AI in finance and controlling

Key information

Training for finance department staff who want to make real use of Microsoft Copilot in budget analysis, management reporting, forecasts and communication with the board. Participants learn to write prompts that give precise answers when working with numbers, and understand the limits of safe use of AI with the company’s financial data.

During the training, participants will find out, among other things:

• How AI thinks, where its limitations lie and what hallucinations are (crucial when working with numbers and forecasts)
• How to use Microsoft Copilot in Microsoft Outlook to communicate with the board, the bank and the auditor
• How to use Microsoft Copilot in Microsoft Excel for budget analysis, cash flow forecasts and variance analysis
• How to use Microsoft Copilot in Microsoft Word to edit management reports and commentary on financial statements
• How to write prompts using the KREDO method to get specific answers when working with financial data
• What the safety rules are for working with AI on the company’s financial data

The training combines short introductions with hands-on workshop exercises based on real scenarios from a finance professional’s work.

Objective

The objective of the training is to familiarise participants with the capabilities of Microsoft Copilot in the everyday work of a finance professional, covering the use of Microsoft Copilot in Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Word, prompting with the KREDO method, and the safety rules for working with AI on confidential financial data. The training emphasises concrete, repeatable workflows in analysis and reporting, with particular attention to verifying numerical results.

Programme

Module 1: How AI thinks and what this means for working with financial data

• Language models as predicting the next words
• AI hallucinations: what they are and why they are especially dangerous with forecasts and numbers
• The difference between public models (ChatGPT, Gemini) and Microsoft Copilot in the Microsoft 365 environment

Module 2: Prompting with the KREDO method

• Context: a description of the situation and the audience (board, bank, auditor, team)
• Role: who AI is to be in this task (analyst, reviewer, adviser)
• Edit: the format of the answer, its length, structure and tone (management report, presentation, analytical note)
• Action: a precise instruction on what AI is to do
• Reference: a model or example the AI should refer to (a previous report, a template, an extract from a document)

Module 3: Microsoft Copilot in communication with the board and external partners (Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Teams)

• Draft replies to the board, the bank and the auditor: explanations of variances, commentary on results
• Summaries of long email threads on financial projects
• Notes from board meetings in Microsoft Teams and searching for earlier decisions in the history
• Preparing for a conversation with the bank or the auditor based on the correspondence history
• A short exercise on scenarios prepared by the trainer

Module 4: Microsoft Copilot in financial analysis and reporting (Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Word)

• Microsoft Excel: budget and variance analysis, generating formulas from a description in natural language, analysing data from multiple sheets, creating KPI summaries
• Microsoft Word: editing management reports and commentary on financial statements
• Working with demo files
• Critical verification of results: when AI is right, when it is wrong, when it invents numbers

Module 5: Security and responsible work with AI in finance

• What can be put into public AI and what stays within Microsoft Copilot with company data protection
• Working with the company’s confidential financial data: what is allowed and what is not
• Hallucinations when working with numbers and forecasts: how to recognise and verify them
• Ethics of using AI in communication with the board, the auditor and external partners
• Questions and answers

Methodological note

The training works exclusively with one main tool (Microsoft Copilot from a Microsoft 365 subscription), so that within 6 hours the group has time to genuinely master using it in the context of finance work, rather than merely see a few demonstrations. Elements of working with public AI models (ChatGPT, Gemini) appear in the security module in a comparative form, but not as a separate workshop track.

The workshop examples in Modules 3 and 4 are built around typical scenarios from a finance professional’s work: budget analysis, management reporting, and communication with the board and the bank.

Organisational requirements on the client’s side

• Every participant has an active Microsoft 365 subscription (Business or Enterprise) and works on a logged-in work account
• Every participant works on their own computer (laptop), not on a shared computer
• Stable Wi-Fi in the room, sufficient for the whole group working at the same time
• A projector or large screen for the trainer’s presentation
• A room suitable for workshop-style work (tables, space for notes)
• A flipchart or whiteboard with markers

Full integration of Microsoft Copilot with Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel additionally requires the Microsoft 365 Copilot add-on. Without the add-on, participants use Microsoft Copilot Chat (available in the browser with a logged-in M365 account), which is enough for most exercises, but some scenarios in Module 4 are then carried out in a “copy and paste into Microsoft Copilot Chat” mode instead of directly in the applications. The option to be decided before the date is agreed.

• Pre-training knowledge test
• Final test assessing knowledge gained after the training
• Participant satisfaction survey

Trainer

Franciszek Kołpanowicz, entrepreneur and certified AI trainer. He has been published in Rzeczpospolita, among others. He has over 2,000 hours of experience working with generative AI and has shared his knowledge at public events, including the “Manager in the Age of AI” training organised by Rzeczpospolita and at the UKEN and PASE conferences. His background in philosophy (Jagiellonian University) and his experience in IT quality control allow him to combine analytical thinking with asking the right questions. In training sessions he pays attention above all to the participants, drawing on their experience and needs as the work unfolds.