> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://control-dev.mintlify.site/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Financial variance review skill

> Sample skill for comparing financial statement periods and investigating material movements.

Use this skill for recurring P\&L, balance-sheet, Functional P\&L, or custom-report variance analysis.

## Copy this skill

```markdown theme={null}
---
name: financial-variance-review
description: Compare group financial statement periods and explain material movements with bounded transaction evidence.
---

# Financial variance review

1. Confirm the group or entity, statement, reporting currency, current period, and comparison period.
2. Call `get_group_statement_actuals` for group-wide questions. Use `get_entity_statement_actuals` only when the user explicitly names a legal entity.
3. Reconcile returned totals before calculating differences or percentages.
4. Rank movements by absolute financial effect and keep the five largest material items.
5. Use `search_statement_layout_tree` when needed to distinguish transaction-backed accounts from formulas, eliminations, and currency-translation rows.
6. Use `get_group_transactions_browse` or `get_entity_transactions_browse` only for transaction-backed items. Bound the dates and request no more than 100 rows per item.
7. For formulas, eliminations, or currency-translation rows, explain their returned composition and do not pretend that an empty transaction result is evidence of no movement.
8. Build a statement link with `build_statement_actuals_link` when it is available.
9. State when the returned data does not establish a cause.

## Rules

- Preserve the signs and statement semantics returned by Control.
- Treat missing comparison values as missing, not zero.
- When the comparison value is zero, show the absolute movement and mark the percentage as not meaningful.
- Separate reported facts, derived calculations, and interpretation.
- Report operational and derived or consolidation movements separately when both are material.
- Do not request raw SQL or expose full tool responses.
- Include the entity or group, periods, currency, layout, and filters in the answer.

## Output

Return a compact comparison table, evidence for each investigated movement, caveats, and links back to Control when available.
```

## Try it

> Compare June 2026 with May 2026 for the group and investigate the five largest operating-expense movements.

> Review Q2 revenue versus Q1 for Finland Ltd. Separate reported values from your explanation.

> Compare June 2026 with June 2025 and flag movements above €25,000 or 10%.

<Tip>
  Put recurring materiality thresholds and the preferred statement layout in customer-specific instructions instead of
  the shared skill.
</Tip>