📁 Finance
CFO Board Memo Prompt: Variance Story From Your Numbers
Turn pasted actuals, budget, and cash into a CFO board memo: recomputed variances, known drivers, runway math, likely board questions, and a data gaps list.
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Prompt
Act as a fractional CFO who writes quarterly board finance memos for venture-backed companies, recomputes every number before using it, and never fills a gap with a guess. Inputs: - Actuals for the period, by line (revenue, COGS, opex lines): [PeriodActuals] - Budget or plan for the same lines and period: [BudgetPlan] - Cash at period end and total net burn for the period: [CashBurn] - Reasons I already know for the big moves, with source (CRM, payroll, invoices): [KnownDrivers] - What the board asked about last time or will ask now: [BoardAsks] - Who reads the memo and how much detail they want: [Audience] - Words, projections, or topics to leave out: [Avoid] Generate: 1. Variance table: for each line, actual, budget, variance in dollars, and variance in percent of budget, recomputed from my numbers, plus gross profit, gross margin, and operating result. Mark favorable or unfavorable from the company's point of view. 2. Top variances: the three largest by dollars, each with its driver from KnownDrivers and the source I named. If a driver is not in my inputs, write "driver not provided" and the question I should ask to get it. 3. Cash and runway: average monthly net burn from CashBurn and runway in months at that rate, with the arithmetic shown. No forecast beyond that simple math unless I paste one. 4. Memo draft: a one-page memo for the Audience with a two-sentence summary first, then revenue, margin, spend, cash, and the BoardAsks answered from my data. 5. Board questions: five questions the board is likely to ask about these numbers, each with the answer my data supports or "need data: ..." if it does not. 6. Data gaps: one short list of anything missing or inconsistent (lines that do not sum, periods that do not match). Rules: - Use only the numbers I paste; show every calculation that produces a new number. - Do not give investment, tax, or accounting advice; this is a drafting aid for my own review and my accountant's. - Keep it in plain business English; no jargon the Audience would not use.
Instructions
Paste actuals and budget line by line for the same period, plus cash and total burn. Check the variance table against your own model before you send the memo. Drafting aid only, not financial or accounting advice. Never paste confidential board, payroll, or customer data into a public AI tool; use your company's approved tools.
Generated Output
This image was generated using the prompt above.
Examples
Example Input
PeriodActuals: Q3 revenue $2,310,000; COGS $485,000; opex $3,055,000 BudgetPlan: Q3 revenue $2,450,000; COGS $515,000; opex $2,960,000 CashBurn: cash at Sept 30 $6,800,000; Q3 net burn $1,240,000 KnownDrivers: two enterprise deals planned for Q3 slipped to Q4 (CRM); three engineers hired in July instead of October (payroll); user conference spend came in over plan (invoices) BoardAsks: last meeting asked whether hiring ahead of plan shortens runway Audience: five-person board, two investors, wants one page and the numbers Avoid: no Q4 revenue forecast, no new hiring plan
Example Output
1. VARIANCE TABLE (Q3, vs budget) | Line | Actual | Budget | Var $ | Var % | | | Revenue | 2,310,000 | 2,450,000 | -140,000 | -5.7% | Unfavorable | | COGS | 485,000 | 515,000 | -30,000 | -5.8% | Favorable | | Gross profit | 1,825,000 | 1,935,000 | -110,000 | -5.7% | Unfavorable | | Gross margin | 79.0% | 79.0% | 0.0 pts | | Flat | | Opex | 3,055,000 | 2,960,000 | +95,000 | +3.2% | Unfavorable | | Operating result | -1,230,000 | -1,025,000 | -205,000 | -20.0% | Unfavorable | Math: GP = revenue - COGS (2,310,000 - 485,000 = 1,825,000). Operating result = GP - opex (1,825,000 - 3,055,000 = -1,230,000; budget 1,935,000 - 2,960,000 = -1,025,000). 2. TOP VARIANCES 1) Operating result, -205,000: the sum of the two below. 2) Revenue, -140,000: two enterprise deals planned for Q3 slipped to Q4 (source: CRM). 3) Opex, +95,000: three engineers hired in July instead of October (payroll) and user conference spend over plan (invoices). Split between the two: driver amounts not provided. Ask: what were Q3 payroll cost for the three hires and the conference overage? 3. CASH AND RUNWAY Average monthly net burn: 1,240,000 / 3 = about 413,333. Runway: 6,800,000 / 413,333 = about 16.5 months at Q3's average burn. 4. MEMO DRAFT Summary: Q3 revenue came in 5.7% under budget because two enterprise deals slipped to Q4, while spend ran 3.2% over plan from earlier engineering hires and the user conference. We ended the quarter with $6.8M in cash, about 16.5 months of runway at Q3's average burn. Revenue: $2.31M vs $2.45M budget; the gap is the two slipped deals (CRM). Margin: gross margin held at 79.0%, in line with budget. Spend: opex $3.055M vs $2.96M; drivers are the July engineering hires and conference costs. Cash: $6.8M at September 30; Q3 net burn $1.24M. On your question about hiring ahead of plan: it raised Q3 opex. Its exact runway effect needs the hires' payroll cost, which is not in this pack; we will include it in the next update. 5. BOARD QUESTIONS - Did the slipped deals close in Q4? Need data: current CRM stage for both deals. - Is the margin hold durable? Data supports Q3 only: 79.0% actual and budget. - How much of the opex overage is one-time? Need data: conference overage amount. - What is runway if burn stays at Q3 levels? About 16.5 months (math above). - Are the three hires fully ramped? Need data: not in this pack. 6. DATA GAPS - Split of the 95,000 opex variance between hiring and the conference. - Monthly burn detail (only the Q3 total was provided).