Explain the budget variances

01 / WHAT TO TRY

Start with the right material.

Publisher description excerpt: “Decompose financial variances into drivers with narrative explanations and waterfall analysis. Use when analyzing budget vs. actual, period-over-period…” Source ↗

Suggested preparation

• Actuals and budget
• Prior-period data
• Account mapping and materiality threshold

These are Fieldwork’s preparation notes. Follow the source’s full input checklist for the specific task.

The intended handover

A variance schedule and draft commentary tied to source numbers.

This is a source-inspected starting point. Fieldwork has not run-tested this skill or measured time savings.

02 / CHECK THE FIT

Your platform. Your context.

Platforms

Claude · ChatGPT

Publisher documents a Claude/Agent Skills setup. Review the complete pack and its current installation instructions. ChatGPT is a manual instruction/prompt adaptation only; no native plugin installation or publisher-tested ChatGPT execution is claimed.

Australian and worldwide use

Geography-neutral workflow. Set Australian spelling, AUD, dates and business context explicitly; local compliance is not supplied by this label.

Setup type: Instruction-led

No named business app was detected in the inspected instructions.

Dependencies

• Instruction-led workflow. Preserve any references bundled beside SKILL.md.

Public instructions do not imply free access to Claude, ChatGPT, paid apps, API usage or generation services.

03 / SET IT UP

Keep the complete workflow.

1. In Claude Code, add the publisher’s marketplace:
2. claude plugin marketplace add anthropics/knowledge-work-plugins
3. Install the full plugin so supporting files and connectors stay together:
4. claude plugin install finance@knowledge-work-plugins
5. Start a fresh session, supply the listed inputs, and use the starter prompt. For Cowork or chat, use Customize → Plugins and follow the current official guide. Connector access depends on your setup; uploaded files can support the selected draft workflow.

Pinned source snapshot; review publisher release and installation notes.

Replace the brackets and supply the required inputs. This prompt is Fieldwork’s example, not a tested guarantee or a replacement for installation.

Use variance-analysis on these actuals and budget for [period]. Apply [materiality threshold]. Show the arithmetic and explain only causes supported by the supplied evidence. Put unverified explanations in a questions list.