Using Copilot in Finance: Best Practices and Strategies Copilot as your AI assistant

Copilot can assist financial experts by providing real-time data analysis and insights, enabling them to make informed decisions quickly. With advanced predictive analytics, Copilot can forecast market trends and identify potential risks, allowing professionals to stay ahead of the curve.

Additionally, Copilot’s ability to automate routine tasks frees up valuable time, so financial experts can focus on strategic planning and execution. This comprehensive support ensures that financial professionals can navigate the complexities of the market with confidence and precision. Explore key Finance scenarios and discover how Copilot can be your AI assistant throughout the process.

1. How Copilot can simplify Finance tasks

Microsoft Copilot for Finance is a new Copilot experience for Microsoft 365 that unlocks AI-assisted competencies for financial professionals, right from within productivity applications they use every day.​

2. Copilot’s Role in Enhancing Financial KPIs

Copilot significantly enhances the achievement of financial KPIs by automating data collection and analysis, ensuring accuracy and reducing errors. It provides real-time insights into KPI performance, enabling better decision-making and strategic planning. Additionally, Copilot streamlines financial processes, increasing productivity and ensuring compliance, ultimately driving KPI success and organisational growth.

How Microsoft Copilot can reduce finance department spending

As a cost centre, Finance teams face the challenge of constantly achieving more with fewer resources. By assisting with everyday tasks, Microsoft Copilot can help increase time for additional analysis, proactive audits, collections processes, and financial reporting.

Keep communication lines open

• Draft communications such as approval requests, status emails, and supplier communications
• Summarize stakeholder meetings around budget status and approvals
• Create sourcing strategy decks

Reduce outsourcing requirements

• Assist with manual tasks allowing processes to be done internally

Avoid spend on finance system updates

• Extend financial systems with Copilot
• Extrapolate the risk and degree of impact by accessing customer data and distribution records to identify patterns for corrective change

How Microsoft Copilot can help average request times

Microsoft Copilot can help with lowering resolution times which in turn leads to increased agent productivity and higher customer satisfaction rates.

Boost productivity

• Rapidly find information
• Diagnose problems faster
• Check for similar issues and resolutions
• Quickly send follow-up communications

Speed data analysis and reporting

• Quickly analyse trends
• Generate informative charts
• Create strategy presentations

How Microsoft Copilot can help reduce day sales outstanding

Improve collections process

• Use Copilot to organise
• information from past interactions
• Draft communications with Copilot clearly outlining the collection process
• Analyze different payment methods and its effectiveness

Improve customer meetings

• Prepare for the meeting
• Focus during the meeting
• Generate follow up communications regarding outstanding balance or payment plan
• Connect your ERP or finance system to access customer records from directly within Outlook.

How Copilot can improve risk management

Finance teams grapple with complex tasks—from credit and collections to risk management and compliance. Get real-time insights and strategic recommendations.

By automating mundane tasks, Microsoft Copilot frees up time for critical decisions, streamlining audits, simplifying collections, and accelerating financial reporting.

Speed data analysis and reporting

• Quickly analyse trends
• Generate informative charts
• Create strategy presentations

How Copilot can help reduce spend on financial systems and tooling

Microsoft Copilot can be extended into processes to bring data together and speed decision-making without performing expensive updates to financial systems.

Inform your decisions

• Draft budgets and spreadsheets
• Search for cost variances across different options

Improve your data

• Use Copilot Studio for secure data retrieval from existing systems

3. Financial Leadership: Challenges in a Fast-Evolving AI Landscape

As the global economy becomes a place of constant and unpredictable change, it is critical for CFOs to play a more strategic role in their organisations and become innovation allies.

According to the 2023 Future of Finance Trends Report, 81% of finance leaders feel it is a high priority for them to make change happen in the organisation by setting long-term organisational KPIs, such as investing in the right tools, prioritising purpose investments, and increasing job satisfaction.

In moving from a position buried by transactional tasks to one at the forefront of visionary innovation, CFOs will have completed a radical transformation into the hero their organisations need to truly thrive.

