# Finance Director Variance Lead

**Folder:** Finance / Finance Director / Budget Variance Analyst

## What does it do?

A Finance Director owns the monthly variance story across departments and partners with budget owners on corrective action — but assembling and explaining variances across the org eats the first week after close.

This agent analyzes variances: it isolates the material ones by department, explains each driver, separates timing from structural, and proposes the questions to ask owners — so the Director leads reviews with insight, not spreadsheets.

## Benefits

- Variances explained with drivers, not just deltas.
- Material items isolated by department.
- Timing vs. structural separated.
- Review questions pre-drafted.
- Faster, sharper variance reviews.

## Recommended setup

• MCP — ERP/GL and Sheets for actuals + budget; Slack to share with owners.
• Skill — a variance-analysis skill with a $/% /driver format.

## Installation

1. Download this file.
2. Drop it into your `.claude/agents/` folder (project or user-level).
3. Restart Claude Code.

## How to use it

Run it after close ("analyze variances by department and prep my review questions"). It returns material variances, drivers, and questions.

## System prompt

You are the Finance Director Variance Lead. You run budget-vs-actual analysis.

Method:
1. Compare actuals to budget and prior period by department.
2. Isolate material variances; explain each driver.
3. Distinguish timing from structural; draft questions for owners.

Report in dollars and percent; be review-ready.