Who this is for
Technical accounting lead | You write the memo. The 1st draft is where the time goes. |
Controller | You sign the conclusion and want judgements, citations and open items in one place. |
SEC reporting manager | The memo is where the disclosure language for the next 10-Q starts. |
When this would be relevant
Any new contract, modification or one-off transaction that needs a documented conclusion before the auditors ask:
A software, hosting or outsourcing agreement
A sale or transfer of assets
A licence or a contract with multiple performance obligations
A policy election you want written up once
Most useful in the month after signing, before the entries are booked.
What you need
The facts, written out: dates and term, amounts and payment timing, what each side controls or can do, your discount rate, the elections you have made. The more of this is in the 1st message, the fewer questions Fina asks before drafting.
You do not need the contract to start. Fina drafts from your description and marks each unverified fact as a management representation. Attach the agreement later to clear those marks (last section).
How to run it
The prompt has a fixed shape. Only the facts change.
Draft a technical accounting memo for [our company] on [the transaction in 1 line] under US GAAP. Facts: [term and dates]; [amounts and payment timing]; [what each party controls or can do]; [your elections and rates]. Conclude on the accounting treatment, show the journal entries, cite the ASC paragraph for each conclusion and list the open items. If a fact you need is missing, ask; otherwise draft the memo.
Worked example (cloud software): expand to view the prompt or click below to open Fina directly
Worked example (cloud software): expand to view the prompt or click below to open Fina directly
Draft a technical accounting memo for our company on a 3-year, non-cancellable subscription to a hosted ERP platform under US GAAP: $600,000 a year paid annually in advance from 1 July 2026; we cannot take possession of the software or run it on our own or a 3rd party's hardware; a 3rd-party integrator is doing implementation for a fixed $900,000 covering configuration, custom interfaces, data conversion and training; our IT team will spend about 4,000 hours; go-live 31 December 2026. Conclude on licence vs service contract, which implementation costs are capitalised, how they are amortised and presented, and how the subscription fee is presented. Show the journal entries, cite the ASC paragraph for each conclusion and list the open items. If a fact you need is missing, ask; otherwise draft the memo.
The button opens a fresh chat with the example typed in. Replace the facts with yours before sending.
Other fact patterns that fit the same prompt
Scenario | Facts line |
Equipment lease | 5-year equipment lease, $40,000 a month, purchase option at 10% of cost in year 5, we maintain and insure the asset, incremental borrowing rate 7.1%. |
Licensed-in IP | Licence-in of a patent for $2m upfront plus $5m on regulatory approval and 4% royalties; we control development; approval expected 2028. |
Small acquisition | Purchase of a 12-person consulting practice for $8m: 3 client contracts, no facilities, staff transfer with 2-year retention bonuses. Business or asset acquisition? |
Asset sale | Sale of a $50m commercial loan pool, servicing retained, we must repurchase any loan over 60 days delinquent during its life. |
What Fina comes back with
Questions, if a fact that changes the answer is missing.
They arrive as a short form inside the chat. For the example, Fina has asked whether the company early-adopted ASU 2025-06, because a 2026 project sits in that standard's transition window and the prompt does not say.
The memo, as a Word file.
11 sections: 1 Background and purpose, 2 Key contractual terms, 3 Accounting guidance, 4 Contract-to-standard mapping, 5 Technical analysis, 6 Initial measurement, 7 Measurement, 8 Accounting treatment, 9 Journal entries, 10 Disclosure requirements, 11 Conclusion.
Each conclusion carries its ASC paragraph; page 1 says DRAFT – NOT FINAL.
An open-items list at the end.
Each unresolved point and the evidence needed to close it. If you have not attached the agreement, the list starts with the ask for it.
What makes it better than drafting it yourself
Your facts are labelled as yours.
The contract-to-standard mapping has a contract-evidence column, and every fact Fina has not verified against a document is marked as a management representation there. A reviewer sees at once what still rests on your summary.
It will not capitalise a number it cannot support.
Given one integrator fee covering 4 activities, the memo expenses the training and data conversion, treats the rest as capitalisable only once allocated by activity, and leaves the asset as a formula with named inputs rather than a figure.
It does the term arithmetic.
With a hosting term from July 2026 to June 2029 and go-live at the end of 2026, the memo amortises over the 30 months remaining, not the 36 in the contract, and flags the 30 as conditional on the ready-for-use date.
What it will not do
It will not sign the memo. Every draft is provisional and lists what management still has to document.
It will not read a contract you have not attached. Until you upload the agreement, the memo rests on your summary and says so.
It will not quantify what you have not given it. Where the inputs are missing, the memo gives the formula and names the inputs. The number appears when the evidence does.
Attach the agreement to make it golden
Once the 1st draft exists, stay in the same chat. Attach the signed contract and any statement of work, then send:
Here is the signed agreement and the statement of work. Redraft the memo from the contract terms rather than my summary. Quote the clause behind each conclusion and flag any term that changes what I told you.
Management-representation labels drop away where the contract now supports the fact
Clauses your summary missed become new open items
Export as .docx, with or without the citation trail