Accounting Finance System Research Skill

Research and solve "how do I do this?" questions inside accounting and finance software systems (ERP, GL, AP/AR, billing, close, and reporting tools). Use when a user needs operational steps, setup guidance, or troubleshooting help in a specific system and wants the result documented as a quick memo or simple Q-and-A DOCX.

Accounting And Finance System Research

Overview

Follow a fixed process for system-how-to support: collect facts, ask clarifying questions, confirm output format, confirm understanding, research external guidance, analyze the best path, and generate a DOCX deliverable.

Required Behavior

• Ask clarifying questions before proposing a solution.
• Confirm whether output should be quick memo or simple q-and-a.
• Restate understanding and wait for confirmation before web research.
• Research the internet after confirmation, prioritizing official vendor guidance.
• Separate source-backed guidance from assumptions or inference.
• Include source links and accessed dates in the deliverable.
• Generate a DOCX report in the user-selected format.

Workflow

1) Intake And Scope

• Capture the user objective in one sentence.
• Confirm system name and version/edition (for example: NetSuite, SAP S/4HANA Cloud, Dynamics 365 Finance, QuickBooks).
• Confirm module or workflow area (for example: AP, AR, close, reconciliations, reporting).
• Confirm role/permission constraints and any deadline pressure.

2) Clarification Questions (Mandatory)

• Use references/clarification-question-bank.md.
• Ask only missing critical questions; avoid redundant prompts.
• Pause solutioning until enough facts are available.
• If facts remain unknown, continue with explicit assumptions and conditional guidance.

3) Output Format Confirmation (Mandatory)

• Ask the user to choose one:
• quick memo: concise professional summary with recommendation and steps.
• simple q-and-a: direct answer format with numbered actions.
• Default to quick memo only when user gives no preference.

4) Understanding Confirmation (Mandatory)

• Restate:
• problem statement
• system context
• open questions or assumptions
• chosen output format
• Ask for explicit confirmation before researching.

5) Research External Guidance

• Follow source ranking in references/source-priority.md.
• Gather at least two relevant sources where possible.
• Include at least one official vendor source when available.
• Track per-source metadata: title, publisher, URL, updated/published date if available, accessed date.
• Prefer current version-specific guidance over older generic content.

6) Analyze And Build Recommendations

• Translate research into concrete user actions.
• Provide prerequisites and permissions needed for each action.
• Add fallback steps when primary path is blocked.
• Include validation checks to confirm completion.
• Call out risks and unresolved dependencies.

7) Generate DOCX Deliverable

• Build JSON input using references/report-json-schema.md.
• Run:

python scripts/build_system_guidance_docx.py \
  --input-json <analysis.json> \
  --output-docx <system-guidance.docx> \
  --format <memo|q-and-a>

• Map quick memo to memo.
• Map simple q-and-a to q-and-a.
• Confirm the document includes:
• request summary and system context
• clarifications and assumptions
• guidance sources with URLs
• recommended steps
• validation checks
• risks and open items

8) Quality Check

• Verify recommendations are consistent with cited guidance.
• Verify assumptions are explicit and easy to review.
• Verify deliverable format matches user request.
• Verify every source has a URL and accessed date.
• Verify output file is .docx and readable.

Resources

• Clarification checklist: references/clarification-question-bank.md
• Source hierarchy: references/source-priority.md
• Report JSON schema: references/report-json-schema.md
• Example report payload: references/example_report_input.json
• DOCX generator: scripts/build_system_guidance_docx.py

Dependency

Install once if needed:

python -m pip install --user python-docx