Published on September 3, 2025.

One of the reports that I’ve been getting asked about most often — whether it’s from my consulting clients, prospective SuiteReports customers, or people I’ve trained on Claude and the NetSuite AI Connector — is the Flux Analysis Report.

It’s easy to see why: flux analysis is where financial reporting meets storytelling. It doesn’t just show the numbers. It explains why the numbers changed, and what that means for the business.

What This Post Covers

As I did in last week's post, where I expained how I'm using Claude and the NetSuite AI Connector to generate Trend & Growth Analysis Reports, in this post I'll explain how I'm generating Flux Analysis Reports. I’ll share the prompt that I've developed, discuss the reports that I make available to Claude, and more.

What is a Flux Analysis Report?

A Flux Analysis Report (sometimes called variance analysis) is designed to answer one big question: what’s driving changes in the financial statements?

It breaks down financial movements across several dimensions:
• Cash Flux – Beginning vs ending balances, reconciled through operating, investing, and financing activities.
• Working Capital Flux – Accounts Receivable, Accounts Payable, and Inventory — the lifeblood of short-term liquidity.
• Equity Flux – Retained earnings, dividends, and share activity, all tied back to net income.
• Variance Drivers – The true causes of swings: revenue growth, expense shifts, one-time items, FX, reclassifications.
• Management Commentary – A narrative that translates finance into strategy: risks, opportunities, and forward-looking insights.

Companies use these reports for:
• Audit and compliance. They’re a standard expectation for Audit and Finance Committees.
• Executive decision-making. Boards and leadership teams rely on them to understand performance beyond the numbers.
• Investor communication. Flux analysis provides the context behind financial packages.

That’s why this is one of the most valuable reports in finance — and why I’m so often asked to deliver it.

Making the Reports Available

The first step in generating a strong Flux Analysis Report is making the source reports accessible to the AI.

In this case, the reports were pre-loaded into the File Cabinet by SuiteReports. That ensured all of the key financials — Balance Sheets, Comparative Income Statements, Cash Flow Statements, and Trial Balances — were saved in a consistent format.

Then, in the prompt itself, I explicitly told the AI where to find the reports (File Cabinet > SuiteReports folder) and which ones to use. This is an important detail: without directing the AI to the right reports, the analysis risks drifting into generalizations or assumptions. By grounding the analysis in real NetSuite reports, the AI’s findings are accurate, auditable, and tied back to source data.

The Prompt

Here’s the exact prompt I used.

You are a senior financial analyst.

Your task is to prepare a comprehensive, board-ready Flux Analysis Report designed to:
• Explain the major drivers of changes in assets, liabilities, equity, revenue, and expenses.
• Break down the cash change using both direct and indirect views.
• Highlight material variances, unusual movements, and emerging trends.
• Present findings as if reporting to an Audit Committee or Finance Committee, not just management.

Scope of Analysis
• Period: January 2025 – September 2025
• Comparisons: Current period, prior period, same period last fiscal year, and year-to-date
• Reports are located in the File Cabinet → “SuiteReports” folder.
• If data is missing, do not assume. Clearly flag the gap.

Data Inputs & Sources
Use the following reports (all located in the “SuiteReports” folder in the File Cabinet):
• Balance Sheets (current, prior, same period last year, and YTD)
• Comparative Balance Sheets
• Comparative Income Statements
• Cash Flow Statements (both direct and indirect)
• Trial Balances

These provide the raw financial data. All findings must be explicitly tied back to these sources.


Report Structure

1. Cash Flux
• Show beginning vs. ending balances.
• Reconcile changes by operating, investing, and financing activities.
• Present both a direct view (major inflows/outflows) and indirect view (reconciliation from net income).
• Visual requirement: At least one graph or table (e.g., waterfall chart of inflows/outflows).
• Sensitivity analysis: Briefly discuss how cash position would differ if interest rates or working capital shifted by ±5%.
• Confidence scoring: Rate findings as high/medium/low confidence based on data completeness.

2. Working Capital Flux
• Explain changes in Accounts Receivable, Accounts Payable, and Inventory.
• Calculate and discuss DSO, DPO, and Inventory Turnover ratios.
• Highlight mismatches (e.g., AR growth outpacing revenue).
• Visual requirement: At least one chart or table (e.g., AR vs revenue trend, DSO/DPO over time).
• Sensitivity analysis: Consider the impact of a ±5% revenue growth rate on AR and AP balances.
• Confidence scoring: Indicate confidence level.

3. Equity Flux
• Show changes in retained earnings, dividends, and share issuance/repurchase.
• Link retained earnings to net income.
• Where relevant, comment on EPS implications.
• Visual requirement: At least one chart or table (e.g., equity bridge or retained earnings reconciliation).
• Sensitivity analysis: Evaluate effect of a ±5% change in net income on retained earnings and EPS.
• Confidence scoring: Indicate confidence level.

4. Variance Drivers
• Identify top 3–5 material drivers of period-over-period changes.
• Categorize into:
	- Revenue growth/decline (pricing, volume, new products, geographies).
	- Expense shifts (COGS, SG&A, unusual one-time items).
	- Other adjustments (reclassifications, FX, accounting changes).
• Show both absolute ($) and relative (%) changes.
• Visual requirement: At least one chart (e.g., bar chart ranking drivers by materiality).
• Sensitivity analysis: Provide impact under base, optimistic, and conservative assumptions.
• Confidence scoring: Indicate confidence level.

