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Finance agent

Budget vs actual

After each close, every variance past your threshold gets a plain explanation, traced to the entries behind it. When the ledger can’t say why, it asks the person who owns that budget.

  • $12,500 fixed
  • Live in 3 to 6 weeks
  • Yours to keep
Let’s build your agent How it works
The review screen for Budget vs actual: four items, three done, and one (No clear cause) waiting for the head of engineering, who is asked: Contractors are $26,000 over, with no PO. Was it the data migration, brought forward?
How it works

A variance is only a number until it comes with its reason.

Here’s a typical run, step by step: what automation handles, what the agent does, and the calls that stay with your team.

The workflow for Budget vs actual, in 5 steps. It starts with “The books close” and ends with “A pack that says why”. Each step lists what automation, the agent and your team do there.
Budget vs actualA typical run
Starts withThe books closeSeptember is closed and the numbers are final, with budget and forecast already in your planning sheet.
Automation: Once the books close, pulls September by department and account and sets each line beside budget and last year.
~6h/mo

Step 1 of 5Line up the month

  • Automation

    Once the books close, pulls September by department and account and sets each line beside budget and last year.

    Actuals and budget sit in known places, mapped to the same accounts once at setup.

Reads
  • Accounting
  • Budget sheet
Writes
  • Variance report

~6 hours a month back

Where teams differMany teams compare to the latest forecast as well as the budget, and some add last year beside both.

Automation: Marks each line more than 10% and $5,000 off budget. Marketing events, $42,000 over, is one of six.
~4h/mo

Step 2 of 5Find what moved

  • Automation

    Marks each line more than 10% and $5,000 off budget. Marketing events, $42,000 over, is one of six.

    Your threshold is a number, so which lines need a sentence is known before anyone reads one.

Reads
  • Variance report
Writes
  • Variance report

~4 hours a month back

Where teams differThresholds vary: a percentage, a dollar amount or both, and often tighter for payroll.

The agent: Finds that $38,000 of the marketing overage is the deposit for a March trade show, paid early, so it’s timing.
~10h/mo

Step 3 of 5Explain each one

  • The agent

    Finds that $38,000 of the marketing overage is the deposit for a March trade show, paid early, so it’s timing.

    The ledger shows a $38,000 payment. The invoice and the PO say what it was for and when it’s used.

Reads
  • Accounting
  • Purchase orders
Writes
  • Variance report

~10 hours a month back

The agent: Writes to the head of engineering: contractors are $26,000 over on three invoices with no PO that mention a data migration. Was it brought forward?
IfYour team: Confirms the migration was brought forward from next quarter, or says what it was, and whether next quarter still needs the budget.
~5h/mo

Step 4 of 5Ask the budget owner

  • The agent

    Writes to the head of engineering: contractors are $26,000 over on three invoices with no PO that mention a data migration. Was it brought forward?

    The question is only useful with the invoices attached, written so the owner can answer in a line.

  • Your teamIf the ledger can’t say why

    Confirms the migration was brought forward from next quarter, or says what it was, and whether next quarter still needs the budget.

    Only the budget owner knows why the money was spent, and whether it will happen again.

Reads
  • Accounting
Writes
  • Email

~5 hours a month back

The agent: Turns the six explanations into the commentary page of your monthly pack, in the wording your team uses.
Your team: Checks the timing call on marketing and the engineering note, edits a line or two, and sends the pack to leadership.
~8h/mo

Step 5 of 5Check and share

  • The agent

    Turns the six explanations into the commentary page of your monthly pack, in the wording your team uses.

    Six explanations become one page someone will read, in the tone of the packs you’ve sent before.

  • Your team

    Checks the timing call on marketing and the engineering note, edits a line or two, and sends the pack to leadership.

    The pack goes to leadership under finance’s name, so finance decides what it says.

Reads
  • Variance report
Writes
  • Monthly pack

~8 hours a month back

Ends withA pack that says whyEach variance past your threshold explained in plain words, traced to its entries, and sent by finance.
Total~33h/mo

What changes

Every big swing gets a plain reason, traced to the entries behind it. Budget owners are asked only when the ledger can’t explain it, and finance sends the pack.

  • 2steps automated
  • 3steps for the agent
  • 2calls kept with your team

Pick any step to see what happens there and why it sits in that lane.

