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Prompt guide for SME and Founders

Updated over 3 weeks ago

Ask Noya works best when questions are specific and grounded in a number, a time period, or a situation. This guide shows you how to ask questions that get clear, useful answers, with real prompt examples you can use or adapt.

The basics of a good question

Noya is working from your financial data. The more your question points it toward a specific piece of that data, the more useful the answer will be.

Be specific about what you are asking about: cash flow, invoices, bills, margins, ratios, or runway.

Include a time period where relevant: this month, last quarter, the past 30 days, compared to last month.

Include what you want to do with the answer: understand why something happened, decide whether to do something, or know what to prioritise.

Cash flow questions

Instead of this:

How is my cash flow?

Try this:

My cash flow health score dropped from 62 to 46 since last week. What is causing the drop and what should I do about it?

Or this:

How many days of cash runway do I have right now if my revenue drops to zero tomorrow?

Or this:

What is the single biggest risk to my cash position in the next 30 days?

Invoice and receivables questions

Instead of this:

What invoices do I have?

Try this:

Which of my overdue invoices represent the highest cash flow risk right now and in what order should I chase them?

Or this:

One of my customers has two overdue invoices. What should I say to them and what are my options if they do not pay?

Or this:

If I collected 50 percent of my overdue invoices this month, what would that do to my runway?

Bills and payables questions

Instead of this:

What bills do I have to pay?

Try this:

Which bills are due in the next 30 days and do I have enough cash to cover them without going below a comfortable buffer?

Or this:

I have a large supplier payment coming up. What is the safest way to time it given my current cash position?

Profit and performance questions

Instead of this:

Is my business profitable?

Try this:

My gross profit is lower this month than last month. What might be causing that and where should I look first?

Or this:

What is eating into my margins right now and which expenses have grown the most over the past three months?

Planning and scenario questions

Instead of this:

Can I afford to hire someone?

Try this:

If I hire one person at a cost of $6,000 per month starting next month, what does that do to my runway and my 90-day cash flow forecast?

Or this:

I am thinking about investing $15,000 in marketing next quarter. At what point would I need to see additional revenue coming in for this to be cash-flow neutral?

Or this:

What is the financial impact of delaying my biggest supplier payment by 30 days?

When Noya does not give you a useful answer

If Noya gives you a response that is too general or does not answer your question, try one of these approaches:

• Add more context to the question, for example the specific metric you are looking at or the decision you are trying to make

• Open Noya from the relevant dashboard page so the page context is loaded before you ask

• Break a complex question into two or three simpler questions and build toward the answer

• Use the Quick Actions on any dashboard page as a starting point, they are generated from your actual data and usually give you a strong lead-in

Note

Noya is not a search engine and is not retrieving documents. It is reasoning over your financial data. Questions that feel like a web search, such as 'what is the best way to manage cash flow', will get a general answer. Questions that are specific to your numbers will get a specific answer.

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