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Financial Analyst Skill

Domain: Finance | Skill: financial-analyst | Source: finance/financial-analyst/SKILL.md

Financial Analyst Skill

Overview

Production-ready financial analysis toolkit providing ratio analysis, DCF valuation, budget variance analysis, and rolling forecast construction. Designed for financial modeling, forecasting & budgeting, management reporting, business performance analysis, and investment analysis.

5-Phase Workflow

Phase 1: Scoping

  • Define analysis objectives and stakeholder requirements
  • Identify data sources and time periods
  • Establish materiality thresholds and accuracy targets
  • Select appropriate analytical frameworks

Phase 2: Data Analysis & Modeling

  • Collect and validate financial data (income statement, balance sheet, cash flow)
  • Validate input data completeness before running ratio calculations (check for missing fields, nulls, or implausible values)
  • Calculate financial ratios across 5 categories (profitability, liquidity, leverage, efficiency, valuation)
  • Build DCF models with WACC and terminal value calculations; cross-check DCF outputs against sanity bounds (e.g., implied multiples vs. comparables)
  • Construct budget variance analyses with favorable/unfavorable classification
  • Develop driver-based forecasts with scenario modeling

Phase 3: Insight Generation

  • Interpret ratio trends and benchmark against industry standards
  • Identify material variances and root causes
  • Assess valuation ranges through sensitivity analysis
  • Evaluate forecast scenarios (base/bull/bear) for decision support

Phase 4: Reporting

  • Generate executive summaries with key findings
  • Produce detailed variance reports by department and category
  • Deliver DCF valuation reports with sensitivity tables
  • Present rolling forecasts with trend analysis

Phase 5: Follow-up

  • Track forecast accuracy (target: ±5% revenue, ±3% expenses)
  • Monitor report delivery timeliness (target: 100% on time)
  • Update models with actuals as they become available
  • Refine assumptions based on variance analysis

Tools

1. Ratio Calculator (scripts/ratio_calculator.py)

Calculate and interpret financial ratios from financial statement data.

Ratio Categories: - Profitability: ROE, ROA, Gross Margin, Operating Margin, Net Margin - Liquidity: Current Ratio, Quick Ratio, Cash Ratio - Leverage: Debt-to-Equity, Interest Coverage, DSCR - Efficiency: Asset Turnover, Inventory Turnover, Receivables Turnover, DSO - Valuation: P/E, P/B, P/S, EV/EBITDA, PEG Ratio

python scripts/ratio_calculator.py sample_financial_data.json
python scripts/ratio_calculator.py sample_financial_data.json --format json
python scripts/ratio_calculator.py sample_financial_data.json --category profitability

2. DCF Valuation (scripts/dcf_valuation.py)

Discounted Cash Flow enterprise and equity valuation with sensitivity analysis.

Features: - WACC calculation via CAPM - Revenue and free cash flow projections (5-year default) - Terminal value via perpetuity growth and exit multiple methods - Enterprise value and equity value derivation - Two-way sensitivity analysis (discount rate vs growth rate)

python scripts/dcf_valuation.py valuation_data.json
python scripts/dcf_valuation.py valuation_data.json --format json
python scripts/dcf_valuation.py valuation_data.json --projection-years 7

3. Budget Variance Analyzer (scripts/budget_variance_analyzer.py)

Analyze actual vs budget vs prior year performance with materiality filtering.

Features: - Dollar and percentage variance calculation - Materiality threshold filtering (default: 10% or $50K) - Favorable/unfavorable classification with revenue/expense logic - Department and category breakdown - Executive summary generation

python scripts/budget_variance_analyzer.py budget_data.json
python scripts/budget_variance_analyzer.py budget_data.json --format json
python scripts/budget_variance_analyzer.py budget_data.json --threshold-pct 5 --threshold-amt 25000

4. Forecast Builder (scripts/forecast_builder.py)

Driver-based revenue forecasting with rolling cash flow projection and scenario modeling.

Features: - Driver-based revenue forecast model - 13-week rolling cash flow projection - Scenario modeling (base/bull/bear cases) - Trend analysis using simple linear regression (standard library)

python scripts/forecast_builder.py forecast_data.json
python scripts/forecast_builder.py forecast_data.json --format json
python scripts/forecast_builder.py forecast_data.json --scenarios base,bull,bear

Knowledge Bases

Reference Purpose
references/financial-ratios-guide.md Ratio formulas, interpretation, industry benchmarks
references/valuation-methodology.md DCF methodology, WACC, terminal value, comps
references/forecasting-best-practices.md Driver-based forecasting, rolling forecasts, accuracy
references/industry-adaptations.md Sector-specific metrics and considerations (SaaS, Retail, Manufacturing, Financial Services, Healthcare)

Templates

Template Purpose
assets/variance_report_template.md Budget variance report template
assets/dcf_analysis_template.md DCF valuation analysis template
assets/forecast_report_template.md Revenue forecast report template

Key Metrics & Targets

Metric Target
Forecast accuracy (revenue) ±5%
Forecast accuracy (expenses) ±3%
Report delivery 100% on time
Model documentation Complete for all assumptions
Variance explanation 100% of material variances

Input Data Format

All scripts accept JSON input files. See assets/sample_financial_data.json for the complete input schema covering all four tools.

Dependencies

None - All scripts use Python standard library only (math, statistics, json, argparse, datetime). No numpy, pandas, or scipy required.