Training course · Microsoft 365 Copilot · Finance & Treasury

Microsoft 365 Copilot for Finance Teams

Use Microsoft 365 Copilot and Copilot Chat in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and Teams productively, securely and in line with permissions.

Duration
1 day (7 hrs)
Format
Online or on-site
Language
German or English
Participants
open dates or exclusive for your team
Certificate
Certificate of attendance

Overview

This course connects Microsoft 365 Copilot with the everyday processes of Finance & Treasury. Participants work on realistic scenarios and leave with prompts, workflows and checklists they can use straight away.

Microsoft 365 Copilot brings AI right into the applications where your daily work happens: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and Teams. What sets it apart from publicly available chatbots is its grounding in your organisation's data via Microsoft Graph – Copilot can draw on the emails, meetings, chats and documents you already have access to. In this practical day you learn to use that connection deliberately: drafting content from existing files, summarising inboxes and long threads, following up on meetings and generating presentations from Word documents.

You also learn how the licensed Copilot differs from Copilot Chat, when web-grounded and when work-grounded answers make sense, and how to use both prebuilt and your own agents. A central topic is the permission model: Copilot only surfaces what you are allowed to see, so sharing settings in SharePoint, OneDrive and Teams directly determine the quality and security of results. You leave with tested prompts for every Office application and a clear understanding of responsible use within your tenant.

Finance and treasury teams handle large volumes of data, tight closing deadlines and strict demands for traceability. Generative AI is reshaping this work: AI assistants summarise bank statements, loan agreements and covenant clauses, draft commentary on cash flow variances and support scenario analysis on interest and exchange rates. AI agents and automation take over recurring steps such as matching payment advices, preparing the liquidity forecast or assembling management reports. What matters is that finance professionals review the output, connect data sources properly and define clear approval workflows. That frees finance teams to focus on analysis, steering and advising management instead of copying figures between spreadsheets, the ERP system and banking portals.

The course is delivered live – either online in a virtual classroom or on-site in our training rooms in Munich, Salzburg, Berlin, Augsburg, Hanover, Bremen, Stuttgart and Kaiserslautern. We can also run it exclusively for your team.

Who is this course for?

  • CFOs and heads of finance
  • Treasury and cash managers
  • Financial analysts and FP&A teams
  • Corporate finance and M&A specialists
  • Payments and banking operations staff

Typical challenges we address

  • Consolidating the liquidity forecast from many sources such as ERP, bank accounts and business units
  • Explaining and commenting on budget-to-actual variances quickly
  • Reviewing loan agreements, covenants and bank correspondence under time pressure
  • Producing reports for executives, the supervisory board and lenders at short notice

What you will be able to do

  • You use Copilot in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and Teams for your recurring tasks.
  • You write prompts that draw on existing files, emails and meetings as context.
  • You distinguish between Microsoft 365 Copilot and Copilot Chat and choose the right mode.
  • You use prebuilt agents and create a simple agent of your own for your team.
  • Use AI assistants effectively for liquidity planning, variance analysis and financing documents.
  • Automate recurring treasury tasks with clear review and approval steps.
  • Critically assess AI output and keep financial data confidential and audit-proof.

Course outline

Module 1 Copilot fundamentals and Microsoft Graph
  • Microsoft 365 Copilot and Copilot Chat: capabilities and licensing
  • Grounding in organisational data through Microsoft Graph
  • Switching between web and work context and referencing specific files
  • Prompt structure with goal, context, source and expectations
Module 2 Word and PowerPoint
  • Drafting from existing documents, notes and emails
  • Rewriting, shortening, adjusting tone and summarising text
  • Generating presentations from Word documents or outlines
  • Refining slides, adding speaker notes and sharpening key messages
Module 3 Excel and data analysis
  • Querying tables, spotting trends and highlighting outliers
  • Getting suggestions for formulas, calculated columns and conditional formatting
  • Creating charts and pivot analyses from natural language
  • Sanity-checking results and ensuring data quality
Module 4 Outlook, Teams and agents
  • Summarising long email threads and drafting replies
  • Summarising Teams meetings and extracting action items and open questions
  • Using Copilot Pages and Notebooks for collaborative work
  • Using prebuilt agents and creating your own with Agent Builder
Module 5 Permissions, data protection and governance
  • The permission model: Copilot only shows what you can access
  • Identifying oversharing in SharePoint, OneDrive and Teams
  • Sensitivity labels, data boundaries and GDPR considerations
  • Usage policies, team adoption and measuring impact
Module 6 Practice lab: Finance & Treasury
  • Cash flow commentary
  • Financing agreement analysis
  • Scenarios and sensitivities
  • Management and board reporting
  • Automated remittance matching
  • Policy and process documentation
Module 7 Data protection, quality & transfer to daily work
  • Financial and banking data is confidential and may constitute inside information under MAR; only use approved AI environments with a data processing agreement and GDPR-compliant data handling. Payment approvals must remain under the four-eyes principle and must never be triggered autonomously by AI agents.
  • Ground rules for safe AI use in your team
  • Checking results: facts, sources, tests and the four-eyes principle
  • Personal action plan for the next 30 days
  • Open questions, outlook and resources for further learning

Practical scenarios from your field

Cash flow commentary

An AI assistant analyses variances between forecast and actual cash positions and drafts commentary on the main drivers, such as customer receipts, supplier payments or tax dates, which the team then reviews and refines.

