variance-analysis
Breaks financial variances into drivers with narrative and waterfall analysis, for budget versus actual or period-over-period changes.
- Kind
- Skill
- Works with
- Claude Code
- Source
- Claude knowledge-work plugins @ 2574e29377c7
- Path
- finance/skills/variance-analysis/SKILL.md
- Jobs
- Review, Documentation
- Topics
- Finance
Credit
- Made by
- anthropics
- Original
- github.com/anthropics/knowledge-work-plugins/blob/2574e29377c…
- License
- Apache-2.0
Listed by Skill Manifest; not made by us.
InstallInstall it from a plugin marketplace.
claude plugin install finance@knowledge-work-plugins
Install factsScanned 2 Nov 2026
- Adds
- .claude/skills/variance-analysis/ (the skill folder)
- Runs scripts
- None found
- Uses the network
- None found
- Needs secrets
- None found
- Source revision
- 2574e29377c7
- Licence
- Apache-2.0
- Last activity
- 1 Nov 2026
- Review
- Reviewed
Found by a static scan of the stored text; nothing is run. “None found” is not a guarantee, so read what you install before you run it.
- Only the main file is read; other files in the folder are not scanned
# Variance Analysis
**Important**: This skill assists with variance analysis workflows but does not provide financial advice. All analyses should be reviewed by qualified financial professionals before use in reporting.
Techniques for decomposing variances, materiality thresholds, narrative generation, waterfall chart methodology, and budget vs actual vs forecast comparisons.
## Variance Decomposition Techniques
### Price / Volume Decomposition
The most fundamental variance decomposition. Used for revenue, cost of goods, and any metric that can be expressed as Price x Volume.
**Formula:**
```
Total Variance = Actual - Budget (or Prior)
Volume Effect = (Actual Volume - Budget Volume) x Budget Price
Price Effect = (Actual Price - Budget Price) x Actual Volume
Mix Effect = Residual (interaction term), or allocated proportionally
Verification: Volume Effect + Price Effect = Total Variance
(when mix is embedded in the price/volume terms)
```
**Three-way decomposition (separating mix):**
```
Volume Effect = (Actual Volume - Budget Volume) x Budget Price x Budget Mix
Price Effect = (Actual Price - Budget Price) x Budget Volume x Actual Mix
…