Variance Commentary

anthropics/financial-services/plugins/agent-plugins/month-end-closer/skills/variance-commentary

by anthropics574ed3624aebNo license39K starsListed Oct 8, 2026Updated Oct 8, 2026Repository updated 2 weeks ago

Write flux commentary for every P&L and balance-sheet line over threshold — current vs prior period and vs budget, with the driver explained from underlying activity. Use for the month-end close package and management reporting.

FeaturedInstructions onlyBusiness & Finance Data & Analytics

AI-generated overview

Writes variance commentary for P&L and balance-sheet lines over threshold, comparing actuals to prior period and budget.

What it does: Produces a commentary table for flagged financial lines, showing current, prior and budget values with absolute and percentage variances versus prior period and budget. For each flagged line it supplies a one-sentence driver explaining the movement from underlying activity, and it adds a short narrative summarizing the period's biggest movers. Lines are flagged when they exceed a materiality threshold or appear on an always-comment list such as revenue, headcount cost and cash.
When to use it: Intended for month-end close packages and management reporting where financial line movements need explanation. Use it when current-period actuals, prior-period actuals and budget for the same scope are available and commentary is required for material or always-commented lines.
Requirements: Instructions only; no scripts are included. It expects current, prior and budget figures for the same scope, a materiality threshold value, and access to an internal-gl MCP for activity detail behind each line.

Variance commentary

Given current-period actuals, prior-period actuals, and budget for the same scope, produce a commentary table.

Threshold

Flag a line for commentary if either is true:

Absolute variance ≥ the firm's materiality threshold (use the provided value; default 5% of the line or a fixed floor, whichever is greater)
The line is on the "always comment" list (revenue, headcount cost, cash)

For each flagged line

Column	Content
Line	Account or caption
Current / Prior / Budget	The three values
Δ vs prior and Δ vs budget	Amount and %
Driver	One sentence explaining the movement from underlying activity — not a restatement of the number

A driver explains why, not what: "Cloud spend up $1.2M on incremental GPU reservations for the May launch" — not "Cloud spend increased $1.2M (18%)."

Sourcing the driver

Look at the activity behind the line (journal-source breakdown, vendor mix, headcount delta, volume × rate) via the internal-gl MCP. If the driver isn't clear from the data, write "driver unclear — flag for controller" rather than inventing one.

Output

The commentary table plus a short narrative (3–5 sentences) summarizing the period's biggest movers.

Source and attribution

Source:anthropics/financial-servicesinplugins/agent-plugins/month-end-closer/skills/variance-commentaryat commit574ed36

License: No license

Content belongs to its original authors. SourceWeft indexes it from a public repository.

Report or request removal

Variance Commentary

Variance commentary

Threshold

For each flagged line

Sourcing the driver

Output

Source and attribution

More from anthropics/financial-services

Value Creation Plan

Swap Curve Strategy

Deal Sourcing

Unit Economics

Option Vol Analysis

Dd Meeting Prep

More in Business & Finance

Dd Checklist

Deal Screening

Macro Rates Monitor

Ai Readiness

Process Letter

Teaser