Petit test
Guess first, no penalty. You want AI to write month-end commentary your manager can trust. Besides the variance table, what should you give it?
Commentary is the plain-English note beside each number, and it's only as good as its reasons. Those reasons live with people. The budget owner (the manager responsible for a cost line) knows why marketing spent more in September. The table doesn't.
So the order matters. First, send each budget owner one short question about their biggest variance (the gap between plan and actual). Then give AI the table plus their answers. It turns your facts into clear sentences in seconds. It can't find a reason that isn't in what you gave it, so it won't need to guess.
Keep a name next to each reason. When the CFO asks "says who?", you have the answer.