Based on the recent Gartner CFO Report, 79% of chief finance officers will personally lead digital transformation for their function through 2024 to adapt and thrive in the face of uncertainty. However, many finance leaders simply don’t know where to start in a rapidly evolving finance technology landscape. They face challenges in creating a comprehensive and realistic technology strategy and roadmap that balances new capabilities with existing legacy requirements.

CFOs often encounter several challenges when leading digital transformation initiatives. Here are some of the most common ones:

• Strategy Development: Balancing new tech with legacy systems.
• Investment Justification: Proving ROI to secure funding for digital initiatives.
• Talent Acquisition and Retention: Finding and keeping skilled professionals who can drive digital transformation.
• Data Management: Integrating and managing data from various sources to provide actionable insights is often complex and resource-intensive.
• Cybersecurity: Protecting sensitive financial data.
• Change Management: Leading and managing change within the organisation to ensure successful adoption of new technologies and processes.
• Resource Constraints: Limited resources, both in terms of budget and personnel, can hinder the implementation of digital initiatives.
• Keeping Up with Rapid Technological Changes: The fast pace of technological advancements can make it difficult for CFOs to stay updated and make informed decisions.

Finance organisations need to be utilising generative AI to help blend structured and unstructured datasets. Copilot for Finance is a solution that aggressively targets this challenge. Microsoft continues to push the boundary of business applications by providing AI-driven solutions for common business problems. Copilot for Finance is another powerful example of this effort. Copilot for Finance has potential to help finance professionals at organisations of all sizes accelerate impact and possibly even reduce financial operation costs.¹

—Kevin Permenter, IDC research director, financial applications

Microsoft Copilot Scenarios for Finance

Boost value through consistent usage and personal productivity, optimising functional workflows, and impacting the metrics that are vital to your organisation. Streamline Finance processes to enhance efficiency and drive better results. Utilize data-driven insights to make informed decisions that align with your strategic goals.

5. Boost your productivity. Explore key Copilot scenarios for Finance

Using Microsoft Copilot to streamline everyday tasks can reduce complexity, save time, and boost employee satisfaction. Discover how Copilot can be your AI assistant throughout the process.

6. Excel Like a Pro: Using Copilot for Maximum Impact

Excel is the #1 tool for finance departments worldwide, known for its powerful data analysis and reporting capabilities. By using Copilot in Excel, you can take your financial tasks to the next level. Our guide will demonstrate how to use prompts effectively to achieve the best results.

Task. Prompt. Benefit.

1. Add Calculation Columns	2. Currency Conversion	3. Conditional Formatting	4. Sort and Filter for Top Results	5. Add Calculation Columns	6. Create Visual Representation	7. Conditional Formatting
Task: Create a new column to calculate percentages based on existing data.	Task: Automatically convert prices into a specified local currency.	Task: Apply conditional formatting to highlight important data visually.	Task: Sort data by specific criteria and filter key rows to focus on top performers.	Task: Quickly compute average values for specific columns.	Task: Generate a visual summary of data using a pie chart.	Task: Compare data points from two columns over a time period using a line graph.
Prompt: "Add a column for the percentage of [Column Name]."l	Prompt: "Add a column showing price in [Local Currency], with current price [Price]."	Prompt: "Add green-yellow-red conditional formatting to [Column Name]."	Prompt: "Sort by [Column Name] from biggest to smallest.";	Prompt: "What is the average of [Column Name]?"	Prompt: "Create a pie chart of view count by Category."	Prompt: "Create a line graph comparing [Column 1] and [Column 2] over time."
Benefit/Outcome: Automatically calculates percentages for each row, saving time and reducing errors while enabling better performance comparison and analysis.	Benefit/Outcome: Facilitates analysis across different markets by displaying prices in a local currency, helping in accurate financial reporting and decision-making	Benefit/Outcome: Allows for quick identification of data patterns or outliers by using colours to highlight values that meet certain thresholds, improving visibility of performance indicators.	Benefit/Outcome: Orders data to showcase high-priority values, enabling focused analysis of top performers.	Benefit/Outcome: Simplifies complex data into a visual format, making it easier to communicate insights and data distribution across different categories.	Benefit/Outcome: Visualizes trends and relationships between key data points, offering insights for performance tracking and strategic planning over time.	Benefit/Outcome: Visualizes trends and relationships between key data points, offering insights for performance tracking and strategic planning over time.
			Follow-up Task: Filter and focus on top-selling products with the best price.	Follow-up Task: Analyze price trends by grouping data by month.
			Prompt: "Filter top 10 rows for [Product Names] with highest Sold and lowest Price."	Prompt: "Show the average price per month in Release Date."
			Benefit/Outcome: Narrows down the dataset to key products, streamlining analysis and decision-making regarding sales and pricing strategies.	Benefit/Outcome: Helps identify trends in pricing over time, aiding in demand forecasting and product lifecycle analysis.

