Description
Variance-analysis is an agent skill that breaks down the difference between financial figures into the drivers behind it. It covers budget against actual, period against period, and comparisons of budget, actual and forecast, and it produces narrative explanations and waterfall analysis to show how each driver adds to or takes away from the total. Its main method is price and volume decomposition, which applies to revenue, cost of goods and any metric that can be expressed as price times volume. For those, the total variance is split into a volume effect and a price effect, so you can see whether a change came from selling more or from charging differently. The skill also covers materiality thresholds, which decide which variances are big enough to explain. It states that it assists with variance analysis workflows but does not give financial advice, and that analyses should be reviewed by a qualified financial professional before they are used in reporting. It is part of Anthropic's knowledge-work plugins.…
Highlights
- Splits variances into price and volume effects
- Compares budget, actual and forecast
- Produces narrative explanations and waterfall analysis
- Applies materiality thresholds to decide what to explain
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variance-analysis FAQ
What does variance-analysis produce?
A breakdown of the difference between two figures into drivers, with narrative text and waterfall analysis.
Which comparisons does it handle?
Budget against actual, period against period, and budget, actual and forecast together.
What is price and volume decomposition?
A split of a variance into the part caused by a change in volume and the part caused by a change in price, used for revenue, cost of goods and similar metrics.
Is it financial advice?
No. The skill says it supports variance analysis only and that a qualified financial professional should review the analysis before it is used in reporting.
How do I install it?
Run npx skills add https://github.com/anthropics/knowledge-work-plugins --skill variance-analysis in your terminal.
Is it free?
Yes. The skill is listed as free on skills.sh.
What security audits has it passed?
skills.sh lists three audits: Gen Agent Trust Hub Pass, Socket Pass and Snyk Pass.
What are the best variance-analysis alternatives?
Popular alternatives to variance-analysis include variance-commentary, business-pulse and quarterly-review. See all variance-analysis alternatives