AI TRAINING
Microsoft Copilot in Excel for SME Finance Teams
Finance team members gain practical Copilot skills to speed up reporting, modelling, and board pack narrative.
What it covers
This one-day hands-on workshop teaches 2-5 person SME finance teams to use Microsoft Copilot inside Excel for real finance tasks: explaining and writing formulas, building scenario models, generating variance commentary, and drafting board pack narratives. Participants work on sanitised versions of their own spreadsheets, so learning transfers immediately. The session also covers critical pitfalls around confidential data, prompt hygiene, and knowing when not to trust Copilot output. Format is 70% hands-on exercises, 30% concept and discussion.
What you'll be able to do
- Write effective Copilot prompts that return reliable, finance-relevant Excel formulas
- Build a three-scenario financial model using Copilot-assisted table generation and formula explanation
- Produce a structured variance commentary paragraph from actuals vs. budget data using Copilot
- Draft a concise board pack narrative section using Copilot and edit it to meet governance standards
- Identify the data types and situations where using Copilot poses confidentiality or accuracy risks
Topics covered
- Using Copilot to explain and generate Excel formulas
- Scenario and sensitivity modelling with Copilot assistance
- Generating variance commentary from actuals vs. budget data
- Drafting board pack narratives and executive summaries
- Prompt writing for finance-specific tasks
- Data confidentiality risks and safe working practices
- Validating and auditing Copilot-generated outputs
- Workflow integration: when to use and when to avoid Copilot
Delivery
Delivered in-person or via video call with screen-sharing. Participants bring laptops with their Microsoft 365 Copilot licences active. A shared OneDrive folder with sanitised exercise files is provided in advance. Trainer-to-participant ratio should not exceed 1:6. In-person delivery is strongly recommended for the hands-on portion; remote delivery requires all participants to have working Copilot access confirmed before the session date.
What makes it work
- Participants bring real (sanitised) files so exercises are immediately relevant to their work
- Finance lead sets a clear data-handling protocol before the session and enforces it afterwards
- Teams agree on a short list of recurring prompts (a 'prompt library') they will reuse in monthly reporting
- Post-workshop follow-up check-in at 30 days to review what stuck and troubleshoot blockers
Common mistakes
- Pasting confidential client or payroll data directly into Copilot prompts without anonymisation
- Accepting Copilot-generated formulas without verifying logic against source data
- Using Copilot for narrative without fact-checking figures it references from the spreadsheet
- Expecting Copilot to replace judgement on variance drivers — it surfaces patterns, not business context
When NOT to take this
This workshop is the wrong fit if the team does not yet have Microsoft 365 Copilot licences — without live access, the hands-on exercises cannot run and the learning will not transfer.
Providers to consider
Sources
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