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Get your profit and loss explained in plain English

Your accountant has sent a P&L or year-end accounts and you nod along without really knowing what it says. Get each line explained using your numbers, plus the three questions to ask them.

Updated 17 Oct 2026

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The prompt · ChatGPT

Explain my profit and loss (or accounts) in plain English.

My business: [what you do, sole trader or limited company]
The figures: [paste the P&L or accounts, including last year if shown]
What's worrying me: [e.g. profit up but bank balance down]

First ask me up to 3 short questions about anything unclear in the figures. Wait for my answers.

Then:
1. Each line in one plain sentence, using my numbers.
2. My gross margin and net margin, with the sums, and how they changed from last year.
3. Why profit and cash in the bank can differ, using my figures as the example.
4. The three things in these numbers I should understand better.
5. Five questions to ask my accountant.

No advice on tax or what to do; point me to my accountant or HMRC for that. Only use what I've told you, leave blanks for anything I haven't given, and don't invent facts or figures. UK English.

Stay in this ChatGPT chat. Do not turn on apps or connectors, and do not use memory from another chat.

A short example

Fill the blanks, then paste. what you do, sole trader or limited company: a short note you already have. paste the P&L or accounts, including last year if shown: a short note you already have. Leave the rest of the prompt as written.

This does not give tax advice. The books stay in the accounting system.

1

You paste the figures from your P&L or accounts.

2

The assistant asks what kind of business you run and what's worrying you about the numbers.

3

You get each line in plain words, what changed and why it might matter, and questions for your accountant.

What happens

Use ChatGPT to get your profit and loss explained in plain English

Your accountant has sent a P&L or year-end accounts and you nod along without really knowing what it says. Get each line explained using your numbers, plus the three questions to ask them.

Tools

Paste the prompt, fill the blanks, copy the draft.

  • ChatGPT — required. Drafts from the text you paste. Nothing is sent.

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