Update to Briefcase

{
  "description": "Prepare monthly or quarterly management accounts for a Briefcase Ledger client as a draft for the accountant to review. Checks the books are ready, pulls profit and loss, balance sheet, trial balance, cash and aged debtors and creditors, works out KPIs, writes commentary on the movements that matter, and proves every figure against the ledger in a verification appendix. Use when the user asks for management accounts, a monthly or quarterly pack, a board pack, a month-end report, or how a client did this month or quarter.",
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      "relative_path": "references/kpis.md",
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    {
      "relative_path": "references/pack-template.md",
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    {
      "relative_path": "references/verification.md",
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  "name": "management-accounts",
  "skill_md_contents": "---\nname: management-accounts\ndescription: Prepare monthly or quarterly management accounts for a Briefcase Ledger client as a draft for the accountant to review. Checks the books are ready, pulls profit and loss, balance sheet, trial balance, cash and aged debtors and creditors, works out KPIs, writes commentary on the movements that matter, and proves every figure against the ledger in a verification appendix. Use when the user asks for management accounts, a monthly or quarterly pack, a board pack, a month-end report, or how a client did this month or quarter.\n---\n\n# Management accounts in Briefcase\n\nYou prepare a **draft** management accounts pack that an accountant reviews before anything reaches their client. The pack is only useful if the accountant can trust it, so every figure comes from a Briefcase tool response, every check is shown, and every gap is declared rather than hidden.\n\nRules that apply throughout:\n\n- **Figures come only from tool responses.** Never from memory, never estimated silently. Do arithmetic in code when the host can run code; otherwise show each calculation's inputs so the reviewer can repeat it.\n- **Never post and never send.** Proposed adjustments (an accrual, a corporation tax estimate) go through the manual journals skill with a preview and the user's agreement. The pack goes to the accountant, not the client.\n- **Mark the pack \"Draft — for accountant review\"** until the user confirms they have reviewed it.\n- **Briefcase Ledger clients only.** Check `ledger_type` with `briefcase_get_client`. The report tools return `UNSUPPORTED_CAPABILITY` for Xero or QuickBooks clients; tell the user to use their ledger's own reporting and stop.\n- The reports need the Ledger view permission. `FORBIDDEN` means the user lacks it; say so.\n\nWork through the steps in order. Read the reference files when a step points to them.\n\n## 1. Agree the brief\n\nSettle these before pulling any figures. Use the defaults below and state them in the pack rather than stopping to ask; ask only when the client or period is unclear, or the financial year start cannot be found:\n\n- **Client and period.** Month or quarter; resolve it to explicit `start_date` and `end_date` and say which dates you used.\n- **Financial year.** `briefcase_get_trial_balance` reports the `financial_year_start` it used. If it says no financial year end is set, ask the user for the first day of the financial year.\n- **Entity and accounting basis.** `briefcase_get_reference_data` with `kind: businesses` lists a sole trader's or landlord's businesses with their `type` and `accounting_method`. An empty list usually means a limited company on the accruals basis; confirm with the user when it matters. Cash basis businesses have no debtors, creditors or accruals to report, so leave those sections out and say why. Corporation tax applies to companies only.\n- **Audience.** Owner (default), board, lender or investor. It changes emphasis, not the figures (see `references/pack-template.md`).\n- **Comparisons.** Prior period and the same period last year by default. Budget comparison only when the user supplies a budget; never invent one.\n- **Materiality.** A movement is material when it is at least 10% **and** at least £1,000 (or 1% of the period's revenue if larger). Tell the user the thresholds and use theirs if they give them.\n\n## 2. Check the books are ready\n\nRun the readiness checks in `references/verification.md` before pulling report figures:\n\n- the working paper for the period end (what is left to clear, unreconciled accounts, accounts changed since sign-off);\n- documents still awaiting review dated in or before the period;\n- close schedules due but not posted;\n- clearing and suspense accounts that are not nil;\n- the lock date.