Use ChatGPT to Turn an Internal Approval Request into a Review Brief

What you will make

You will make a one-page approval brief from three fictional internal notes. It will show the request, evidence, open questions, policy checks, and the decision that still belongs to a person.

This is a documentation-based guide. OpenAI documents that ChatGPT can work with uploaded files and transform or extract information from them. The files and output below are illustrative. No ChatGPT run is claimed.

Before you start

Use ChatGPT on a surface where file uploads are available and use fictional or approved material only. Account, workspace, region, model, and file limits can affect availability. Create these files:

request.txt

REQUEST: Add a quarterly customer onboarding workshop
Requester: Maya, fictional operations lead
Requested date: 2026-11-06
Purpose: reduce repeated setup questions for new customers
What is requested: approval to spend up to EUR 900 on room hire and printed materials
Not included: facilitator, attendee count, confirmed demand, or final budget owner

policy.txt

External spend above EUR 500 needs an accountable budget owner and a written quote before approval.
A proposed date is not a confirmed booking.

evidence.txt

Support notes from three fictional conversations mention repeated setup questions.
No count of affected customers or workshop registration list is attached.
Room hire quote: not provided.

The gaps are deliberate. Do not fill them in from common practice.

Three steps

1. Upload the complete notes

Attach the three files to a new ChatGPT conversation and paste:

Prepare a one-page internal approval brief from the three attached files.

Return these sections:
1. Request and intended outcome.
2. Facts stated in each source file, with the filename.
3. Policy checks and whether each requirement is met.
4. Missing evidence and questions for the requester.
5. Decision options: approve, return for more information, or decline.
6. The exact human approval gate.

Rules:
- Use only the attached files.
- Keep dates, currencies and amounts exactly as stated.
- Separate a proposed date from a confirmed booking.
- Write "not provided" when a quote, owner, count or approval is missing.
- Do not claim that three conversations prove demand.
- Do not approve the spend, contact anyone, book a room, or assign an owner.

2. Run a source audit

Paste this follow-up:

Audit the brief against request.txt, policy.txt, and evidence.txt.
For every amount, date, policy condition, or demand statement:
1. quote the exact supporting sentence,
2. name the source file,
3. mark supported, incomplete, or unsupported.

List every inference separately. Do not silently repair the brief.

3. Use the approval gate

The accountable budget owner should answer the open questions, attach the required quote, and decide whether the request is ready. Keep the brief as a review artifact. It is not approval just because the options are neatly formatted.

Acceptance checks

The brief passes when the EUR 900 request and 2026-11-06 proposed date remain unchanged, the policy requirements are visible, the missing quote and budget owner stay missing, the three conversations are not treated as demand proof, and a named accountable person still owns the final decision.

Common failures

It invents a quote: ask for the exact source sentence and mark the requirement incomplete.
It treats repeated questions as a measured demand signal: keep the notes as reported evidence and request a count or registration evidence.
It turns the proposed date into a booking: repeat that the date is proposed until a confirmed booking exists.
It recommends approval: ask for options and missing evidence, then stop at the human approval gate.

Do not upload confidential requests or budget documents to an unapproved account. A review brief is not authorization to spend.

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