Financial Data Analysis for Budgeting

I’m updating our governance framework and the priority right now is sharpening our financial management policies—specifically the budgeting and forecasting section. The raw numbers are ready, but they need a seasoned eye to turn them into clear, defensible insights that will guide policy wording and decision-making. Here’s the flow I have in mind: you take the historical and current datasets, clean and structure them, run a thorough variance and trend analysis, and highlight the drivers that matter most to next year’s budget assumptions. I work in Excel and occasionally Power BI, so familiarity with those tools (or compatible ones) is essential. Accuracy and transparency of methodology are non-negotiable because the final output feeds straight into our governance documentation. Deliverables • A concise report (Excel or Google Sheets) showing key metrics, variance explanations, and forward-looking projections • An executive-ready summary outlining risks, opportunities, and recommended policy tweaks • All formulas, queries, or scripts used so the work remains fully traceable and repeatable Acceptance criteria • Figures reconcile with source data to within ±0.1% • Assumptions clearly stated and referenced • File structure allows another analyst to replicate results without extra guidance If you’ve navigated budgeting cycles and know how to turn numbers into policy-level recommendations, I’d like to move quickly—send over a brief outline of your approach and timeline.