5. Management Commentary
Provide a plain-English summary of what happened and why.
Use a Risks & Opportunities framing.
Include forward-looking commentary (short-term forecasts, run-rates, base/optimistic/conservative scenarios).
Frame findings as if presenting to an Audit or Finance Committee (focus on governance, risk, and accountability).
Visual requirement: At least one supporting chart or table (e.g., revenue run-rate projection, risk/opportunity matrix).
Confidence scoring: Indicate confidence level.


Formatting & Style
• One visual per section, minimum.
• Write in a polished, consulting-style tone suitable for senior executives, Audit Committees, and the Board.
• Use clear professional headings.
• Include common-size financials (IS as % of revenue, BS as % of assets).
• Explicitly call out anomalies, spikes, or outliers.
• Provide executive-ready one-line summaries at the top of each section.

Final Deliverable
End with a 1-page Executive Summary, including:
• Top 5 findings (bullet points).
• 3–5 key risks.
• 3–5 opportunities.
• A concise “So What / Now What” conclusion.

Branding & Presentation
Apply the attached Branding & Formatting Guidelines to ensure the report is:
• Consistent with corporate style.
• Clear, professional, and visually polished.

Deliver a comprehensive, board-ready Flux Analysis Report with visuals in every section, sensitivity analysis, confidence scoring, and commentary framed for an Audit or Finance Committee audience.

What makes this prompt powerful is:
• It clearly defines scope and data inputs.
• It enforces a structured output (Cash Flux, Working Capital Flux, Equity Flux, Variance Drivers, Management Commentary).
• It requires at least one visual in each section (line chart, bar chart, or table).
• It builds in sensitivity analysis and confidence scoring.
• It frames the report as if presenting to an Audit or Finance Committee — not just management.

The result is a report that feels less like a “chatbot answer” and more like a deliverable you’d see from professional consulting firm.

The Report Itself

So, what did the AI actually produce?

The finished report is available here:
https://timdietrich.me/resources/blog-assets-2025/20250903-flux-analysis-report.html

The final Flux Analysis Report hit all of the marks:
• Cash Flux included both a direct view (major inflows/outflows) and an indirect reconciliation from net income.
• It highlighted how operating cash generation compared to financing and investing flows, and included a clear waterfall-style chart.
• Working Capital Flux broke down AR, AP, and Inventory movements, with supporting ratios like DSO, DPO, and Inventory Turns. The AI even flagged when receivables growth was outpacing revenue — a subtle but important risk indicator.
• Equity Flux linked retained earnings directly back to net income and dividends, and included commentary on EPS implications.
• Variance Drivers were ranked by materiality, with both dollar and percentage comparisons. The AI didn’t just list drivers — it grouped them into categories (revenue, expenses, other adjustments) and provided a bar chart that visually ranked their impact.
• Management Commentary pulled it all together in plain English, with a Risks & Opportunities framing and forward-looking scenarios (base, optimistic, conservative).

What impressed me most was the executive summary at the end:
• A concise set of top 5 findings.
• A balanced view of risks and opportunities.
• A clear “So What / Now What” conclusion.

This is the kind of crisp, one-page summary that boards and Audit Committees depend on, and because it’s grounded in NetSuite reports and created automatically, it carries even greater weight.

Branding & Presentation

One of the subtle but powerful elements in this process is the branding prompt. It’s the same set of Branding & Formatting Guidelines I used in last week’s Trend & Growth Analysis Report.

By giving the AI these rules alongside the financial prompt, I help ensure that each report shares a consistent look and feel:
• Minimalist design with whitespace that makes content easy to read.
• Simple typography and clear headings.
• Monochrome visuals with electric blue highlights for emphasis.
• Subtle, unobtrusive callouts for risks and assumptions.

This visual consistency makes the reports feel like part of a single executive reporting package. Whether it’s a Flux Analysis today or a Trend & Growth Analysis tomorrow, the output looks like it came from the same polished source. That consistency builds confidence with executives and boards.

Efficiency That Pays Off

Traditionally, producing a Flux Analysis Report is a time-intensive, manual process. Finance teams spend:
• Hours (sometimes days) pulling reports from NetSuite, reconciling balances, and aligning formats.
• More time drafting commentary, calculating ratios, and ranking variance drivers.
• Still more time formatting slides or Word documents so the final report looks professional.

For a mid-sized company, preparing a Flux Analysis Report manually could easily consume 20–40 staff hours per reporting cycle. At fully loaded finance staff rates, that’s thousands of dollars per quarter — and that doesn’t even include the opportunity cost of analysts who could be working on higher-value tasks.

By contrast, with Claude, the NetSuite AI Connector, "real" NetSuite reports, and a well-designed AI prompt, this process now takes minutes instead of days. The cost savings and efficiency gains are obvious — but equally important is the consistency. The AI doesn’t forget ratios. It doesn’t skip a section. Every time, you get a comprehensive, board-ready deliverable.

Wrapping Up

And this is just the beginning.

In future posts, I plan to share more complex analyses that I’m already experimenting with, including:
• Rolling forecasts – continuous, AI-generated projections based on live NetSuite data.
• Scenario modeling – automated best/worst/base-case projections that can be refreshed instantly.
• Agent-driven variance monitoring – autonomous AI agents that watch the books and alert you to unusual changes in real time.

Flux Analysis is a powerful example, but it’s only one step toward a future where finance teams spend less time building reports and more time making strategic decisions.