How to use AI for spend management: 12 prompts to start using today

Finance teams already rely on AI tools like Claude or ChatGPT, but may not be using these tools to their full potential. 68% of finance leaders agree that AI skills, training and confidence are severely lagging in finance teams, according to new research from Pleo.

It’s easier to boost AI skills and confidence when AI tools are connected and working from one data source, but spend information still lives in several places for many finance teams. Expenses sit in one platform, invoices in another and finance teams try to manage it all with different AI tools that aren’t connected to their spend data.

Fortunately, teams can use a Model Context Protocol (MCP) to link information from their spend management platform to the AI tools they already use, such as Claude, ChatGPT and Copilot. This means teams can ask questions in plain language and automate tasks without switching between tools or communication channels.

See how connecting to an MCP can improve your spend management process. The prompts below can surface what needs attention, reduce admin time and free up bandwidth for strategic thinking.

Stay on top of approvals 

A full approvals queue is hard to get through quickly, especially if you have to open each expense just to catch what’s out of policy. Manually sifting through policy documentation to check what’s allowed also takes up time. Complete your approvals faster by asking questions directly within your AI tool.

Use these prompts:

• “Summarise everything waiting on my approval and flag anything outside policy.”
• “Review this month’s expenses for anything unusual or likely miscoded.”
• “Which of my team’s expenses need a second look before I approve them?”

Close the books faster 

Closing the books often involves digging through scattered records, then matching and categorising expenses. That kind of admin can eat up days, and for some teams it’s practically a full-time job. A spend management platform that connects to AI tools through an MCP can do a lot of that prep work, so closing the books is quicker and more efficient.

Use these prompts:

• “Build me a dashboard of everything blocking our month-end close.”
• “Code all Uber expenses under £50 to Travel and flag anything outside policy.”
• “Find all expenses missing a receipt this month and draft reminders I can send to the team.”
  

Let AI help with chasing 

Nobody enjoys sending the same reminder over and over, whether it’s a missing receipt, a stalled approval or an overdue invoice. Have your AI tool handle it so you can focus on more strategic work instead of chasing people down.

Use these prompts:

• “Find everyone with incomplete expenses this week and draft a Slack message to each of them listing what’s outstanding.”
• “Draft a Slack reminder for every approver with expenses that have been waiting more than a week.”
• “Which suppliers have the most overdue amounts?”
  

Simplify expense submissions 

Your colleagues have a lot to catch up on following an event or client meeting. Submitting expenses shouldn’t slow them down. Using an MCP can give teams quick answers about their expenses and avoid submission errors so they can get reimbursed faster. This also benefits your finance team because they won’t have to field as many expense-related questions.

Use these prompts:

• “Show me my expenses with missing info and what needs updating.”
• “Categorise and tag all my expenses from this trip.”
• “Add John and Sarah from Acme Corp as attendees to my dinner with the client yesterday.”

A clearer view of your spend with less effort 

The prompts above are a good place to start for clearing approvals, submitting expenses and getting a better read on your spend data. And they only scratch the surface of what an MCP can do to turn your finance questions into action.

Learn more about Pleo’s MCP and how it can automate finance workflows with your AI assistants.

Don’t have Pleo yet? Get in touch today.