Budget Build Kit

A budget is not a prediction of the year — it is the decisions you have already taken, priced in drivers, phased in months, and owned by name.

What it is

The annual number, built as a set of decisions instead of a wish. Decomposes every line into a quantity and a rate, names an owner for each assumption, phases the year on real seasonality with cash tracked separately from profit, and fixes spend authority and contingency before it starts. Leaves the variance routine — threshold, explanation standard, timing versus permanent, reforecast trigger — that stops a budget being abandoned in March. For owners and finance leads running a real year against a real number.

What you receive

an annual budget a small business can actually run against — every line built from a named driver rather than last year plus ten percent, every assumption carrying a name, phased monthly on your own seasonality with the cash view beside the profit view, signed with its line owners, spend authorities and visible contingency, and run by a monthly variance review with its materiality threshold, timing-versus-permanent test and reforecast trigger

Delivered as a single, complete .md skill file — open it, paste it into any capable chat model, and work. No installation, no account with anyone but us.

Supported models

• Claude (Opus/Sonnet)
• ChatGPT (GPT-4o/5)
• Gemini
• any capable chat model

People reach for it when

• “how to build an annual budget for a small business”
• “budget from drivers instead of last year plus ten percent”
• “monthly budget phasing template with seasonality”
• “actuals are miles off budget every month what do I do”
• “when to reforecast instead of rewriting the budget”

Record

In the collection. The sale room is being fitted; this work goes on sale when it opens.

License

Free-shelf works ship under the DolceDrago House License — use the outputs freely, personal or commercial; the work file itself stays with the house.