Benefits of Microsoft Copilot in Finance

The main benefits of Microsoft Copilot in finance are time saved on analysis in Excel, faster drafting of management reports and commentary, and less time spent catching up on email and meetings. Microsoft also has a Finance agent that helps with reconciliations in Excel and collections in Outlook, connected to ERP systems such as Dynamics 365 Finance, Business Central and SAP. Finance holds some of the most sensitive data in any organisation, so permissions, labelling and record keeping need sorting before Copilot goes anywhere near it.

What does Microsoft Copilot do for finance teams?

There are a few different pieces, and it is worth knowing which is which before you build a business case.

• Copilot Chat is included with eligible Microsoft 365 plans at no extra cost. It answers from the web and from documents a user uploads, and when staff sign in with their work account their prompts and responses are covered by Microsoft's enterprise data protection commitments.
• The Microsoft Copilot licence is a paid add-on. It works from the user's own email, calendar, chats, meetings and files, and sits inside Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and Teams. It includes the Analyst agent, which is built for working through data, and the Researcher agent for longer pieces of research.
• The Finance agent grew out of what Microsoft first announced as Microsoft Copilot for Finance. In Excel it helps reconcile two data sets, suggests matching rules and produces a reconciliation report with a summary of the discrepancies. In Outlook it supports the collections process by pulling customer and invoice information from the ERP into the email. Parts of it are still in preview or in Microsoft's Frontier programme, and its AI-generated content is currently produced in US English only.

Microsoft renamed Microsoft 365 Copilot to Microsoft Copilot, and Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat to Microsoft Copilot Chat, in 2026, so older licences and documents may still use the previous names.

Realistic use cases in a finance function

Copilot works best on tasks where someone is assembling, rewording or summarising information that already exists, and can check the result quickly. In finance that includes:

• asking questions of a trial balance, budget or sales export in Excel, such as which cost centres moved most against budget, without writing the formulas
• drafting the commentary for a monthly management pack from the figures and last month's narrative
• reconciling two data sets, such as a bank export and a ledger extract, with the Finance agent and getting a report of the unmatched items
• summarising a long email thread with an auditor or supplier before a call
• summarising a budget review or month-end meeting in Teams, with actions and owners
• drafting a board paper or a policy update from earlier documents

Copilot can be wrong, and an Excel answer that looks precise can still be based on the wrong range or a misread column. Treat its output the way you would treat a first draft from a new member of the team: useful, but checked before it goes to the board, the auditors or a regulator.

What has to be sorted before you roll out Copilot?

Copilot only shows a user content they already have at least view access to. The difficulty is that finance files get shared widely over time. Budget workbooks are sent round as links, payroll and board folders sit in SharePoint sites with broader access than intended, and old Teams for audits or system projects stay open long after the work finishes. If someone can open a file, Copilot can find it and summarise it for them.

The steps we would take first are:

• run the SharePoint data access governance reports to find sites shared with everyone, sharing links and broken permission inheritance (SharePoint Advanced Management is included with Microsoft Copilot licences)
• change the default sharing link if it is set to Anyone, and review guest access for auditors and advisers who no longer need it
• use Restricted Content Discovery on sites holding payroll, board, M&A or other price-sensitive material while permissions are reviewed
• label sensitive content and use Microsoft Purview data loss prevention for Copilot to keep it out of Copilot's answers
• agree how long Copilot prompts and responses are kept, since they are stored and Microsoft Purview retention policies can apply to them

If you are regulated by the FCA or a similar body, involve compliance early. Teams lets meeting organisers choose whether Copilot works only during a meeting, using temporary speech-to-text data that isn't saved, or during and after it from a saved transcript, and the right default for client or market-sensitive meetings is a compliance decision rather than an IT one.

Data protection and security

Microsoft states that prompts, responses and data accessed through Microsoft Graph aren't used to train the foundation models used by Copilot, and that Copilot only works with content the signed-in user has permission to see. For tenants that signed up in the United Kingdom, Microsoft Copilot is covered by Microsoft's data residency commitments for data at rest, although Microsoft notes that queries from outside the EU may be processed in other regions. The Finance agent uses the ERP's own permissions, so a user only sees ERP data they are already allowed to see there.

How is Microsoft Copilot licensed?

Copilot Chat is included with eligible plans including Microsoft 365 Business Basic, Business Standard and Business Premium, Microsoft 365 E3 and E5, and Office 365 E1, E3 and E5. The paid Microsoft Copilot licence is an add-on to a qualifying plan, including those plans, and it is included in Microsoft 365 E7. Smaller organisations on Business plans buy the Business version of Copilot. The Finance agent has its own deployment requirements, including a Dataverse environment for the reconciliation templates, so check Microsoft's deployment guide before planning around it. Pricing depends on your agreement, so get a current figure from your reseller.

A sensible start is to licence the people who spend most time in Excel and on reporting, such as management accountants and FP&A, for a few months and measure the time saved on a real month-end before going wider. Our post on Copilot productivity in the UK private sector looks at the wider business case.

Frequently asked questions

Can Copilot do reconciliations in Excel?

Microsoft's Finance agent includes a Financial Reconciliation agent for Excel that compares two data sets, suggests matching rules and produces a reconciliation report with a summary of discrepancies. It can be used interactively or, with templates set up, run autonomously.

Is Microsoft Copilot for Finance still a separate product?

Microsoft now describes it as the Finance agent, with capabilities in Excel, Outlook and the Microsoft Copilot app. Some parts are in preview or the Frontier programme, so check current availability before relying on it for a process.

Does Copilot use our financial data to train its AI?

No. Microsoft states that prompts, responses and data accessed through Microsoft Graph aren't used to train the foundation models used by Microsoft Copilot.

What should a finance team do before getting Copilot?

Review who can access finance sites, folders and shared workbooks, remove old guest access, label sensitive content and agree retention for Copilot interactions with compliance. Then pick two or three tasks, such as management pack commentary or a monthly reconciliation, to measure against.

If you would like to know whether your tenant is ready before you commit to licences, our AI readiness assessment covers permissions, sharing, governance and where Copilot is likely to pay back. Get in touch to talk it through.