What it could be worth

~33 hours a month back

$27,700 a year in time

For a finance team explaining about 40 budget lines across eight departments each month, at $70 an hour. We work out yours from your own volumes before you sign.

Let’s build your agent
What we customize with you

One proven agent, plugged into how you work.

Every team does this job a little differently, so we set these five with the people who do it today. We’ve done this in dozens of businesses, so we know where teams usually differ and ask about those first.

The agent

Same for every client
  • Follows the same proven steps
  • A person on every exception
  • Every decision logged
  • Tested on your past work first
  • Never changes the budget or the actuals

  1. Your systems

    Where the work comes in, and where the result goes.

    For this agentActuals from your accounting system, budget and forecast from your planning tool or sheet.

  2. Your rules

    The limits and exceptions it works to.

    For this agentThe size of variance that needs a line, like 10% and $5,000, and how you word timing and one-offs.

  3. Your team

    Who signs off, and who covers when they’re away.

    For this agentThe finance manager for the pack, each budget owner for their own lines.

  4. Your channels

    Where your team hears from it.

    For this agentEmail or Slack for questions to budget owners, the pack by email.

  5. Your output

    What it hands back, in the format you already use.

    For this agentA variance commentary in your monthly pack’s layout, each figure traced to its entries.

Tracking the close and building the investor pack are other agents in the catalog. Changing a budget or a forecast stays with your team.

What you get

The agent, and everything that keeps it working.

  • The agentRunning on your systems, under your rules.
  • The review screenWhere the exceptions land for your finance manager and budget owners.
  • Your rulebookYour limits, exceptions and who signs off, in one place, often for the first time.
  • A test reportYour past budget variances, run through it and checked against the number.
  • The runbookHow it works, what to check, and what to do if it stops.
  • 30 days of tuningAfter it goes live, through a full month of your real budget variances.
The number we agree

Days from the books closing to the variance report reaching leadership. We measure it before we start, and again at day 30.

How we get there

Live in 3 to 6 weeks. About seven hours of your time.

We do the building. Your side: access, six months of budget and actuals, with the commentary your team sent, and a short weekly check-in.

  1. Before kickoff

    We send the access checklist.

    You, 2 hours. Access, an owner, and six months of budget and actuals, with the commentary your team sent.

  2. Weeks 1 to 2

    We connect your systems and set it up.

    You, 1 hour. Walk us through your rules.

  3. Weeks 2 to 4

    We test it on your past budget variances.

    You, 1 hour. Review what it flagged.

  4. Weeks 3 to 6

    It runs beside your team, then goes live.

    You, 1¼ hours. Work from the review screen.

Then 30 days of tuning, with a short check-in each week, about two hours of yours. At day 30 we show you the number and hand everything over.

After it’s live

It keeps running whether or not we stay.

  • It runs in your accounts

    Your cloud, your systems, and an AI account in your name, billed by the provider at their rates.

  • Changes in the first 30 days are included

    A new rule, a changed limit, someone new signing off. That’s what tuning is for.

  • After that, your call

    Your team edits the rulebook, the care plan covers it, or a bigger change is quoted first.

Questions

About this agent.

Where does the budget come from?
Wherever you keep it: a planning tool, or the spreadsheet leadership signed off. It reads it as it is and never changes it.
Can it compare to the forecast too?
Yes. Budget, the latest forecast and last year can sit side by side, each with its own threshold.
What if an explanation is wrong?
The budget owner or the finance manager corrects it before the pack goes out, and the correction is kept with that line for next month.
Our process isn’t quite like this. Will it still work?
That’s the usual case. The job looks the same in most businesses, but the details never do. We map how your team does it today, then set the rules, systems and approvals to match. That’s what most of the 3 to 6 weeks are for.
How do we agree the number?
Together, before any work starts. For this agent it’s the days from the books closing to the variance report reaching leadership. We measure it before we start, and again at day 30.
What does it cost to run once it’s live?
Hosting and AI, paid straight to the providers, not through us. It usually runs 5x to 25x cheaper than doing the same work by hand, and we work out your figure from your real volumes before you sign.

How long does your variance commentary take each month?

Tell us how your team handles budget variances today. We’ll show you this agent on examples like yours, and whether it fits the fixed price.

Let’s build your agentBack to Finance
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  • 3 to 6 weeksto live, then 30 days of tuning
  • $12,500fixed, per agent
  • Yours to keepno license fees
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