Prompt: draft a budget justification

A budget justification explains, line by line, why each cost is needed and how you calculated it. This prompt writes that narrative from your figures without touching the numbers — it will flag arithmetic or gaps for you rather than “correcting” them, because AI makes silent maths errors.

What to paste in

Give the AI each budget line with its amount, any match or in-kind support, your approach to core costs, and the total you are requesting. Keep your spreadsheet open alongside.

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What to check afterwards

Re-add every line yourself. Confirm you have included a fair share of core costs through full cost recovery, and check the funder actually allows the costs you have listed. Resolve every [CHECK: …] flag against your real budget.

Language models make silent arithmetic errors, so never let AI total a grant budget — the figures in your justification must match your own spreadsheet line for line.

Worked example

The illustrative example shows a line-by-line justification with core costs recovered and honest [CHECK: …] flags where the figures need confirming against the real budget.

CharityIQ can apply your full cost recovery rate and pull your real budget lines, so the narrative and the numbers stay in step.