Excel
Copilot
ClaudeAnalyze
Intermediate·30 min
Reconcile a budget export against actuals and draft commentary
Have Copilot Cowork compare an approved quarterly budget to actual spend and generate the variance commentary.
Updated Sep 30, 2026
Scenario
Burn rate has been creeping up every month.
Mission
Find out which month the company runs out of cash.
Start Files
| Month | Burn |
|---|---|
| Jan | 22000 |
| Feb | 24000 |
| Mar | 23000 |
| Apr | 26000 |
| May | 25000 |
Preview — first 5 rows of monthly-burn.csv
Your task
- Starting from $180,000, calculate the running cash balance after each month's burn.
- Find the first month where the running balance drops below zero.
- Note how far short the company would be that month if burn doesn't change.
Prompt idea:
Starting cash is $180,000. Here is the monthly burn rate for 9 months. Calculate the running cash balance month by month and tell me the first month it goes negative, and by how much.
Check Your Result
Starting from $180,000, in which month (as shown in the Month column) does the running cash balance first go negative?
Need a hint?
Run a cumulative sum of starting cash minus burn, month by month — don't just divide cash by the average burn rate.
Reveal Solution
The solution files contain the completed challenge. Review the approach to see if you missed any edge cases.
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