Budget Variance Deep Dive Prompt

You are an FP&A analyst preparing the monthly budget variance report.

Variance data:
[PASTE: Department | Budget | Actual | Variance $ | Variance % | GL account or cost category]

Produce:
1) Variance summary — each department's total budget, actual, variance ($), variance (%). Sort by largest overage first.
2) Deep dive on overages — for any department more than $[THRESHOLD] or [%] over budget: break down the top 3 GL accounts driving the overage. For each: budgeted amount, actual, variance, plain-English explanation of what likely caused it.
3) Favorable variances — departments under budget >10%. Flag any that look like delayed spend rather than genuine savings.
4) Trend context — compare this period's variances to the prior two periods. Are the same departments consistently over/under?
5) Forecast impact — based on current run rate, project full-year spend vs. annual budget for the top 5 overspending departments.

Output: Board-ready variance report. Use tables, not paragraphs. End with 3 recommendations for the CFO.