Purpose
Turn a wall of financial numbers into a short, audience-calibrated narrative that a non-finance stakeholder understands in one read — leading with the takeaway, explaining what moved and why in plain business language, and surfacing the decision or watch-item they need to act on. Eliminates the gap between what the model shows and what the business partner actually needs to know.
When to Use
Invoke this skill when the user asks to:
- Summarize monthly or quarterly close results for a business audience
- Explain a budget variance or forecast change to a non-finance stakeholder
- Turn model outputs or a P&L into an executive or board-ready update
- Write a financial update for a department head, GM, or cross-functional partner
- Translate a variance report into plain-language commentary
- Prepare talking points for a business review or leadership meeting
Inputs Required
Before starting, collect:
- Financial data: The raw numbers, variance report, P&L, or model output being summarized (paste values or describe)
- Reporting period: The period covered (e.g., "March actuals," "Q2 forecast vs. plan")
- Comparison basis: What the numbers are measured against — budget, prior period, forecast, or prior year
- Audience: Who receives this — role and finance fluency (e.g., "VP of Sales, low finance fluency")
- Their KPIs: The 1-3 metrics this stakeholder actually owns or cares about
- Purpose of the update: Inform only, request a decision, flag a risk, or drive an action
- Length constraint: Email-length, one-pager, or a few bullets (optional)
If audience fluency is unspecified, assume low finance fluency and strip all accounting jargon. If a comparison basis isn't given, default to variance against budget/plan.
Instructions
Step 1: Identify the Headline
Determine the single most important thing this stakeholder needs to take away — the answer to "how are we doing on the thing you care about?"
- Anchor it to their owned KPIs, not the full P&L
- State direction and magnitude in one sentence: "We're $340K ahead of plan on revenue, driven mostly by faster deal closes in your region."
- If the news is mixed, lead with the net position, then acknowledge the tension
- Avoid burying the headline under context — it comes first
Step 2: Select the 3-5 Movements That Matter
From the raw data, extract only the variances that are material or relevant to this audience. Filter aggressively.
- Materiality filter: Include a line only if the variance is large in dollars OR large in percentage OR tied to the stakeholder's KPIs
- Suppress the noise: Drop small, immaterial line items — a non-finance reader doesn't need every GL account
- For each selected movement, capture: the metric, the size of the change, and the comparison basis
- Cap at 5 movements — more than that and the update stops being a summary
Step 3: Explain Each Movement in Business Terms
For each of the 3-5 movements, write a short driver-and-implication statement using this structure:
- What happened: The number, stated plainly with rounded figures ("about $200K under budget")
- Why it happened: The business driver behind it — a hiring delay, a slipped deal, a price change, higher usage — not the accounting mechanism
- What it means: The forward implication for the business or for this stakeholder
Translation rules:
- Replace jargon with plain equivalents: "unfavorable variance" → "we spent more than planned"; "accretive" → "adds to profit"; "run-rate" → "annualized pace"
- Use rounded numbers and always include the comparison ("vs. budget," "vs. last quarter")
- Give directional context — is this a one-time blip or a trend?
Step 4: State the Ask or Watch-Item
Close with what you need from the reader, matched to the purpose of the update:
- Inform: "No action needed — sharing for visibility."
- Decision: State the decision, the options, and your recommendation
- Risk flag: Name the risk, the potential dollar impact, and the trigger point to watch
- Action: State exactly what you need them to do and by when
Step 5: Calibrate Tone and Length to the Audience
- Executive/board: Terse, outcome-first, quantified; assume time pressure
- Department head/GM: Operational framing tied to their team's levers
- Cross-functional partner: More context, more translation, less finance shorthand
- Match the requested length — if email-length, keep it under 200 words total
Output Format
- Structure: Headline sentence → 3-5 key movements (each with what/why/means) → Ask or Watch-Item
- Length: 150-350 words depending on the length constraint provided
- Format: Short prose with a bold headline line and scannable bulleted movements
- Sections: Headline → What Moved (bulleted, 3-5 items) → What This Means For You → The Ask / What to Watch
- Tone: Plain-spoken, confident, and businesslike — a trusted finance partner explaining results, not an accountant reciting a statement
Quality Checklist
Before delivering output, verify:
- [ ] The headline appears first and ties to the stakeholder's owned KPIs
- [ ] No more than 5 movements are included, each material or audience-relevant
- [ ] Every movement includes a business driver (the "why"), not just the number
- [ ] Zero unexplained finance jargon remains (no "unfavorable variance," "EBITDA bridge," "accruals" without translation)
- [ ] Every figure includes its comparison basis (vs. budget, prior period, etc.)
- [ ] The update ends with a clear ask, decision, or watch-item matched to the stated purpose
Notes
- The most common failure mode is including too much — when in doubt, cut a movement. A stakeholder who reads three points is better served than one who skims eight.
- Round aggressively for non-finance readers; precision to the dollar signals accounting, not communication.
- If the data reveals a genuine surprise or risk, lead with it plainly — non-finance partners resent finding out about a problem late.
- When the news is bad, still open with the net position honestly; softening the headline erodes trust faster than the bad number does.
How to use this skill
This file is a Claude Code skill in Anthropic's standard format — markdown with YAML frontmatter at the top.
Installing in Claude Code:
~/.claude/skills/<folder-name>/SKILL.md— auto-loads in every session anywhere on your machine (recommended for skills you'll use across multiple projects)<your-project>/.claude/skills/<folder-name>/SKILL.md— auto-loads only when working in that project (recommended for project-specific skills)
Restart Claude Code or open a new session to register.
Using in Claude.ai, ChatGPT, Gemini, or other AI tools:
- Drag this file into a new chat, or copy and paste its contents
- Send your task or request as your next message — the AI will apply the skill where it fits
For Claude Code skill details: https://docs.anthropic.com/en/docs/claude-code/skills