The financial department is essential in any organization. They not only take care of finances, but also provide real-time information on business performance and offer recommendations for future growth initiatives. To facilitate this task, Microsoft has launched Copilot for Finance, a tool that helps them recover time and stay on top of crucial decisions that can impact business performance.
Microsoft Copilot for Finance is a new Copilot experience for Microsoft 365 that unlocks AI-assisted capabilities for financial professionals, right from the apps they use every day. It is currently available in public preview and connects to the organization's financial systems, including Dynamics 365 and SAP. Additionally, it provides targeted workflow automation, guided actions, and recommendations in Microsoft Outlook, Excel, Microsoft Teams, and other Microsoft 365 applications, helping you save time and focus on other critical business tasks. Main Benefits of Copilot for Finance
- Task Automation: Copilot for Finance automates time-consuming tasks, allowing finance teams to focus on strategic decisions. Facilitates audits by extracting and reconciling data with simple instructions, simplifies collections, automates communications and payment plans, and accelerates the preparation of financial reports by easily detecting variations.
- Natural Language: Similar to Copilot for M365, users can interact with Copilot for Finance in multiple ways, whether through suggestions in the workflow or by asking questions using natural language prompts. For example, a user can ask Copilot to “help understand variance data between forecast and actual,” generating relevant information and suggesting actions to take.
- Connection with Existing Systems: Copilot for Finance integrates with existing financial systems, including Dynamics 365 and SAP, as well as thousands more through Microsoft Copilot Studio. This allows you to extract information and update actions directly in existing sources, keeping users in the workflow and completing tasks more efficiently.
Example of use We are going to try the preliminary version that they offer us in Excel and we will do it with their example data. 
On the first page, we include a budget for travel expenses. 
On the second page, the bank statements from said trip. 
We are going to compare the data from the tables on both sheets. To do this, you will only have to click Reconcile data and indicate the sheets that we are going to compare.
Here the reconciliation rules will be created. Copilot for Finance gives you these as standard, but you can modify them below in settings.
The report summary will begin to be created.
A new sheet is created with all the information. On the one hand, we will see the unreconciled lines because there is some discrepancy in the values. On the other hand, the potentially reconcilable ones, which are left to our review and finally, those that have been automatically reconciled.
On the right we can also find a summary of the transactions. We have the option to download it as a PDF and even include it in the report.
Finally, in the option of Troubleshoot a transaction, we can select the cells to obtain more details. In this way, we will obtain information on unreconciled or potentially reconcilable transactions.
In conclusion, we are convinced that Microsoft Copilot for Finance will be a transformative tool for financial professionals. This solution not only optimizes the way finance teams approach their daily tasks, but also amplifies their strategic impact on the company. By significantly reducing time spent on repetitive tasks and highlighting crucial information for decision-making, Copilot for Finance improves operational efficiency and fosters business growth. Additionally, its ability to integrate with existing financial systems and use AI to provide accurate analysis and recommendations makes Copilot for Finance an essential resource for any organization looking to stay competitive and future-focused.
