research-finance

name	research-finance
description	Use when managing the money for an internal R&D program or portfolio — building a multi-period program budget with the F&A (indirect) split, tracking burn rate and runway against value-inflection milestones, or routing R&D cost items to a capitalize-vs-expense determination. Every budget output surfaces its assumptions block; capitalize-vs-expense is decision-support only and routes to a named finance owner — it never books an entry or decides accounting treatment. Distinct from finance/financial-analysis (corporate DCF, close, valuation) and research/grants (funding discovery — this manages money already won).
version	2.9.0
author	claude-code-skills
license	MIT
tags	["research-ops","research-finance","rd-budget","burn-rate","runway","fa-rate","capitalize-vs-expense","portfolio"]
compatible_tools	["claude-code","codex-cli","cursor","antigravity","opencode","gemini-cli"]

research-finance

Financial management of internal R&D programs and portfolios: program budgeting with F&A, burn/runway tracking, and capitalize-vs-expense routing. Every number ships with its assumptions block, and accounting-treatment calls route to a named finance owner — this skill never books an entry.

Purpose

R&D finance partners, program controllers, and operations leads manage money that has already been allocated or raised — not the corporate close, not the next funding round, not finding a grant. This skill structures three recurring decisions:

Three deterministic tools:

1. program_budget_planner.py — Builds a multi-period budget from work-package line items, applies the F&A (indirect) rate to an MTDC-style eligible base, and rolls up direct / F&A / fully-loaded cost per period with an explicit assumptions block.
2. burn_runway_tracker.py — Computes average + trailing burn, runway in periods/months, and whether each value-inflection milestone is reachable before cash runs out. Flags accelerating burn and below-threshold runway.
3. capex_vs_opex_router.py — Scores each R&D cost item against the IAS 38 development-phase criteria (or flags US GAAP ASC 730 expense-as-incurred) and routes it to CAPITALIZE-CANDIDATE / EXPENSE / FINANCE-OWNER-REVIEW with a named owner. Never auto-decides.

When to use

Invoke this skill when:

• You are 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.
• You are preparing a portfolio review and need per-program burn consistency.

Do NOT use this skill to: run corporate DCF / valuation / close (use finance/financial-analysis), discover or position grants (use research/grants), or make the final accounting determination (that is the controller's + auditor's call — this tool only routes).

Workflow

1. Lay out the program — Fill assets/rd_program_budget_template.md with work-package lines, categories, and per-period amounts.
2. Build the budget — Run program_budget_planner.py --input program.json --profile {pharma-rd|biotech|medtech|deep-tech|software-rd|university-lab} --fa-rate <negotiated rate>. Read direct / F&A / fully-loaded rollups + assumptions.
3. Track burn & runway — Run . Read runway + milestone verdicts + flags.