Hands on with AI – Co-pilot and Claude for Accountants

Inside Excel for Accountants (Management reporting and analysis). Learn about the setup and practical elements needing to get value without losing control.

AI inside Excel has moved from novelty to a genuine productivity lever for accountants — but only for those who know how to set it up, prompt it well, and keep a firm hand on the controls.

Copilot is embedded in Microsoft 365, and Claude can be connected to Excel as a second agent that reasons across multiple workbooks at the same time. Used together, they change how management reporting and analysis gets done.

This session is a hands-on, practical walk-through aimed at accountants in industry and practice who want to get real value out of these tools without losing control of their numbers.

We’ll show the setup, the prompting patterns that work, the traps to avoid, and where each agent earns its keep in a month-end management reporting workflow.

Expect live demonstrations in Excel, real case studies drawn from management reporting and analysis engagements, and a focus on what you can apply the next working day.

What we’ll cover:

• Setting up Copilot and Claude to work inside Excel — licensing, permissions, and data boundaries
• Prompting patterns that consistently produce useful output (and the ones that waste your time)
• Using AI to accelerate management reporting, variance analysis and other adhoc analysis including commentary drafting.
• Analytical review: spotting anomalies, testing hypotheses, and stress-testing numbers with an AI agent
• Guardrails — how to verify AI output, manage confidentiality, and keep the audit trail intact
• Where each agent is stronger, and how to choose between them for a given task

The content is practical and detailed, with live demonstrations and real case studies drawn from management reporting engagements. Not a theoretical overview with outputs. Attendees should come prepared to see the tools in action and leave with techniques they can apply immediately after the session. All workbooks will be shared along with the source files extracted from an accounting system.

Learning Outcomes:

By the end of this session, attendees will be able to:

• Configure Copilot and Claude to work safely inside Excel, understanding the licensing, data-handling, and permission implications of each
• Apply proven prompting techniques to generate reliable variance analysis, commentary and other adhoc analysis from accounting system source data (in this case Xero).
• Use AI agents to perform analytical review — identifying anomalies, testing assumptions, and validating figures faster than manual review allows
• Evaluate when to use Copilot versus Claude for a given management reporting or analysis task
• Implement practical guardrails to verify AI output, preserve the audit trail, and protect client or employer confidentiality
• Assessment and approach to identifying workflows in their own month-end process where AI agents can reduce effort without compromising accuracy

Suited to:

Accountants and finance professionals in industry and public practice who prepare or review management reports and financial analysis. Particularly relevant for:

• Management accountants, financial controllers, and finance business partners in SMEs, mid-market, and corporate finance teams
• Partners, managers, and senior staff in accounting firms delivering fractional CFO, outsourced finance, or business advisory services
• FP&A professionals responsible for budgeting, forecasting, and variance analysis

Assumes intermediate Excel proficiency and general familiarity with AI tools. No prior experience with Copilot or Claude specifically is required.

This On Demand recording Includes: 

• Recording of the Live Webinar, which can be viewed multiple times, for as long as required 
• Presenters contact details for follow up questions 
• CPD Quiz
• CPD Certificate 
• CPD Report – Logged automatically 
• PowerPoint Presentation
• Verbatim Transcript, with Searchability
• Supporting Documentation