Budget vs actual variance table

This prompt is designed to work in Microsoft Copilot in Excel. Paste into the Copilot chat sidebar.

Help me build a budget vs actual table for the current period with clear variance columns and a short written commentary at the bottom.

Here is what I have:
- The period being reviewed: {{period}}
- The line items I track (revenue, cost of sales, marketing, etc.): {{line_items}}
- Where budget lives (a tab, a range, a Xero export): {{budget_source}}
- Where actuals live: {{actuals_source}}
- The audience for the finished view: {{audience}}

Please give me:
1. The recommended column order: Line item, Budget, Actual, Variance $, Variance %, Favourable or Unfavourable flag.
2. The formulas for variance $ and variance % including a safe divide so I do not get DIV/0 errors.
3. A conditional formatting rule that flags any variance greater than a threshold I set.
4. A short commentary template with three bullets: what beat budget, what missed, what to do about it.
5. Two questions I should ask before I send this upstairs.

Use AUD, whole dollars. Tone: calm CFO. AU English, no em-dashes.