In this blog post let’s look at some more use cases for ChatGPT for accountants and bookkeepers. This time we’ll be focusing on research and summarisation uses.

Check out the full video, 12 powerful uses of ChatGPT to be more productive in your accounting firm. https://www.youtube.com/live/BeHuRshLvWQ  

Practical Applications for Accountants

Book Summaries

I’m obsessed with reading business books, but as a visual learner it can sometimes become tedious. Sometimes I just want to get to the summary and the key points.

One of my favourite books is ‘Influence: Science and Practice’ by Robert Cialdini. Let’s imagine I’ve recommended that book to you and you don’t want to read the full book. This is where ChatGPT comes in.

Here is an example prompt you could ask ChatGPT:

Please write a 1000-word summary of the book ‘Influence: Science and Practice’ by Robert Cialdini in Markdown format. Include at least 1 example for each of the 6 laws of influence.

The answer goes on to outline the 6 laws of influence providing an example for each one:

You could then go on to ask for more details about a specific point, or ask other questions about the book.

Book reviews and summaries can be provided so quickly by ChatGPT, saving you tons of time reading the whole book!

Video Summaries

As a visual learner, I regularly watch educational videos on YouTube. But sometimes if it’s a long video, I don’t want to commit to watching it if it won’t end up being useful – I could do with a summary of the video.

There are lots of ways you can get a summary of a video. You could use a ChatGPT Plugin if you are a ChatGPT Plus user.

A great, free option is a Chrome extension called Glasp. Once you have downloaded the extension and found the video you want summarising on YouTube, you can click on the ChatGPT icon that says ‘View AI Summary’:

What this is going to do is open up ChatGPT in a new tab, and automatically fill in a prompt asking for the transcript summarising in 5 bullet points:

Here’s the answer ChatGPT provides:

Note: Because of the character limit in ChatGPT prompts, if the video is very long it won’t input the whole transcript, so your summary will just be of the start of the video.

Simplifying Complex Information

Another thing we can do with ChatGPT in the area of research and summarisation is simplify complex information.

For example, tax can get quite complicated. Let’s imagine I want to research expenses and benefits you can claim when working from home (in the UK). Unfortunately, when you read the government website, it’s very longwinded and technical.

We can get ChatGPT to summarise this information and do so in a way that it’s easier to understand.

One way to do this with a free ChatGPT account is to copy and paste the text from the webpage and ask for a summary.

However, if you have a Plus account, there is an easier way to get a summary using Plugins. First go to a new chat in ChatGPT, make sure Plugins are enabled, and go to the Plugin store. We’re going to use a Plugin called ‘WebPilot’. Once you have installed the Plugin, make sure it is ticked then ask a prompt such as:

Please summarise this webpage so that it can be understood by a 12-year-old: [LINK]

Or

Please summarise this webpage in simple language so that it is easy to understand: [LINK]

This is a great summary of a complex tax website that cuts out the technical language and makes it easy to understand.

There you have it, 3 more awesome use cases for ChatGPT that accountants and bookkeepers can use in research and summarisation.

Check out the full video on this topic for a more in-depth look at these ideas, plus even more use cases: https://www.youtube.com/live/BeHuRshLvWQ  

If you found this valuable and would like to learn more about value pricing, I run a free live online training session every month with a topic chosen by you. Attend live and you can ask me any questions you have. Click here to register and I will send you an invitation to the next session.

Wishing you every success on your pricing journey

Mark Wickersham

Chartered Accountant, Public Speaker and Author of Amazon No.1 Best Seller “Effective Pricing for Accountants”