Variance Commentary

From the author

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.

— the description by Anthropic

AutoGineer summary

Written by AutoGineer from the skill’s own files, not by the author

Variance commentary streamlines the month-end close process by automatically identifying significant fluctuations in P&L and balance sheet accounts. It compares current actuals against prior periods and budgets, applying materiality thresholds to determine which lines require explanation. By analyzing underlying activity data, the skill generates concise, driver-focused commentary that explains the 'why' behind financial movements, ensuring management reports are insightful and audit-ready.

What it does

Identifies financial lines exceeding materiality thresholds or mandatory reporting requirements.
Calculates absolute and percentage variances against prior periods and budget targets.
Generates professional commentary explaining the business drivers behind financial fluctuations.
Produces a structured table containing line items, comparative data, and variance analysis.
Summarizes the period's most significant financial movers in a concise narrative.
Flags ambiguous data for controller review when underlying drivers cannot be determined.

When to use it

During the monthly financial close process to prepare management reporting packages.
When performing periodic budget-to-actual reviews for departmental or firm-wide performance.
To standardize the quality and depth of financial commentary across different business units.
When you need to quickly identify and explain significant balance sheet or P&L movements.

Advantages

Reduces manual effort in drafting repetitive financial commentary.
Ensures consistency in reporting by applying standardized materiality thresholds.
Focuses on actionable business drivers rather than simple restatement of numerical changes.
Improves audit trails by linking financial variances to underlying activity data.

Usage examples

“Generate the variance commentary for the June month-end close using the provided actuals and budget data.”: The agent produces a table of all lines exceeding the 5% threshold, including specific business drivers like 'Cloud spend up $1.2M on incremental GPU reservations' and a summary narrative.
“Review the Q3 balance sheet and draft commentary for significant movements.”: The agent identifies flagged accounts, calculates the variances, and provides a structured report explaining the primary drivers for the identified changes.

Install

Download the skill as a ZIP:
https://mp-staging.autogineer.com/agent-skills/anthropics/variance-commentary/download

Unzip it into the cross-client skills folder of your project:

mkdir -p .agents/skills && unzip variance-commentary.zip -d .agents/skills

Documentation by Anthropic

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.

Files

ATTRIBUTION.mdAdded by AutoGineer932 B
LICENSELicence file added by AutoGineer11.1 KiB
SKILL.md1.5 KiB

SKILL.md