Hands-on Copilot and Claude for Accountants

Description

A practical, hands-on session on using Copilot and Claude inside Excel for management reporting and analysis

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.

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
• A Copilot vs Claude decision framework — when to use which agent for a given task
• Advisory scenario modelling and sensitivity analysis — building Bear/Base/Bull cases and stress-testing assumptions with AI

This is a practical, detailed session with live demonstrations and real case studies drawn from management reporting engagements — not a theoretical overview. Attendees should come prepared to see the tools in action and leave with techniques they can apply the next working day.

This session is intermediate level, detail-based and practical, and suits both large firms and small teams.

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 ad hoc 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

Attendees will also leave with an 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

Level: Intermediate. Assumes intermediate Excel proficiency and general familiarity with AI tools — no prior experience with Copilot or Claude specifically is required.

PRESENTER

Lance Rubin, CEO & Founder, Model Citizn