Ledger & Logic

In the Lab

How I Get AI to Stop Rambling

AI answers were becoming a chore to read. Adding “use ASD-STE100” to my prompts helped cut the clutter. Here’s the difference it made in my finance work.

The Playbook

Smarter model or more effort? A finance guide to picking AI settings

How I pick between a smarter AI model and a higher effort setting, with real finance examples of when each one actually fixed the output

Field Notes

Ship Faster Without Lowering the Bar

Old me would have disappeared for three days, built the pack across every entity, made it beautiful, and sent it Thursday night. Then he'd have told me the second half wasn't what he meant. Instead he had a first draft within the hour. Half a day of actual work, all in.

In the Lab

I Started Asking AI to Ask Me Questions, and the Work Got Easier

I've started ending my prompts with "ask me clarifying questions first." Two minutes of questions saves twenty of rework.

The Playbook

From Preparer to Reviewer: A Simple Framework for Building Claude & Codex SKILL.MD Files That Actually Work

Most skill.md files I've seen (including my early attempts) are mediocre. The difference between a skill you abandon after two runs and one you rely on every month comes down to how you build it. Here's the framework I use.

The Playbook

Claude & Codex Skills (SKILL.MD) for Dummies: the Finance & Accounting Edition

Skills (SKILL.md files) turn one-off prompts into reusable workflows that follow your standards every time. Here's what they are, what they look like, and why finance professionals should pay attention.

The Playbook

How I Save Hours Creating and Editing Slide Decks with AI

Slides are the worst part of finance reporting. Not because they're hard, but because they're tedious. Here's the workflow that changed how I build board decks.

Ledger & Logic

An accountant figuring out AI - tool by tool, workflow by workflow.

Latest

How I Make Interactive Dashboards and Mini Apps in 15 minutes as an Accountant

I got a stomach bug EXACTLY when it was month-end. I was out two days hating life, then came back to a day and change of prep for our exec meeting. Instead of fluffing around with Excel, I built two working mini apps in Claude in 15 minutes. Here's how, and when to use them versus Excel.

Which AI Actually Reads Your Handwriting? I Tested Gemini, Claude and ChatGPT

I had handwritten strategy notes that needed to become a real document. Rather than retyping everything, I tested Gemini, ChatGPT and Claude with the same prompt. Here's what happened

Understand Projects and Stop Wasting Time with AI

You're opening a new chat, uploading the same files, writing the same context paragraph for the third time. The thing that fixed it was Projects.