Budget Variance & Forecast Analysis
FinanceIntermediate60 min
Scenario
You are a Financial Analyst at NorthBridge Corp, a mid-sized Canadian technology company.
The CFO has flagged that Q3 2024 came in significantly over budget and wants a full
variance analysis before the Q4 board meeting. She needs you to identify which departments
overspent, why, and what the forecast looks like for the remaining months of 2025.
Tasks
- 1.Calculate the total variance ($ and %) for each department across all available months
- 2.Identify the two departments with the highest cumulative overspend and explain why
- 3.Identify any anomalies or one-off spikes in the data and flag them with reasoning
- 4.Build a simple Q2 2025 forecast for each department using the historical trend
- 5.Deliver a 300-word CFO summary with your findings and two budget recommendations
Submission Requirements
- •Your completed analysis (paste key findings, numbers, and your CFO summary)
- •The specific figures you found for the anomalies (exact months and amounts)
- •Your Q2 2025 forecast values for each department
- •Which AI tools you used and how you used them in your workflow
Dataset Actions
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Allowed Tools
AI Tools
ClaudeChatGPTMicrosoft CopilotExcel with CopilotNotion AI
Analysis Tools
Google Sheets
Scoring Rubric
Data accuracy30 pts
Correct variance calculations, correct anomaly figures cited
Insight quality25 pts
Identifies Marketing Q3 and R&D January anomalies with reasoning
Forecast logic25 pts
Reasonable Q2 2025 projections with stated assumptions
Communication20 pts
CFO summary is clear, concise, and actionable
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