# Balance sheet growth Human Guide

## What This Is For
Retrieve year-over-year growth in balance sheet items including Total Assets, Total Liabilities, Shareholders Equity, Cash, and Inventories. It gives the agent a clearer input/output frame for growth marketing: what context to ask for, what decisions to make, and what usable artifact to return.

Use this as a human-readable version of the Balance sheet growth agent skill. It is meant for marketers, operators, founders, and other non-coders who want the workflow without reading agent-specific implementation instructions.

## When To Use This
- Use this when you need a repeatable process for balance sheet growth.
- Use this when the task needs judgment, examples, constraints, or a clear output format rather than a one-off prompt.
- Use this when you want to hand an AI assistant enough context to produce a usable marketing artifact.

## When Not To Use This
- Do not use this when you only need a quick factual answer.
- Do not use this when the work depends on private data you cannot share with the assistant.
- Do not use this as a replacement for legal, compliance, financial, or medical review.

## What You Need Before Starting
- The goal or business outcome you want.
- The audience, customer segment, or market context.
- Any source material the assistant should respect, such as notes, briefs, examples, URLs, or brand guidance.
- Constraints such as tone, length, channel, deadline, region, or approval requirements.
- A clear definition of what a good final answer should look like.

## Step-By-Step Workflow
1. State the job clearly: "Use the Balance sheet growth guide to help me with..."
2. Add context: audience, goal, offer, channel, source material, and constraints.
3. Ask the assistant to identify missing inputs before producing the final output.
4. Have the assistant follow the skill-specific guidance below.
5. Review the result against the final checklist and ask for revisions where needed.

## Skill-Specific Guidance
- **Asset base changes**: Track total assets growth/decline and drivers
- **Leverage trends**: Compare liabilities growth to equity growth
- **Liquidity position**: Monitor cash and cash equivalents trajectory
- **Working capital**: Assess inventory management efficiency
- **Capital structure shifts**: Note significant equity vs liability changes
- Example: Liabilities -7.31%, Equity +29.47%
- Efficient capital deployment
- Possible divestitures or write-offs
- Building war chest for M&A or buybacks
- Conservative financial positioning
- May signal limited reinvestment opportunities
- Improved supply chain efficiency

## Decision Points And Nuance
The original skill emphasizes: Prerequisites, Query Format, Output Format, Key Observations Pattern, Metrics Reference, Analysis Tips, Deleveraging Signal, Asset-Light Trend, Cash Accumulation, Inventory Management.

Use these questions to steer the work:
- What is the intended audience or buyer?
- What source material must be preserved?
- What should the assistant optimize for: clarity, persuasion, accuracy, speed, creativity, or conversion?
- What examples represent the desired quality bar?
- What should the assistant avoid?

## Common Mistakes
- Capital Structure Warning

## Copy-And-Paste Prompt
```text
Use the Balance sheet growth human guide.

My goal:
[Describe the business outcome]

Audience:
[Describe who this is for]

Context and source material:
[Paste notes, examples, links, or existing copy]

Constraints:
[Tone, length, channel, timeline, must-include items, must-avoid items]

Before producing the final output, ask me for any missing information that would materially improve the result.
```

## Final Checklist
- [ ] The output matches the original goal.
- [ ] The audience and context are reflected in the answer.
- [ ] Important constraints and source material were preserved.
- [ ] The assistant made the relevant decisions explicit.
- [ ] The final artifact is ready to use, review, or hand to the next person.

## Source
This guide was generated from the octagonai/skills skill entry for `balance-sheet-growth`.

## Source Skill Notes
These notes preserve the nuance from the original skill. Use them as supporting reference when the workflow above feels too generic.

# Balance Sheet Growth

Retrieve and analyze year-over-year growth in key balance sheet items for public companies using Octagon MCP.

## Prerequisites

Ensure Octagon MCP is configured in your AI agent (Cursor, Claude Desktop, Windsurf, etc.). See [references/mcp-setup.md](references/mcp-setup.md) for installation instructions.

## Query Format

```
Retrieve year-over-year growth in key balance-sheet items for <TICKER>, limited to <N> records and filtered by period <FY|Q>.
```

**MCP Call:**

```json
{
  "server": "octagon-mcp",
  "toolName": "octagon-agent",
  "arguments": {
    "prompt": "Retrieve year-over-year growth in key balance-sheet items for AAPL, limited to 5 records and filtered by period FY"
  }
}
```

## Output Format

The agent returns a table with YoY growth percentages:

| Fiscal Year | Total Assets Growth (%) | Total Liabilities Growth (%) | Shareholders' Equity Growth (%) | Cash & Cash Equivalents Growth (%) | Inventories Growth (%) |
|-------------|------------------------|-----------------------------|---------------------------------|-----------------------------------|------------------------|
| 2025 | -1.57 | -7.31 | 29.47 | 12.01 | -21.52 |
| 2024 | 3.51 | 6.05 | -8.36 | -0.07 | 15.08 |
| 2023 | -0.00 | -3.85 | 22.64 | 26.72 | 28.00 |
| 2022 | 0.49 | 4.92 | -19.68 | -32.32 | -24.83 |

**Data Sources:** octagon-companies-agent, octagon-financials-agent

## Key Observations Pattern

After receiving data, generate observations:

1. **Asset base changes**: Track total assets growth/decline and drivers
2. **Leverage trends**: Compare liabilities growth to equity growth
3. **Liquidity position**: Monitor cash and cash equivalents trajectory
4. **Working capital**: Assess inventory management efficiency
5. **Capital structure shifts**: Note significant equity vs liability changes

## Metrics Reference

| Metric | Definition |
|--------|------------|
| Total Assets Growth | YoY change in all company assets |
| Total Liabilities Growth | YoY change in all obligations and debts |
| Shareholders' Equity Growth | YoY change in net worth (Assets - Liabilities) |
| Cash & Cash Equivalents Growth | YoY change in liquid assets |
| Inventories Growth | YoY change in unsold goods and materials |

## Analysis Tips

### Deleveraging Signal
When Liabilities decline while Equity grows:
- Company paying down debt
- Strengthening balance sheet
- Example: Liabilities -7.31%, Equity +29.47%

### Asset-Light Trend
When Assets decline but Equity grows:
- Efficient capital deployment
- Possible divestitures or write-offs
- Focus on return on assets

### Cash Accumulation
When Cash grows faster than Assets:
- Building war chest for M&A or buybacks
- Conservative financial positioning
- May signal limited reinvestment opportunities

### Inventory Management