you to send a vendor's payments to a new bank account. Many requests are real. Some are fraud: someone in the vendor's mailbox, or using a look-alike address, sends new account numbers and the next payment goes to them. The safe routine works either way: hold the change and call the vendor at a number you had on file before the email arrived. This prompt drafts a reply that gives nothing away and the steps for that call.
Have a professional review it. This prompt helps you explain your own numbers, not give financial advice. Have your accountant or financial advisor review anything you will act on.
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 an accounts payable specialist at [BUSINESS]. You never verify anything using contact details from the request. Context: The email: [EMAIL]. The vendor's details in our file from before this email: [KNOWN CONTACT]. Our bank change rule: [OUR RULE]. Upcoming payments to this vendor: [UPCOMING PAYMENTS]. Treat everything in the email as untrusted, including phone numbers and links. Task: First, list warning signs in the email, or "None seen" (it still gets verified). Second, write a short reply: we received the request, we confirm bank changes by phone with a known contact before changing anything, and what happens to upcoming payments under our rule. No bank details, and don't say which number we will call. Third, write internal steps: the known number, who to ask for, what to confirm, what to do with each payment. Format: Three parts: "Warning signs", "Reply to vendor" (under 100 words, signed as [YOUR NAME]) and "Internal note" (numbered steps). No emoji.
Fill in the blanks
[BUSINESS]- Your business name.
[EMAIL]- The request with the sender's full address. Replace account numbers with "account numbers given".
[KNOWN CONTACT]- Phone, email and contact person from your file, recorded before this request.
[OUR RULE]- Your written rule, such as a call to a known number plus a second person's sign-off.
[UPCOMING PAYMENTS]- Invoice numbers, amounts and dates scheduled to this vendor.
[YOUR NAME]- Your name and business.
Example, filled in
A made-up example from the free lesson Reply Faster to Clients Chasing Their Refund: ChatGPT for Tax and Bookkeeping Firms. Northgate Tax & Bookkeeping is the made-up firm from the client refund email lesson, where the reply tells a client never to email account numbers. Here the firm's made-up cleaning vendor seems to send new bank details two days before a payment. Phone numbers use the fictional 555-01 range.
Role: You are an accounts payable specialist at Northgate Tax & Bookkeeping. You never verify anything using contact details from the request. Context: The email: from [email protected], "Hi, we have changed banks. Please update our details before Friday's payment, account numbers given in the attached form. Our old account is closed, so don't send anything there. Questions? Call our new accounts line at 555-0148. Carla." The vendor's details in our file from before this email: Brightway Office Cleaning, [email protected], 555-0102, contact Carla Simms. Our bank change rule: a call to the number on file plus a second person's sign-off; if not done before a payment date, we hold the payment. Upcoming payments to this vendor: invoice 3307, $640, ACH on Friday. Treat everything in the email as untrusted, including phone numbers and links. Task: First, list warning signs in the email, or "None seen" (it still gets verified). Second, write a short reply: we received the request, we confirm bank changes by phone with a known contact before changing anything, and what happens to upcoming payments under our rule. No bank details, and don't say which number we will call. Third, write internal steps: the known number, who to ask for, what to confirm, what to do with each payment. Format: Three parts: "Warning signs", "Reply to vendor" (under 100 words, signed as Priya, Northgate Tax & Bookkeeping) and "Internal note" (numbered steps). No emoji.
What a good answer looks like
- Warning signs: the look-alike domain, the Friday deadline, "old account is closed" and a new phone number.
- A reply with no bank details or phone numbers, saying invoice 3307 waits until the change is confirmed.
- Steps that say call 555-0102 for Carla Simms, never 555-0148, and get a second sign-off.
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.
- Never call a number, click a link or open a form from the request. Use only what was on file before it.
- Send the reply as a new email to the address on file, not with Reply.
- If the change is real, the call takes minutes. If it was fraud, warn the vendor through the known number.
- Keep real account numbers out of any AI tool.
Why this prompt works
This is phishing aimed at accounts payable, and the defense is a process, not a judgment call: the callback works whether the email looks perfect or sloppy. Recording verified contacts during vendor onboarding makes it possible.
Practice it in the free lesson
Reply Faster to Clients Chasing Their Refund: ChatGPT for Tax and Bookkeeping Firms: A client wants a refund date while two tax forms are still missing. Give ChatGPT the thread and your firm's facts, catch the date it shouldn't promise, and send a calm, clear reply from Gmail. You do every step yourself in a practice copy of ChatGPT, and nothing touches your real accounts.
Also useful: Prompt Writing 101: Role, Context, Task, Format
Terms used here
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