budget-variance-explainer SKILL.md skillA
budget-variance-explainer from kesslernity/awesome-copilot-agent-skills is an agent skill: a SKILL.md folder an AI agent loads when a task calls for it.
mdr add kesslernity/awesome-copilot-agent-skills/budget-variance-explainer@git:20260917.f14a4fbPins git:20260917.f14a4fb in mdr.lock. Pin the fingerprint instead.
- Audit grade
- A, 17 of 17 checks passed
- Kind
- SKILL.md skill
- Repository
- kesslernity/awesome-copilot-agent-skills
- Path
skills/finance/budget-variance-explainer/SKILL.md- Versions recorded
- 2
- Latest version
- git:20260917.f14a4fb, committed Sep 17, 2026
- First version recorded
- Sep 16, 2026
- Size
- 10,977 bytes
- Repository stars
- 15
- License
- CC-BY-SA-4.0
Turns an actuals-versus-budget extract (spreadsheet, export or pasted table) into a DRAFT variance table with absolute and percentage variances, favourable or adverse marking and a ranking by size, then drafts plain-language driver hypotheses for each material variance as questions to verify with a named owner, never as asserted causes. Use when the user asks to "explain these variances", "why are we over budget on this line", "write the variance commentary for the management pack…
Collected from public GitHub. Every version is saved exactly as it was and never changes. Install it at an exact version with the mdr tool, and every file is checked before it reaches your agent. The main file is checked against the SHA-256 fingerprint recorded here, and the others against the fingerprints GitHub keeps for its source commit. The automatic checks below grade the latest version, and the same checks always give the same file the same grade.
What the file says
# Budget variance explainer ## Purpose Read one extract holding actuals and budget by line (optionally prior year, forecast, volumes or headcount), compute and rank the variances, and for every material line draft two to four driver hypotheses. Each hypothesis is a question paired with the evidence that would confirm or refute it and the role that could confirm it. It gives the finance business partner a starting point for commentary; it never states a cause, rates performance or replaces the reporting system that owns the numbers. Every figure is "as read, verify in source". ## When to use Run when the user asks to explain, analyse or comment on variances between actuals and budget or forecast, to draft variance commentary for a management pack, or to find which lines drive a total variance. Do not use for a spreadsheet with no budget or comparison column, use dataset-insight-pack instead; for a weekly KPI report against last week's figures, use kpi-weekly-report-writer. Do not run to produce a forecast, to assert why a variance happened, to judge a manager's performance, or to present journals or budget transfers as done. ## Inputs …
Read the whole file at its exact version.
How to install
mdr add kesslernity/awesome-copilot-agent-skills/budget-variance-explainer@sha256:4b4e9676da982e1cThe line at the top of this page pins the label git:20260917.f14a4fb, which is what most people want. This one pins the sha256 fingerprint of the contents instead, so it survives a label being moved. Either way the exact version is written to mdr.lock, and mdr install downloads and checks those contents again, so it installs them exactly or stops with an error.
[](https://markdownregistry.com/a/art_l44siow7323pqzj7)
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Versions
The registry has recorded 2 versions of this file, between Sep 16, 2026 and Sep 17, 2026, more than one a day.
| version | committed | commit | size | audit | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| git:20260917.f14a4fb latest | 2026-09-17 | f14a4fb | 10,977 B | A | view · diff |
| git:20260916.44af39e | 2026-09-16 | 44af39e | 10,969 B | A | view |
Audit of the latest version
- pass: Frontmatter block present
- pass: Frontmatter declares a name
- pass: Frontmatter declares a description
- pass: Size between 200 bytes and 200 KB (10977 bytes)
- pass: No zero-width or bidi control characters
- pass: No instruction hidden inside an HTML comment
- pass: No link to an exfiltration or paste host
- pass: No credential-shaped string
- pass: No instruction to send local credentials anywhere
- pass: No text hidden with inline styles
- pass: No prompt-injection phrasing
- pass: No curl or wget piped into a shell
- pass: No recursive delete of root, home or parent
- pass: No instruction to read or print local credentials
- pass: No base64 blob over 200 characters
- pass: No link to a raw IP address
- pass: No script tag
Source
kesslernity/awesome-copilot-agent-skills · 15 stars · license CC-BY-SA-4.0 · pushed 2026-11-05 · branch main
API
GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/artifacts/art_l44siow7323pqzj7 GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/resolve?ref=kesslernity/awesome-copilot-agent-skills/budget-variance-explainer GET https://markdownregistry.com/api/v1/blob/4b4e9676da982e1c8c9d698790d6a62da4110f58c17210c43d11931544037c9f
Your AI assistant does the legwork. You hear about the deals worth your word. Hand yours the standing instructions at modelranch.com and it joins the network that reads files like this one.
Guides: the SKILL.md format and its required fields · what to check before you install a skill · how to pin a skill to an exact version · where to find agent skills · keeping a team on the same skills · which agent file does what.
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