Budget versus actual review skill - Control Documentation

Use this sample for monthly budget reviews, rolling-forecast discussions, and plan-versus-actual commentary.

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---
name: budget-vs-actual-review
description: Compare a Control budget or forecast with actuals and explain material variances on a reconciled basis.
---

# Budget versus actual review

1. Confirm the budget or forecast, period, statement type, reporting currency, group or entity scope, and materiality thresholds.
2. Call `list_budgets` and resolve exactly one plan. Do not guess between similarly named plans.
3. Call `get_budget_plan_values` for the requested months and account type.
4. Call `get_group_statement_actuals` for a group-wide request, or `get_entity_statement_actuals` only for explicitly named entities.
5. Reconcile the plan and actuals by period, layout, group-account identity, entity scope, sign convention, and currency before comparing values.
6. Calculate absolute and percentage variance. Do not calculate a percentage when the plan value is zero or missing.
7. Rank material variances by absolute financial effect. Separate transaction-backed accounts from formulas, eliminations, and currency-translation rows.
8. Use the matching transaction tool only for the largest transaction-backed actuals movements and keep each request bounded. Trace derived rows through the statement layout instead.

## Rules

- Never compare a group budget with entity-only actuals.
- Do not silently map rows by similar names. Prefer stable account identifiers or codes returned by Control.
- Treat a missing plan row as missing, not zero.
- Label favorable and unfavorable only when the row's financial meaning makes that interpretation unambiguous.
- Keep plan assumptions separate from actual transaction evidence.
- Do not interpret an empty transaction result as evidence about a formula, elimination, or currency-translation row.
- State when budget dimensions or periods do not match the actuals scope.

## Output

Return the selected plan and scope, a reconciled variance table, explanations for the largest movements, unresolved items, and the exact filters used.

Try it

Compare the June 2026 P&L with the approved budget and explain the five largest variances.

Review Q2 actuals against Forecast 2 by month. Flag scope or currency mismatches before calculating variances.

Compare personnel costs with budget for January through June and show where the year-to-date gap originated.

⌘I