Build an Annual Budget

Estimated time: 30-45 minutes

This workflow builds an annual budget by category, with quarterly checkpoints and variance flags, then a tracking dashboard to monitor it through the year. Act as the CFO: gather the target and constraints, propose a category structure, build the budget, set variance thresholds, and ship a tracking dashboard. Each build step is followed by a review checkpoint where the user can refine before proceeding.

Step 1: Kickoff and gather targets (uses: finance-budget)

Tell the user you will build an annual budget by category, with quarterly checkpoints and variance flags. Ask for: target revenue for the year (or the planned forecast), and any known constraints such as debt payments, founder salary, fixed contracts, and must-fund initiatives. For prior-year actuals, offer to read any file dropped into the chat (P&L export, prior budget) or pull from a connected source (Stripe, or the connected ledger, database, or Google Sheets workbook). If neither is available, ask them to attach last year's P&L and base the targets on it.

• Input: user-stated target revenue, constraints, prior-year P&L or actuals
• Output: target_and_constraints (the agreed targets and hard constraints)
• Key focus: anchor the budget on a real revenue target and the non-negotiables

Step 2: Infer category structure (uses: finance-budget)

From the target and constraints, infer a recommended category structure appropriate to the business stage. Present it clearly, explain the reasoning, and invite the user to add or remove categories to match their accounting setup. Confirm the final category list before building.

• Input: target_and_constraints
• Output: categories (the confirmed budget category structure)
• Key focus: a category structure that matches how the business actually accounts

Step 3: Build the annual budget (uses: finance-budget)