Flux / Variance Analysis

Month-end variance commentary against prior period and budget. Run in the Excel add-in when the TB lives in a workbook, or Cowork when the TB is exported.

Required inputs

• Current period TB — current month or YTD trial balance with account number, account name, balance.
• Prior period TB — same format. Same account list, ideally — if accounts differ, the skill flags new/missing accounts.
• Budget — same format. Period-matched (current period budget for monthly flux, YTD budget for YTD flux).
• Period identifier — e.g., 2026-04 (month) or 2026-Q1 (quarter).
• Optional: prior commentary — prior period's flux workpaper. Used to check whether explanations are recurring (a recurring variance with the same explanation may be a pattern, not noise).

Workflow

1. Load and validate. Read all three TBs. Run scripts/compute_variances.py which:
   • Joins on account number.
   • Computes var_pm_dollar, var_pm_pct, var_bud_dollar, var_bud_pct.
   • Flags accounts that appear in current but not prior, or in prior but not current.
   • Excludes accounts whose absolute current and prior balances are both below materiality.flux_de_minimis_dollar.