Research Finance — Research

Research Finance manages the money for internal R&D programs and portfolios. It builds multi-period program budgets with the F&A (indirect) split, tracks burn rate and runway against value-inflection milestones, and routes R&D cost items to a capitalize-vs-expense determination. Every budget output surfaces its assumptions block, and accounting-treatment calls route to a named finance owner—it never books an entry or decides accounting treatment.

research-ops claude-code

📂 View skill on GitHub ↗ 🚀 How to use

✨ What it does

Builds multi-period budgets with direct, F&A, and fully-loaded cost rollups and an explicit assumptions block.
Computes average and trailing burn, runway in periods/months, and milestone reachability, flagging accelerating burn and
Scores R&D cost items against IAS 38 development-phase criteria or US GAAP ASC 730, routing to CAPITALIZE-CANDIDATE, EXP
Supports multiple R&D profiles (pharma-rd, biotech, medtech, deep-tech, software-rd, university-lab).
Includes an onboarding questionnaire that customizes defaults (F&A rate, runway threshold, accounting standard, finance
Provides an opt-in autoresearch bridge to optimize runway.

🎯 When to use it

Building or revising an R&D program budget and need the F&A split made explicit.
A program's runway is in question and you need a milestone-vs-cash read.
Finance asks whether a development cost can be capitalized and you need a defensible first routing.
Preparing a portfolio review and need per-program burn consistency.

🚀 How to use

Trigger: /ar:setup

Trigger by asking to build an R&D budget, track burn/runway, or route a cost for capitalize-vs-expense. Inputs are JSON files (program.json, ledger.json, costs.json) and CLI flags for profile, F&A rate, standard, etc. Run the scripts in order: program_budget_planner.py, burn_runway_tracker.py, capex_vs_opex_router.py. Example prompts:

Build a 3-period budget for my biotech program using the pharma-rd profile and a 58.5% F&A rate.
Track burn and runway for my program ledger and tell me if we hit the next milestone before cash runs out.
Route these development costs under IFRS and tell me which ones are capitalize candidates.

📄 Output: A program-finance packet: budget rollups with assumptions, burn/runway report with milestone verdicts, and a capitalize-vs-expense routing report with named owners.

📦 Add this skill to Claude Code

# 1. Get the skills repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/alirezarezvani/claude-skills /tmp/claude-skills

# 2. Copy this skill into your project (or ~/.claude/skills for all projects)
mkdir -p .claude/skills
cp -r /tmp/claude-skills/research-ops/skills/research-finance .claude/skills/research-finance

Skill source: research-ops/skills/research-finance/SKILL.md

⚠️ Good to know

Requires accurate inputs (e.g., negotiated F&A rate, ledger data) and does not make final accounting determinations—it only routes to a named finance owner.

❓ FAQ

Does this skill make the final decision on whether a cost is capitalized or expensed?

No. It routes items to CAPITALIZE-CANDIDATE, EXPENSE, or FINANCE-OWNER-REVIEW with a named owner; the controller and auditor make the final call.

What is the difference between this skill and research/grants?

research/grants finds funding opportunities, while research-finance manages money that has already been allocated or raised.

How does the skill handle F&A rates?

It applies whatever rate you pass and warns you to confirm it is a negotiated NICRA, not a guess; it also excludes MTDC-exempt items like capital equipment from the base.

🤖 Overview, features, install steps and FAQ were generated from the project's SKILL.md on Sep 4, 2026. Always check the original source before running commands.