\n\nDo not stop here to ask whether to continue: the user asked for the pack. Carry on, put every failed check in the pack's caveats, and offer at the end to help fix them and rebuild. Never refuse to prepare the pack because the books are incomplete; make the incompleteness visible.\n\n## 3. Pull the figures\n\nMake these calls for the period end and keep each response; the verification appendix cites them.\n\n1. `briefcase_get_profit_and_loss` for the period, with the prior period as the comparison.\n2. `briefcase_get_profit_and_loss` for the period, with the same period last year as the comparison.\n3. `briefcase_get_profit_and_loss` for the financial year to date, with the prior year to date as the comparison.\n4. `briefcase_get_balance_sheet` at the period end, with the prior period end as `comparison_as_at`.\n5. `briefcase_get_trial_balance` at the period end.\n6. `briefcase_get_aged_report` at the period end for `ACCOUNTS_RECEIVABLE` and for `ACCOUNTS_PAYABLE` (accrual basis only).\n7. `briefcase_get_reference_data` with `kind: accounts` for account `class`, `type`, `is_bank_account` and `reserved_type`.\n\nQuote amounts as returned, in the response's `currency`, following each response's `sign_convention`. Accounts with no movement or a zero balance are left out of the reports, so a missing account is nil.\n\n**Cost of sales.** Briefcase Ledger has no separate cost-of-sales account type. Treat expense accounts whose names describe direct costs (for example Cost of Goods Sold, Cost of Sales, Cost of Services, Purchases, Direct Costs, Subcontractors, Materials) as cost of sales, list the accounts you chose in the basis of preparation, and ask the user to confirm them the first time. If there are none, report revenue, overheads and net profit without a gross profit line rather than guessing.\n\n## 4. Work out the KPIs\n\nPick 5 to 8 KPIs that suit the business and audience from `references/kpis.md`, compute them from the responses, and show each one's formula and inputs. Follow the pitfalls listed there, especially VAT in debtor days and the gearing definition.\n\n## 5. Prove the figures\n\nRun every tie-out in `references/verification.md`: balance sheet balances, P&L totals, year-to-date profit against retained earnings, trial balance totals, aged reports against control accounts, bank balances against the feed, KPI recalculation. Record each with the figures compared and pass or fail. A failure goes at the top of the pack with what you found; do not explain it away.\n\nThen the analytical review in the same file: material movements, gross margin swings, regular costs missing this period (usually a missed accrual), balances on the wrong side, new accounts and large manual journals.\n\n## 6. Find the reasons behind the movements\n\nFor each material movement (3 to 5 of them, largest first):\n\n1. `briefcase_list_journals` with the account's `id` and the period's dates shows what posted.\n2. `briefcase_get_journal` and its `source_links` lead to the documents (`briefcase_get_transaction`, `briefcase_get_sales_invoice`).\n3. Write the cause only if the journals show it, and cite the journal or document. If they do not, turn it into a question for the client: \"Rent is £2,000 above last month. Has the new lease started?\"\n\n## 7. Write the pack\n\nFollow `references/pack-template.md`: a one-page summary first (what happened, why, and 3 to 5 suggested actions), then KPIs, profit and loss, balance sheet, cash, aged debtors and creditors, commentary, and the verification appendix with the basis of preparation.\n\nCommentary says what happened, why, and what it means. Do not narrate numbers the tables already show, and do not make forward-looking claims the user has not given you. Report bad news as plainly as good news.\n\n## 8. Check the draft before handing it over\n\nRun the final checks in `references/verification.md`: fetch the period profit and loss, the balance sheet and the trial balance again with the same arguments as the first pull and compare their totals, and check every number and percentage in the text against the tables. If the books changed while you were working, say so and rebuild the affected sections.\n\n## 9. Hand over\n\nGive the user the pack marked \"Draft — for accountant review\", list the caveats and open questions for the client, and point them to the reviewer checklist at the end of the appendix. Offer to produce it as a document if the host can create files. Do not send it anywhere.\n"
}