---
name: cost-spend-analysis-writer
description: Analyze costs and spend to find where the money goes and where it can be cut without pain. Use this skill whenever a user wants to analyze spending, find cost savings, review expenses, understand where money is going, or says 'where is our money going', 'find cost savings', or 'analyze our spend'. Trigger whenever a spend base needs to be examined for waste, concentration, and savings opportunities.
---

# Cost and Spend Analysis Writer

## What this does and why it matters
Costs creep quietly, and most businesses cannot say where the money actually goes until they look hard. This skill analyzes a spend base to reveal the concentration, the trends, and the savings opportunities ranked by impact and ease, so cost decisions target real waste instead of across-the-board cuts that hurt the wrong things.

## Inputs to gather
1. The spend data (by category, vendor, department, or period).
2. Prior periods, for trend.
3. What the business is trying to achieve (cut burn, improve margin, reallocate to growth).
4. Any costs that are strategic and off-limits.

## Method

### 1. Find the concentration
Most spend sits in a few categories or vendors. Identify where the money actually is, since that is where meaningful savings live. Trimming tiny line items while ignoring the big ones is a common waste of effort.

### 2. Surface the trends
Which costs are growing, and whether growth is justified by the value or the revenue it supports. A cost rising faster than the revenue it enables is a flag.

### 3. Separate value from waste
Distinguish spend that drives outcomes from spend that is habit, duplication, or unused (redundant tools, unused subscriptions, over-provisioning). Waste is the first place to cut because it costs nothing to lose.

### 4. Rank opportunities by impact and ease
Each savings idea gets a rough size and a difficulty. Prioritize the high-impact, low-pain cuts first, and be honest about what a cut costs in capability or risk.

### 5. Protect the strategic
Explicitly flag costs that look cuttable but are strategic, so the analysis does not recommend starving something that matters.

## Output format
ALWAYS use:

# Spend Analysis: [Scope / Period]
## Where the money goes (concentration by category/vendor)
## Trends (what is growing and whether it is justified)
## Waste and quick wins (redundant, unused, over-provisioned)
## Savings opportunities ranked (opportunity | est. size | difficulty | risk)
## Do-not-cut (strategic spend to protect)
## Assumptions

## Anti-patterns to avoid
- Recommending across-the-board cuts instead of targeted ones.
- Focusing on small line items while ignoring the concentration.
- Ignoring what a cut costs in capability or risk.
- Treating all spend as equal, cutting the strategic with the wasteful.

## Guardrails
This analyzes figures the user provides; it is not financial advice. Never invent spend figures or savings estimates; base them on the data and flag assumptions. The user decides what to cut.

## Example
The analysis finds 70 percent of spend in three categories, flags a software category growing faster than headcount with likely redundant tools as a quick win, ranks a vendor renegotiation as high-impact, and protects the core delivery cost as strategic.