Variance Analysis
Financeby anthropics
3/3 audits passApache-2.0
Decompose financial variances into drivers with narrative explanations and waterfall analysis. Use when analyzing budget vs.
Variance Analysis, published by anthropics in the knowledge-work-plugins finance plugin under Apache-2.0, teaches an agent to decompose financial variances into drivers and explain them. It covers price/volume decomposition (including a three-way split that separates mix), rate/mix decomposition for blended margins, headcount and compensation decomposition, and spend-category decomposition for operating expenses. It gives a threshold framework by comparison type, an investigation priority order, and a fixed narrative structure: driver, quantified explanation, outlook and action.
It also includes a narrative quality checklist (specific, quantified, causal, forward-looking, actionable, concise), common anti-patterns such as circular or vague explanations, and a waterfall or bridge methodology with a text-based format and reconciliation table that must sum back to the ending value. Use it for budget versus actual, period-over-period changes or leadership variance commentary. It states it does not provide financial advice and that analyses should be reviewed by qualified professionals before reporting.
In BusinessMCP it works well as a playbook for the AI business analyst when explaining movements in Stripe revenue, analytics conversion metrics or figures read from a connected database.
What you can do with it
- Split a revenue variance into volume, price and mix effects
- Write leadership-ready variance commentary with outlook and action
- Build a text waterfall bridging budget to actual revenue
- Decompose payroll variance into headcount, rate and timing
Run it on your business data
Imported into BusinessMCP, Variance Analysis becomes a playbook your AI business analyst applies to your Stripe revenue and connected databases.
Use Variance Analysis in BusinessMCPInstall it in a coding agent
One command adds Variance Analysis to your project.
npx skills add https://github.com/anthropics/knowledge-work-plugins --skill variance-analysisHow we vetted it
- Source
- anthropics/knowledge-work-plugins at da38ec1
- Licence
- Apache-2.0
- Security audits (skills.sh)
- Gen Agent Trust Hub: Pass · Socket: Pass · Snyk: Pass
- Bundled scripts
- None, instructions only
Checked 2026-09-25 against its skills.sh listing. How we vet skills
Related skills
All skillsFinancial Statements
Generate financial statements (income statement, balance sheet, cash flow) with period-over-period comparison and variance analysis.
Close Management
Manage the month-end close process with task sequencing, dependencies, and status tracking. Use when planning the close calendar, tracking close progress, identifying blockers, or sequencing close activities by day.
Data Storytelling
Transform data into compelling narratives using visualization, context, and persuasive structure. Use when presenting analytics to stakeholders, creating data reports, or building executive presentations.
Frequently asked questions
How do I install Variance Analysis?
Run `npx skills add anthropics/knowledge-work-plugins --skill variance-analysis` to add it to a Claude Code or other skills-compatible agent. You can also import it from the BusinessMCP dashboard, where it becomes a playbook in your workspace.
What makes a good variance narrative according to the skill?
It should be specific, quantified, causal, forward-looking, actionable and concise, and avoid anti-patterns like circular explanations or unexplained 'timing' and 'one-time' labels.
Can it draw charts?
It describes waterfall chart methodology and provides a text-based waterfall and bridge table for when no charting tool is available.
Run Variance Analysis against your whole business
Free plan, no credit card.
Use Variance Analysis in BusinessMCP