Approve budgets

What are you deciding?

One line is enough. Step 1 asks the rest in your AI app, and nothing is done until you approve the brief it writes.

In the case folder's materials/: The options and anything you already know about them.

The 4 steps

1. 01

   Agree the criteria

   Then you approve, before the next step starts.

2. 02

   Lay out the options

3. 03

   Score independently

   Then you approve, before the next step starts.

4. 04

   Recommend

How it does this well

Criteria first, independent scorers, sensitivity in code. Not found and out of scope are valid answers here: it says so instead of guessing.

How the field does this well

• Lead with a short recap, the same KPIs every time against target, and specific asks placed high.
• Require lowlights next to highlights.
• Write strategy as a narrative in full sentences so the assumptions are stated, then list and challenge them.
• Send board material as a pre read with the two or three decisions needed.

Ground it first

Ask for, or look in materials/ for: the company's numbers and targets, the previous update, and the decisions needed. If there is none, say plainly that the result rests on general defaults, and name them.

What stays with the person

The strategy, the asks, and the founder's voice. Prepare these; never decide them.

The check that makes it trustworthy

Every number recomputed from the founder's files, lowlights present, and assumptions listed and challenged.

The person's own data

If the person has connected Google Drive / Docs / Sheets, Notion, HubSpot, Salesforce, NetSuite, read their data through that connector instead of asking for exports, and say which source each number or fact came from. Without one, work from materials/.

Also from finance

• Detect variances, filter by materiality stated up front, explain each with the entries behind it, and assign an owner.
• Tie out totals in code, never by the model.
• Match with deterministic rules first and leave the rest unmatched for a person; never force a match.
• Draft the narrative from plan, actuals and last period's commentary; the person supplies causality.
• What stays with the person here: causal explanation of material variances, booking or approving entries, and sign off.
• The check here: totals tie out in code, every explanation cites the entries that produce it, and unmatched items are listed.

The agents

scorer

Scores every option in a Cheatcode decision on every criterion, independently, with evidence.

red-team

Makes the strongest case against the leading option in a Cheatcode decision.

Where things stay

On your computer

Your files in materials/, every result in outputs/, the work itself. It runs in your AI app, on the plan you already pay for.

With Cheatcode

The steps, the gates and how far each case has come, so a case survives closing the app. See your cases.