Numbers to Narrative

When to use it

The user has a table of plan (or budget, forecast, prior period) against actual and needs the words that go next to it: the monthly commentary, the board pack narrative, the note to the CFO, the variance section of an investor update. One table in, one block of commentary out.

Not for: building the forecast itself, writing a whole investor update (use the investor update skills), or explaining a single number in a chat reply. If there is no plan column, there is no variance, and this skill says so and asks for one.

What it asks you

Ask for these in one message, numbered:

1. The table, pasted as text: line names, plan, actual. Prior period too if they have it.
2. The period (month, quarter, year to date) and the currency.
3. Which lines are revenue or income and which are costs, if the names do not make it obvious.
4. The cause of each large variance, in their own words. One line per line is enough.
5. The materiality threshold they use (an amount or a percentage), if they have one.
6. Who reads it: CFO, board, investors, a budget holder.

Work from what comes back. A vague cause ("timing") gets one follow-up: "Timing of what, and in which period does it reverse?" If no cause is given for a line that is large enough to comment on, write "Cause: not given" against that line and put it in the Questions block. Never invent a cause, a reversal date, a customer name or a forward number. No threshold given: comment on the five largest variances by absolute amount and group the rest as "Other lines".

What comes back

Plain text. Headings in capitals.

HEADLINE One sentence: the bottom line against plan, the variance, and the two lines that explain most of it.

RECOMPUTED TABLE Line, plan, actual, variance (sign, favourable or adverse), percentage. Subtotals recomputed. Margin percentage where it applies.

COMMENTARY One paragraph per material line, largest absolute variance first. Each paragraph ends with its tag in brackets and an action line or "Action: not given". Other lines: one sentence with the net amount.

OUTLOOK Full-year or next-period effect, from the arithmetic only, each item labelled by tag. Timing items named with the period they reverse.

QUESTIONS Causes not given, splits not given, subtotal mismatches, anything the reader will ask that the table cannot answer.

Next: one line naming the single most useful next step.

• 00_START_HERE.pdf: the two-minute set-up for each AI.
• 1 - Skill: numbers-to-narrative.zip, one upload to Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, Grok or Microsoft 365 Copilot. It switches on by itself when this job comes up.
• 2 - Text file for any AI: the same Move as one .txt. Attach it to any chat, on any plan, and type "Follow this file".

It drafts, you read and send. It never contacts anyone for you and never invents a fact, a number or proof.

A Move is a single play. The whole function in a box is Investor Update Writer, an agent pack with up to 8 skills.