Audit XLS: Spreadsheet Model Review
Systematically checks spreadsheet formulas, errors, and financial-model integrity issues.
The skill limits itself to auditing and explicitly says to report first and not modify without asking, providing scope control and human confirmation. It does not explain data flows, sensitive financial-data handling, permission isolation, dependency security, or rollback, so points are deducted.
The procedure, checks, and abnormal case involving macro-driven calculations are reasonably detailed. However, there are no executable scripts, dependency notes, key-path tests, or diagnostic failure messages; the static score is therefore conservatively capped and reduced.
It defines selection, sheet, and model scopes, trigger phrases, and financial-model scenarios including DCF, LBO, and three-statement models. Non-fit boundaries, Chinese-language support, and target-environment compatibility are not stated, so points are deducted.
The documentation is clearly layered and includes checklists, severity definitions, an output format, macro limitations, and repository-level license and contribution guidance. The skill lacks its own versioning, changelog, explicit maintenance owner, and troubleshooting guidance, so points are deducted.
It can produce a structured findings table and covers core formula, balance-sheet, cash-flow, and model-logic checks. There are no representative verified outputs or execution evidence, so results still require human validation and potentially substantial follow-up work.
The skill is auditable from source, and repository context includes plugin-validation and secret-scan CI. There is no committed test suite covering the skill's key paths, execution record, or corroborating evidence, so only limited points are awarded.
- The skill specifies an audit method and report format but does not prove that it can access, calculate, or validate workbooks; confirm that the runtime provides the required spreadsheet access.
- Results may be affected by macros, external links, iterative calculation, hidden content, and unit conventions; professional review remains necessary, and the report should not be treated as investment, accounting, or audit advice.
- No rules are provided for transmitting, storing, or redacting sensitive financial data.
What it does & when to use it
This skill audits spreadsheets for formula accuracy, common mistakes, and financial-model logic problems. It supports a selected range, one sheet, or the full workbook. Full-model review covers balance-sheet balancing, cash-flow tie-outs, roll-forwards, circular references, and reasonableness checks. It reports findings and suggested fixes without changing the model unless asked.
It checks for formula errors, hardcodes inside formulas, inconsistent neighboring formulas, off-by-one ranges, pasted-over formulas, circular references, broken cross-sheet links, unit or scale mismatches, and hidden rows or tabs. For model scope, it identifies the model type and reviews structural conventions, the balance sheet, cash flow statement, income statement, circularity, and model logic. It produces a findings table with number, sheet, cell or range, severity, category, issue, and suggested fix; model reviews also include an overall status and issue counts.
- An investment-banking or private-equity analyst reviews a DCF, LBO, or three-statement model before sending it to a client or investment committee.
- An Excel user investigates why a model does not balance and needs the gap quantified by period.
- A financial modeler looks for hardcoded overrides or formulas that break the pattern of adjacent cells.
- A researcher checks whether cash flow, balance-sheet, and income-statement figures reconcile.
- A model owner reviews hidden rows, cross-sheet references, unit conventions, and edge-case failures.
Pros & cons
- Supports three audit depths, from a selected range to a full integrated model.
- Explicitly covers balance-sheet balance, cash tie-outs, roll-forwards, and other core financial checks.
- Uses Critical, Warning, and Info severity levels with suggested fixes.
- Prioritizes quantifying balance-sheet gaps and searching aggressively for hardcoded overrides.
- The source provides no test suite, sample audit report, or platform-validation record.
- The skill does not document how a particular spreadsheet format is opened or accessed.
- Macro-driven calculations cannot be audited from formulas alone and must be noted as a limitation.
- It reports issues rather than automatically fixing them.
How to install
The source does not document a standalone installation command for this individual skill. The README says to open Cowork Settings → Plugins → Add plugin and paste https://github.com/anthropics/financial-services, or upload a zip of a relevant directory under plugins/. It also documents repository installation through Claude Code: claude plugin marketplace add anthropics/financial-services, followed by claude plugin install financial-analysis@claude-for-financial-services.
How to use
In a session where the skill is loaded, provide the spreadsheet and a request such as “audit this sheet,” “check my formulas,” or “audit the whole model.” If no scope is given, the skill asks whether to review a selection, the active sheet, or the full model. Model scope is intended for DCF, LBO, three-statement, merger, comps, or other integrated financial models.