 

7. Harnessing Copilot for Financial Analysis and Forecasting

Microsoft Copilot enhances variance analysis and data reconciliation for financial professionals by automating these tasks, saving time, and improving report accuracy.

Copilot assists in identifying discrepancies, analysing variances, and ensuring data integrity. Copilot’s advanced AI-driven insights can provide a robust foundation for accurate forecasting and strategic decision-making.

1. Automate data reconciliation

Data reconciliation in Copilot for Finance simplifies the process of reconciling two data sets in Excel workbooks. You can define the data to reconcile, use AI to determine the reconciliation rules, and benefit from a comprehensive report that provides a generative AI summary of the results of the reconciliation process.

Example: Automate the comparison of daily transactions with bank records. Copilot organises your data into three distinct categories: unmatched transactions, potentially matched transactions, and matched transactions. Additionally, you will have the option to download a PDF summary of the reconciliation process.

2. Streamline variance analysis

Copilot for Finance assists financial analysts in efficiently performing a variance analysis in Excel by utilising natural language prompts to scrutinise datasets for anomalies, risks, and unmatched values. This analysis empowers finance teams to deliver planned and calculated insights to entrepreneurs regarding financial performance relative to strategic results.

Example: Identify discrepancies like unexpected expenses or revenue shortfalls effortlessly by simply instructing Copilot for Finance to analyse Excel sheets.

3. Speed up forecasting

Predictive analysis is an essential technique in financial data analytics, utilising historical data to forecast future trends and outcomes. Copilot for Finance connects directly to Dynamics 365 and SAP, and can be connected to more than 1,200 other systems via Copilot Studio, a development application for extending Microsoft Copilots. When integrating Copilot and Power BI, financial professionals are equipped with a comprehensive platform to conduct sophisticated predictive analysis.

Example: Utilize Copilot for predictive analytics to forecast future cash flows based on historical data or forecast when customers will make payments for their invoices.

8. Microsoft Copilot: AI Innovations Driving Business ROI

In the past year, Microsoft Copilot has been adopted by hundreds of companies worldwide, driving significant AI-powered transformations. These advancements have delivered measurable business value and notable outcomes.

Last year Microsoft introduced the term “AI Transformation.” It’s remarkable to think that back then, Copilots were not widely available, and the Azure OpenAI Service had only been around for six months. As Satya Nadella, Microsoft Chairman and CEO, mentioned in the last quarter’s earnings report, 60% of the Fortune 500 companies have now adopted Copilots, and 65% are using the Azure OpenAI Service. Today, Copilot is at the forefront of how AI is driving human achievement ⁵.

Fintech company Saphyre creates real-time client account reconciliation and management solutions for institutional parties involved in financial trading. The company is using Microsoft Azure to provide intelligent, cloud-based solutions that automate and streamline complex financial trading workflows and modernise time-consuming processes efficiently and securely. Using Azure AI, Saphyre built a solution that helped clients reduce manual paperwork by 75%. It is also sharing data more securely using Microsoft security products so clients can be ready to trade three to five times faster compared to manual onboarding. This results in increased revenue opportunities for clients by completing trades more quickly and at better prices.

As an integrated risk assessment firm operating globally, Moody’s Corporation has harnessed the power of AI through Azure OpenAI Service, Microsoft Fabric and Microsoft Teams to significantly enhance productivity and insights. Through our co-innovation efforts, we built an internal tool — Moody’s Copilot — that enables employees to quickly synthesize vast amounts of research and data, and 94% of users reported increased productivity. Additionally, the launch of Moody’s Research Assistant allows customers to generate new insights from extensive credit research, data and analytics, potentially saving users over 25% of their time on typical financial analyst tasks.

