How an AI agent can prepare a cautious cash brief with notable changes and questions
This workflow gives an AI agent a defined job, a bounded set of records, and a result a person can review. The agent reads the relevant Mercury context, applies the rules in the prompt, and keeps the source behind every recommendation. It returns a proposed handoff rather than taking consequential actions on its own.
Can an AI agent prepare a cautious cash brief with notable changes and questions?
Yes. Start with the scope, date range, decision rules, and fields that identify the right records. The agent can collect the evidence, compare states or sources, mark conflicts and missing data, and organize the result around the outcome above. A reviewer then checks the matches and judgment calls before approving messages, record updates, bookings, purchases, publishing, or other write actions. The guide below shows the records, boundaries, prompt, and handoff needed for this specific workflow.
Preserve account and date context
A cash-position agent prepares a dated view of selected Mercury accounts. Define the accounts, reporting timestamp, currency, entities, pending-transaction treatment, and materiality rules. The agent can list current balances, expected incoming and outgoing movement visible in the source, and transactions that require explanation.
Keep observed funds separate from forecasts. A scheduled transfer, pending card charge, or expected customer payment has a different level of certainty from an available balance. The result should label each state and cite the account or transaction behind it.
Example starter prompt
Prepare a Mercury cash-position brief for [accounts or entity] as of [date and time].
Show available and current balances by account and currency. List pending inflows and outflows separately, then flag transactions using these review rules: [rules]. Include transaction ID, date, amount, counterparty, status, and owner question.
Do not forecast missing payments, move money, contact counterparties, or change account settings. Return a dated cash table and exception queue.Review state and timing
Confirm that the reporting time and account timezone are explicit. Check whether pending items later settled, failed, or changed amount before using the brief for a decision. The agent should not net unrelated transactions merely because their amounts are similar.
The handoff should include source identifiers and an as-of timestamp so finance can reproduce the view.
Questions this workflow answers
Can an agent prepare today’s cash position across our bank accounts and separate available money from pending or restricted movement?
Yes. Scope Mercury to the approved accounts and an exact as-of time. The agent can review balances, pending and posted transactions, transfers, counterparties, and available account context, then prepare a treasury brief. It should preserve currency, account, transaction state, and timezone rather than collapse every amount into one headline number.
Define what the organization means by available, committed, restricted, and expected cash. A pending outgoing transfer may need to reduce the planning view even though it has not posted. An incoming payment should not be treated as available until its state meets the supplied rule. The agent can list large or unusual movements for review without labeling them fraudulent or incorrect.
The report should show opening or current balance as available, known pending inflows and outflows, approved commitments supplied in scope, and uncertainties. Each line keeps its source identifier, date, amount, currency, counterparty, status, and owner question. Similar amounts do not justify netting or matching unrelated transactions.
Finance reviews the as-of timestamp, account coverage, and treatment of pending items before using the brief for a transfer or spending decision. The agent does not move money, change controls, or forecast beyond the assumptions provided. Its output is a reproducible snapshot with visible timing risk, not a promise that the displayed balance will remain available.
The brief becomes more useful when it shows timing bands instead of one total. Payroll due tomorrow, a card settlement expected in two days, and a customer transfer with no confirmed arrival date carry different certainty. The agent can present an available-now figure, a dated committed view, and a separate possible-inflows column. Finance can then see which assumption causes a shortfall without mistaking an expected payment for cash already cleared.