Financing agreement analysis

Loan agreements, promissory notes or lease contracts are summarised: maturities, interest mechanics, covenants, termination rights and reporting obligations are extracted into a structured overview for treasury and controlling.

Scenarios and sensitivities

AI helps draft scenario narratives and spreadsheet formulas for interest rate, currency and commodity sensitivities, for example showing how rising reference rates would affect financing costs and covenant ratios.

Management and board reporting

From KPIs, tables and bullet points, an AI assistant produces concise executive summaries, slide drafts and explanatory notes for management, the board or lenders, tailored to audience and level of detail.

Automated remittance matching

An automation workflow reads remittance advices from emails and PDFs, matches them to open items and flags discrepancies for manual review before the data is posted to the ERP or cash management system.

Policy and process documentation

Treasury policies, payment approval processes and control descriptions are structured and harmonised with AI support from notes, existing documents and interviews, making them clear and audit-ready.

Prerequisites

Confident everyday use of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and Teams; no prior AI knowledge is required. You have hands-on experience in financial planning, treasury or reporting and are confident using spreadsheets.

Technical requirements

A laptop with access to Microsoft 365 via your work account; a Microsoft 365 Copilot licence is ideal for all exercises, while Copilot Chat covers part of the content.

Data protection & compliance

Financial and banking data is confidential and may constitute inside information under MAR; only use approved AI environments with a data processing agreement and GDPR-compliant data handling. Payment approvals must remain under the four-eyes principle and must never be triggered autonomously by AI agents.

Suggested dates

All dates are suggestions – your preferred date is always possible.

  • Fri, 27 November 2026 Online Request
  • Fri, 4 December 2026 Hanover Request
  • Fri, 18 December 2026 Online Request
  • Fri, 15 January 2027 Munich Request
  • Fri, 22 January 2027 Online Request
  • Tue, 26 January 2027 Stuttgart Request

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between Microsoft 365 Copilot and Copilot Chat?

Copilot Chat is available to many work accounts without an additional licence and answers mainly from web content and uploaded files. The licensed Microsoft 365 Copilot also reaches your emails, meetings and documents through Microsoft Graph and is built directly into Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and Teams.

Can Copilot see my colleagues' confidential files?

Copilot respects existing permissions and only surfaces content you can already access yourself. Problems arise when files are shared too broadly – with the entire organisation, for instance. In the course you learn how to spot such oversharing and how to fix it properly together with your IT team.

Do I need prompting experience for this course?

No. We start with the fundamentals of good prompts and practise them directly in the Office applications. What matters is that you are comfortable using Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and Teams day to day. Everything else – from referencing files to working with agents – we build up step by step through realistic tasks.

Can an AI assistant approve payments on its own?

No. AI can prepare payment proposals, match remittances and flag anomalies, but payment approval stays within your authorisation and four-eyes framework. In the course we show how to design automations so that people remain at the critical control points and every action is logged and traceable for auditors.

How should we handle confidential financial data in AI tools?

Start with an approved enterprise environment that has a contractual data processing agreement and does not use your inputs for model training. Add rules for pseudonymisation, such as masking account numbers or counterparties. We discuss practical guidelines that you can agree directly with IT, data protection and compliance.

How much does “Microsoft 365 Copilot for Finance Teams” cost?

The course costs a flat €949 plus VAT per participant – whether online or on-site. This includes 1 training day(s) with a live trainer, course materials, a lab environment and a certificate of attendance.

Can I suggest my own date?

Yes. Our suggested dates are just a guide. In the request form you can always describe your preferred date or period in free text – we check availability and confirm within one working day.

Is the course online or on-site?

Both are possible: live online in a virtual classroom or on-site in Munich, Salzburg, Berlin, Augsburg, Hanover, Bremen, Stuttgart or Kaiserslautern. We can also run the course exclusively for your team.

More courses for Finance Teams

More Microsoft 365 Copilot courses

All 45 Microsoft 365 Copilot courses

Microsoft 365 Copilot · MunichMicrosoft 365 Copilot · SalzburgMicrosoft 365 Copilot · BerlinMicrosoft 365 Copilot · AugsburgMicrosoft 365 Copilot · HanoverMicrosoft 365 Copilot · BremenMicrosoft 365 Copilot · StuttgartMicrosoft 365 Copilot · KaiserslauternMicrosoft 365 Copilot · Online