Builds and interprets the income statement, balance sheet, and cash flow statement as one linked system – construction order, the three mechanical ties between statements, and the review checks that catch errors.
Builds and interprets the income statement, balance sheet, and cash flow statement as one linked system - construction order, the three mechanical ties between statements, and the review checks that catch errors. Use when someone asks "build me a three-statement model", "why doesn't my balance sheet balance", "how does net income flow into the cash flow statement", "check this financial package for errors", or is explaining statements to stakeholders. Do NOT use for spreadsheet layout and formula hygiene - use spreadsheet-model-builder instead - for forward-looking 13-week or 12-month cash projections - use cash-flow-forecast instead - or for the monthly process that produces the trial balance - use month-end-close instead.This is the skill's description: the text your AI reads to decide when the skill applies.
financial-statement-builder/SKILL.md
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name: Financial Statement Builder
description: Builds and interprets the income statement, balance sheet, and cash flow statement as one linked system - construction order, the three mechanical ties between statements, and the review checks that catch errors. Use when someone asks "build me a three-statement model", "why doesn't my balance sheet balance", "how does net income flow into the cash flow statement", "check this financial package for errors", or is explaining statements to stakeholders. Do NOT use for spreadsheet layout and formula hygiene - use spreadsheet-model-builder instead - for forward-looking 13-week or 12-month cash projections - use cash-flow-forecast instead - or for the monthly process that produces the trial balance - use month-end-close instead.
---
# Financial Statement Builder
The three core statements are one system, not three documents: an error in one surfaces in another, and a package whose statements do not tie is wrong somewhere even if each statement looks plausible alone. The costly mistake this skill prevents is shipping a package where the balance sheet is forced to balance with a plug - the plug hides a real error that compounds every period until someone has to unwind months of statements.
## Operating procedure
### Step 1: Gather inputs
1. The trial balance or account-level data for the period (if the books are not closed, run month-end-close first).
2. Opening balance sheet - the prior period's closing balance sheet. Without it, the cash flow statement and retained earnings cannot tie; if it does not exist, state that the first period's linkages cannot be verified.
3. Accounting basis (accrual assumed; flag if cash-basis) and the effective tax rate.
4. Dividends or distributions declared in the period.
5. Any non-cash items: depreciation, amortization, stock-based compensation.
Label any estimated figure (tax rate, accrual) as an estimate in the package notes.
### Step 2: Build in construction order - always
Income statement first, then balance sheet, then cash flow statement. The reason is mechanical: net income from the income statement flows into retained earnings on the balance sheet and into the top of the indirect cash flow statement. Building out of order breaks the linkages and forces reconciliation loops.
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