As of 13 August 2026, AI can compare your actual business results with your budget.

What to actually do

1. Hand it to a person

   The route this page recommends

   A person who owns the outcome does this end to end, worth it when the failure is dear.

2. Use a tool built for this

   Second choice

3. Do it yourself

   The distant third

   A chat interface, power-user skill, and roughly 30 minutes until you can act on the result.

   How to actually do it

   1. Open the budget spreadsheet and the accounting or bookkeeping export for the same reporting period, then save copies that include dates, category names, amounts and any cost centre or department fields.
   2. Check that both files use the same business entity, reporting period, VAT treatment, cash or accrual basis and currency, and write those details in a short note.
   3. Remove passwords and unrelated personal data, then paste or upload the two files to an AI spreadsheet or analysis tool such as Rows.
   4. Paste the prompt and ask the tool to identify missing, duplicated and unmatched rows before producing the variance table.
   5. Compare the AI's budget and actual totals with the totals in your accounting system and inspect the source rows behind each large variance.
   6. Correct any classification or period errors in the source files, rerun the comparison, then send the final variance report to your bookkeeper or accountant if it will support a major decision or statutory accounts.

   Prompt

   Compare the attached actual business results with the attached budget for [business name] and [reporting period]. Use the same categories and reporting basis where possible. Do not invent figures, transactions, categories or explanations. First check whether the two files cover the same period, entities, VAT treatment, accrual or cash basis, and category definitions. State any mismatch before analysing the results. Produce: a table showing budget, actual, variance in pounds, variance as a percentage where the budget is not zero, and whether the result is favourable or unfavourable; a separate list of the largest variances; a plain-English explanation that distinguishes calculation from interpretation; a list of missing, duplicated or unmatched rows; and questions I should answer before relying on the analysis. Recalculate totals from the supplied data, show the formulas or steps used, and do not give tax, accounting or investment advice. Treat blank or ambiguous values as unknown rather than zero. This is management information, not professional advice.

   Open it prefilled in ChatGPT or Claude, or copy it into Gemini, which takes no prefill link.