EY is using Copilot for Microsoft 365 to help clients adopt an AI-powered approach to tackle their unique tax, finance and operational challenges; boost efficiency; and get more value from their data. Reconciling and combining large amounts of data faster and more accurately is a game changer for Finance and Tax, driving a differentiated experience and opportunity to deliver these capabilities through EY’s core platforms and solutions. The ability to apply Copilot to vast swaths of data to develop insights helps drive smarter decision-making across the business. For example, EY professionals are seeing productivity gains of up to 14 hours per week using an AI digital assistant to automate routine tasks, freeing up time for more strategic work. The initial rollout of Copilot was so positive that EY is now scaling it to 150,000 of its employees and helping clients drive their own transformations using EY’s Customer Zero copilot accelerators.

9. SoftwareOne Copilot Use Cases

Discover the latest SoftwareOne Copilot Case Studies. Learn how companies have successfully leveraged SoftwareOne’s expertise for AI integration, enhancing productivity and competitiveness with Microsoft Copilot.

Preparing Your Organisation for Implementation

10. Addressing Data Security Concerns with Microsoft Copilot

As organisations increasingly adopt AI-powered tools like Microsoft Copilot, ensuring data security becomes paramount. Microsoft Copilot integrates with Microsoft 365 Apps and uses large language models (LLMs) to enhance productivity. However, this integration raises valid concerns about data privacy and security. Here’s how to address these concerns and prepare your organisation for a seamless implementation of Microsoft Copilot.

Understanding Data Security Concerns

1. Data Privacy: Copilot accesses and processes vast amounts of data to provide intelligent assistance. Ensuring that sensitive information remains confidential is crucial.
2. Data Integrity: Maintaining the accuracy and consistency of data during processing is essential to prevent misinformation.
3. Access Control: Properly managing who has access to what data within Copilot is vital to prevent unauthorised access.
4. Compliance: Adhering to industry standards and regulations, such as GDPR, is necessary to avoid legal repercussions.

Strategies to Address Data Security Concerns

1. Implement Zero Trust Principles: Adopt a Zero Trust security model, which assumes that threats could be both external and internal. This involves verifying every access request as though it originates from an open network.
2. Use Sensitivity Labels: Apply sensitivity labels to classify and protect data based on its level of sensitivity. This helps in managing access and ensuring that sensitive data is handled appropriately.
3. Data Loss Prevention (DLP): Implement DLP policies to monitor and protect sensitive information from being shared inadvertently or maliciously.
4. Regular Audits and Monitoring: Conduct regular security audits and continuously monitor data access and usage to detect and respond to potential threats promptly.
5. Employee Training: Educate employees about data security best practises and the importance of adhering to security protocols when using Copilot.

Preparing Your Organisation for Microsoft Copilot

1. Assess Readiness: Evaluate your current IT infrastructure and security policies to ensure they are robust enough to support Copilot.
2. Update Policies: Revise your data security policies to include guidelines specific to the use of AI tools like Copilot.
3. Optimise for Search: Enhance your data organisation and search capabilities to maximise the efficiency of Copilot.
4. Pilot Testing: Start with a pilot implementation to identify potential issues and gather feedback before a full-scale rollout.

Did you know that:

1. Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365 is compliant with the existing privacy, security, and compliance commitments to Microsoft 365 commercial customers, including the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and European Union (EU) Data Boundary.
2. Prompts, responses, and data accessed through Microsoft Graph aren't used to train foundation LLMs, including those used by Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365.
3. Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365 operates with multiple protections, which include, but are not limited to, blocking harmful content, detecting protected material, and blocking prompt injections (jailbreak attacks).

Implementing Microsoft Copilot can significantly boost productivity and efficiency within your organisation. However, addressing data security concerns is crucial to ensure a safe and compliant environment. By adopting robust security measures and preparing your organisation thoroughly, you can leverage the full potential of Microsoft Copilot while safeguarding your data.

Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365 documentation

Data, Privacy, and Security for Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365