Open finance skill
Margin trend review
Where are margins moving, and what deserves investigation?
Calculate period-over-period gross-margin changes from synthetic financial summaries and flag material movements.
Inputs
- ✓Revenue by period
- ✓Direct costs by period
- ✓Review threshold
Outputs
- ✓Margin by period
- ✓Change in percentage points
- ✓Flagged periods
Checks performed
- ✓Gross margin calculation
- ✓Period comparison
- ✓Threshold exception
Guided synthetic example
See the check from input to decision
Revenue grew in July, but gross profit declined.
This is the operating model we use at Level. The percentages are estimated shares of the work in a typical review. Actual effort varies with data quality, complexity, and the issue found.
Start with the source records
About 15% of work| Period | Revenue | Direct costs | Gross profit | Margin |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| June | $100,000 | $60,000 | $40,000 | 40% |
| July | $110,000 | $71,500 | $38,500 | 35% |
Run the deterministic check
About 20% of workRecompute gross margin by period and flag a movement of 3 percentage points or more.
Surface the flagged result
About 10% of workNeeds review
Margin fell 5 percentage points and gross profit declined $1,500 despite 10% revenue growth.
Use recorded finance judgment to analyze possible reasons
About 25% of workAt Level, we record the review logic, known explanations, and questions our finance professionals use in this situation. AI applies that documented human judgment to organize the most plausible reasons, without pretending it knows which reason is true.
Possible reasons to investigate
The arithmetic shows deterioration, not the cause. Labor overruns, pricing, materials, callbacks, and job mix all require investigation.
Make the final human judgment
About 20% of workA Level finance professional validates the source evidence, challenges the AI-assisted analysis, and decides which explanation is supported.
Make the operating decision
About 10% of workReview job-level margin and isolate the jobs or cost categories responsible for the decline.
Use this system
Start with the example, then inspect the structure
- Download the invented input and expected output.
- Replace one field at a time with a safe test value.
- Compare the result with the expected structure.
- Have a finance professional review every exception before acting.
MCP preview
run_synthetic_example {"slug":"margin-trend-review"}Human review is part of the system
This check organizes evidence and surfaces exceptions. A person with finance domain expertise still needs to interpret the result, validate the source records, and discuss the operating decision.
Open source does not mean open client data. We publish reusable finance tools, checks, templates, and playbooks. Client records, workpapers, credentials, communications, and private configurations remain confidential.