Build a standalone and a combined budget with a contingency line from your own figures, for your accountant to check

The Farm Consultancy Group advice in the event write-up is to budget the new enterprise on its own, then combined with the farm, with a contingency, and to allow for delays and empty periods. The Farmers Weekly and Carter Jonas survey (a land agent's) in the same write-up found that about one-third considered their diversification profitable in each of the first, second and third years, while 97% of those who had diversified called it a success on profitability, so a cash-flow table is the part you will be asked for by a bank, a grant scheme and your accountant. AI can build the table from your own numbers and list the assumptions you must still back with quotes. It cannot forecast income, work out tax or tell you the project is viable: your accountant does that.

A free AI chat tool, then your own email or messaging app

Steps

1. Gather your own figures: quotes for the building work and equipment, expected opening date, what you will charge, your best estimate of bookings or sales by month, running costs and staff hours. Mark each figure as a quote, a bill, a price list or a guess.
2. Write down the dates that could slip: planning decision, grant decision, building work, first guests. The advice in the event write-up is to allow for those taking longer than hoped.
3. Paste your figures into the prompt. Do not paste bank details, tax references, family names or any will or succession paper.
4. Ask for a standalone three-year monthly table and a combined table with the existing farm, a contingency line at the percentage you choose, a vacant-period scenario and a list of assumptions.
5. Check every number against your quotes and records, change the guesses to ranges you can defend, and remove any sentence that says the project is profitable or tax-efficient.
6. Take the tables and the assumptions list to your accountant and ask them to check them and the tax, VAT, inheritance tax, capital gains and business rates points before you commit money.

The exact prompt

I run a farm in the UK and I am planning a new enterprise: [description]. Using ONLY the figures and dates below, build a three-year budget layout for my accountant to check.
You must NOT forecast income, say whether the project is viable or profitable, work out any tax, VAT, business rates or relief, or give financial advice. Use ONLY my numbers; where a number is a guess, keep it marked 'guess'. Put 'not given' where I have not given a figure. Do not use any names.
Set-up costs (each with source: quote, bill, price list or guess): [text].
Opening date and the dates that could slip (planning, grant, building work): [text].
Prices and my best estimate of bookings or sales by month, as a low, middle and high case: [text].
Running costs and staff hours: [text].
The existing farm's figures I want combined (annual income and costs, as numbers I typed): [text].
Contingency percentage to show: [number].
Produce: (1) a monthly standalone table for years 1 to 3 for the new enterprise with the three cases; (2) a combined table with the farm showing cash in and out by quarter; (3) a scenario with a delay of [number] months and a vacant period of [number] months; (4) a list of every assumption and whether it is a quote, a bill, a price list or a guess; (5) a list of tax, VAT, business rates and funding points that I should ask my accountant, with no answers.