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Bonus Issue -🧠 How to Use ChatGPT and Excel to Automate Account Reconciliation

Tired of Hunting Down Transaction Discrepancies? Let AI Match Bank Records to Your GL in Minutes

May 16, 2025

☕ Morning! Welcome to The AI+ newsletter that helps you work smarter, faster with more impact, and more importantly stay in the game. 💪

Let’s be honest—account reconciliation is the spinach of accounting. Healthy, necessary, but no one’s excited about it. So let’s toss it in the AI blender.

Here’s what we have cooked up for you today:

  • ⚡ 1 AI Hack - Use ChatGPT + Excel to Automate Account Reconciliation

  • 🛠️ 3 Free Tools that do the grunt work — matching, Excel problem solver, data analysis

  • 🧠 1 News Byte Bitcoin ETFs just hit $12B in Net Inflows

  • And more…

Let’s break it down 👇

⚡ 1 AI Hack: Use ChatGPT + Excel to Automate Account Reconciliation

Use Case: Monthly account reconciliation
Result: Offload the headache using ChatGPT + Excel.

🧰 What You’ll Need:

  • Excel or Google Sheets

  • A list of unmatched bank/GL transactions

  • ChatGPT (or an AI that speaks fluent “Where did my $500 go?”)

📝 Step-by-Step:

  1. Export your data:
    Grab your bank statement + general ledger in Excel or CSV.

  2. Clean it up:
    Keep just these columns: Date, Description, Amount. Simplify names (e.g. “AMZN*” → “Amazon”).

  3. Match what you can in Excel using VLOOKUP or Power Query.

  4. Copy unmatched transactions into ChatGPT

    Ask:

"Help me identify why these bank transactions don’t match anything in my GL."

  1. Review AI insights:
    ChatGPT will look for patterns:

  • Date mismatches

  • Similar vendor names

  • Amount rounding

  • Duplicates or splits

  1. Use suggested explanations to trace the root cause, flag issues, or prep adjusting entries.

Example Prompt:

“Here are 5 bank transactions that don’t match my GL. Can you tell me what might be wrong or suggest possible matches?”

 🔥Why It’s Awesome:

You still control the outcome, but AI takes over the “boring brainwork.” Less scrolling. More coffee. Faster closes.

🛠️ 3 Free AI Tools

  1. FlowiseAI (Free Plan)
    What it is: No-code visual builder for custom ChatGPT workflows
    Why it helps:

  • Create internal AI tools (e.g., rec bots, SOP generators) without writing code

  • Drag-and-drop logic lets you automate common accounting tasks like classifying transactions or summarizing GL notes

  1. Gladia (Free Tier)
    What it is: Multimodal AI that extracts data from audio, text, and documents
    Why it helps:

  • Automatically pulls line items from invoices, receipts, or contracts

  • Helps clean up messy documentation before month-end closes or audits

  1. Rows AI (Free Plan)
    What it is: Spreadsheet tool with built-in GPT and automation features
    Why it helps:

  • Use GPT directly in cells to explain variances, summarize trends, or generate commentary

  • Great for turning reconciled data into reports or dashboards — no extra formulas needed

📰 What’s Happening

  1. Central Bank of Russia rates Bitcoin the top global investment since 2022

    The Central Bank of Russia recognizes Bitcoin's evolution into a global portfolio staple amid unprecedented institutional interest.

  2. How To Get Your Bank Reconciliation Correct (With Examples)
    A practical guide from Vena Solutions on performing accurate bank reconciliations, complete with examples and tips to streamline your financial close process.

  3. AuditBoard Transforms Internal Audit With Advanced AI Capabilities
    Explore how AuditBoard's latest AI enhancements are boosting efficiency and enabling auditors to focus on more strategic tasks within their organizations.

💡 Bonus Tip of the Week

Use ChatGPT to document your reconciliation process.
Ask it to write an SOP based on your workflow — saves time training your next hire or preparing for audit season.

🧾 Try this prompt:

I want to create a standard operating procedure (SOP) for our monthly bank reconciliation process. Here’s what we do step by step:

- Match entries using Excel formulas

- Investigate unmatched items (timing, duplicates, etc.)

- Adjust entries or reclassify as needed

- Prepare reconciliation summary and attach to the close package

Please write this as an SOP with clear steps, roles, and notes for new hires.

Meme Corner 😂

That’s a wrap on this week’s edition of The AI+ — your secret weapon for automating the grunt work and leveling up your finance brain without breaking a sweat.

Got an AI win or a WTF moment from ChatGPT? Hit reply — I read every one.

And hey, if this saved you 10 minutes (or 10 brain cells), forward it to a colleague still manually reconciling line by line.

Until next week —
Stay sharp, stay semi-automated ⚙️😄

Chief Nerd

P.S. 🧠 New: 25 Free ChatGPT Prompts to Fix Your Finances → https://theaiplus.beehiiv.com/c/personal-finance-prompts

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