Accounting Finance System Research Skill

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name: accounting-finance-system-research description: 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.

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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  \
  --output-docx  \
  --format 

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