Budgeting Forecasting Agent Skill
Zero-based budgeting, rolling forecasts, variance analysis, scenario planning, and budget management
Install
one command, takes just this skill from the repositorynpx skills add https://github.com/cosmicstack-labs/mercury-agent-skills --skill budgeting-forecastingThe instruction itself
7 sections, as written by the authorBudgeting & Forecasting
Create and manage effective budgets and financial forecasts.
Budgeting Approaches
| Approach | Method | Best For |
|----------|--------|----------|
| Incremental | Last year + X% | Stable organizations |
| Zero-based | Build from scratch each period | Cost optimization |
| Activity-based | Cost per unit of activity | Manufacturing, services |
| Rolling | Continuous 12-month outlook | Fast-changing environments |
Zero-Based Budgeting Steps
- Identify all activities and their costs
- Evaluate each: does it create value?
- Rank by priority/cost ratio
- Fund top priorities within budget constraints
- Cut or optimize low-value activities
Forecasting
Rolling Forecast Model
# Structure
- Historical data (12-24 months)
- Current pipeline and commitments
- Leading indicators (traffic, leads, bookings)
- Economic assumptions
- Scenario overlays (best/base/worst)
Variance Analysis
| Variance | Cause | Action |
|----------|-------|--------|
| Revenue ↑ | Volume or price increase | Sustain driver or reinvest |
| Revenue ↓ | Volume or price drop | Investigate root cause |
| Cost ↑ | Variable or fixed increase | Optimize or renegotiate |
| Cost ↓ | Efficiency or lower demand | Validate sustainability |
Scenario Planning
- Base case: Most likely outcome
- Upside: +20% revenue, what would we invest in?
- Downside: -20% revenue, what would we cut?
- Each scenario has specific triggers and action plans
- Review scenarios monthly against actuals
Other skills for the same job
different authors, same section of the catalogue
Guide users through a structured workflow for co-authoring documentation. Use when user wants to write documentation, proposals, technical specs, decision docs, or similar structured content. This workflow helps users efficiently transfer context, refine content through iteration, and verify the doc works for readers. Trigger when user mentions writing docs, creating proposals, drafting specs, or similar documentation tasks.
Intelligently organizes your files and folders across your computer by understanding context, finding duplicates, suggesting better structures, and automating cleanup tasks. Reduces cognitive load and keeps your digital workspace tidy without manual effort.
Generates creative domain name ideas for your project and checks availability across multiple TLDs (.com, .io, .dev, .ai, etc.). Saves hours of brainstorming and manual checking.
You MUST use this before any creative work - creating features, building components, adding functionality, or modifying behavior. Explores user intent, requirements and design before implementation.
Implements Manus-style file-based planning for complex tasks. Creates task_plan.md, findings.md, and progress.md. Use when starting complex multi-step tasks, research projects, or any task requiring >5 tool calls.
Creative research ideation and exploration. Use for open-ended brainstorming sessions, exploring interdisciplinary connections, challenging assumptions, or identifying research gaps. Best for early-stage research planning when you do not have specific observations yet. For formulating testable hypotheses from data use hypothesis-generation.
Comprehensive GitHub project management with swarm-coordinated issue tracking, project board automation, and sprint planning
Interview the user relentlessly about a plan or design until reaching shared understanding, resolving each branch of the decision tree. Use when user wants to stress-test a plan, get grilled on their design, or mentions "grill me".
How to use it
Take cosmicstack-labs/budgeting-forecasting from the repository into ~/.claude/skills for personal
use, or into .claude/skills inside a project.
The agent identifies a skill by the name field in its header. Two skills with the
same name cannot sit side by side — one of them will be ignored.