Microsoft 365 Copilot isn’t just a text-based assistant—it’s also a suite of advanced tools and agents that can truly relieve finance professionals of tedious, repetitive tasks. Here are six specific scenarios for using Microsoft 365 Copilot in finance .
1. Searching for reports in the company’s resources
One of the most common problems in large organizations is the fragmentation of documents: financial reports are scattered across SharePoint, email inboxes, OneDrive, and Teams. Copilot in Microsoft 365 can search all of these locations simultaneously, using the permissions of the logged-in user.
In the example shown, Copilot found the PZU Group’s 2025 financial statements in a matter of seconds, organized them into a clear table with titles and links to the files, and highlighted the most recent document. Importantly, the data never leaves the corporate environment. Microsoft guarantees that content sent to Copilot is not shared with third-party providers, does not go to OpenAI or Anthropic, and is not used to train language models.
When the needed information is not available internally, Copilot can draw on public sources on the internet, and in both cases, it provides detailed citations for the sources on which its response is based.
Deep Thinking – When Should You Use It?
For more complex queries—such as comparing financial results for two years—it’s worth enabling “Think” mode (deep reasoning). The response appears after 2–3 minutes, but it is much more insightful and detailed, sometimes spanning 5–7 pages. Copilot can also automatically generate an Excel file with a comparison of the data and prepare visualizations for download.
2. Task Management Using Microsoft Loop
Microsoft Loop is a smart note that functions as a simplified project management tool without the need to involve the IT department or purchase additional licenses. Copilot can create it from scratch based on a command issued in natural language.
Copilot will generate a workspace for the finance department to manage month-end closing: with dates, task owners, statuses, comments, and a suggested list of typical tasks for this process. The completed structure can be shared immediately with the entire team. Employees receive an invitation via email and join the collaboration in the same file. Every change is logged, and the version history remains available.
This solution is particularly useful for organizations that are just beginning to digitize their processes; the transition from pen and paper or scattered emails to a centralized tool can be quick and painless.
3. Notebooks — the team’s financial knowledge base
Notebooks in Copilot (the equivalent of Google’s NotebookLM) are spaces where you can upload financial documents and use them to create a topic-based knowledge base. Copilot automatically suggests files relevant to a given topic (e.g., PZU reports), generates a glossary of key terms, lists common misunderstandings, and provides summaries.
Within this notebook, you can save analysis results as pages accessible to the entire team, ask questions, and get answers based solely on the uploaded documents (rather than on the organization’s entire body of knowledge), and even generate a voice-over in the form of a conversation between two “presenters”—ideal for people who prefer listening to reading.
You can add instructions to the notebook, such as “use the data in the tables,” “be precise,” and “focus exclusively on financial results,” which significantly improves the quality of the responses.
4. Automating Tasks in Excel
Excel remains the cornerstone of every finance department’s work, and that’s where Copilot can most quickly lighten the load for analysts. The “Edit with Copilot” (Agent Mode) feature lets you give commands in natural language, and Copilot automatically clicks around the spreadsheet, creates new tabs, builds formulas, copies data, and generates charts.
In the example scenario, Copilot analyzed a file containing 52,000 records related to import and export permits, automatically structured the data, and visualized it in the form of reports. All operations were performed using standard Excel formulas, meaning that any user familiar with spreadsheets can modify them at any time.
This tool is extremely useful, especially for recurring monthly tasks: once you’ve developed the right sequence of commands, subsequent runs can proceed almost automatically, allowing the analyst to focus on other tasks in the meantime.
5. Analytics Agent – Supporting Data-Driven Decision-Making
Analyst Agent is an advanced tool for in-depth analysis of Excel data, enriched with external sources. Unlike editing functions, Analyst does not modify the spreadsheet; instead, it provides insights in a chat window and searches for correlations, trends, and cause-and-effect relationships between data points.
An analyst works best asa sparring partner: it’s a good idea to perform the analysis yourself and then ask an agent to verify or supplement it. Keep in mind that AI can make mistakes, and a detected correlation does not always indicate a true causal relationship—the final assessment is always up to the expert.
6. Research Agent — Comprehensive Reports from External Sources
Agent Badacz is the most powerful tool among those discussed, designed for in-depth analyses that require access to both internal data and public online resources. It can generate a report of up to 20–30 pages, performing dozens of analytical steps in the background.
In the example presented, the researcher prepared a detailed financial analysis of Jeronimo Martins, the owner of the Biedronka chain, in the form of an Executive Summary, including an income statement, balance sheet, and cash flow statement. The report, based on 84 analytical steps, took several minutes to complete and included citations from external sources.
This research tool is particularly useful before signing a new contract, during due diligence, or when preparing investment recommendations—in any situation where comprehensive knowledge drawn from multiple sources is needed.
Summary
Microsoft 365 Copilot offers finance departments practical tools for automating and supporting their work—from searching for scattered documents and managing tasks to conducting in-depth data analysis and generating comprehensive reports. The key to success, however, is implementation tailored to specific business processes.
