Find Out How AI Is Helping Finance Teams Work Smarter in Excel
Most finance leaders are curious about AI—but hesitant to adopt it. The concern makes sense: what happens if automated systems pull the wrong data or miss critical details?
Yet finance teams need some help. Teams are stretched thin. Reporting cycles are taking too long. When they’re relying on manual processes, they can’t keep pace with growth. Sound familiar?
On a recent episode of the podcast “Don’t Panic! It’s Just Data,” Maeghan Carriere, Divisional Vice President of North American software sales at insightsoftware, said, “Everyone’s trying to scale rapidly, but manual processes and reporting are really limiting their growth.”
When you use AI to work with your ERP system, you can leverage an invaluable tool to help counter most, if not all, of these constraints. When financial professionals can create these reports in an automated way and do their analysis within Excel, they can work in familiar ways. Automated tools let them do more advanced work with the skills they have, streamlining the process.
Building Trust Through Unchanged Data
If you’re using Excel for financial reporting—and most finance teams are—your challenges are speed and avoiding problems that can crop up when you’re manually downloading data from your ERP to Excel.
With an Excel add-on tool like Spreadsheet Server from insightsoftware, you can connect your ERP data directly to Excel without altering it. Your cloud ERP data replicates through a secure connector, maintaining the original structure, business logic, and metadata. Nothing changes about the data itself, except you know it’s up to date.
Then you can use Spreadsheet Server to create refreshable reports that let you drill down into transaction details, knowing that you’re looking at current figures. Automation happens in report generation, not data manipulation. Your team still uses Excel—the tool they already know—but without the hours of manual setup.
Saving Time, Enhancing Skills
Here’s what shifts when reporting becomes automated: your team’s time. As Carriere points out, “There is a huge opportunity cost in the time spent manually building and delivering reporting pages that could be allocated to sharpening Excel skills” and learning to use AI tools in strategic ways.
Very soon, every finance professional will need to become comfortable and adept at leveraging AI tools, she advised. “Companies are going to have to upscale their teams in AI to remain competitive,” Carriere said. But accounting and finance professionals already invest in continuing education to hone their skills and keep their certifications up to date. “Continuous learning is already part of their professional DNA,” she said.
Carriere gave an example of a construction company finance manager who told her they went from struggling with basic ERP reports to mastering custom report design and advanced Excel formulas. The finance manager told Carriere, “Every year, we find new ways to use Spreadsheet Server to do our job better.”
Plus, Spreadsheet Server has AI assistance built in, so finance professionals can gain fresh insights into their current business and follow the data to pursue new opportunities.
If your finance team is missing those insights, you might be spending time and energy in the wrong places. Hours currently spent building reports could go toward developing analytical skills, learning advanced Excel techniques, gaining expertise with AI tools, and focusing on strategic decision-making.
Watch the full podcast episode with Carriere now to learn how your team can stop wasting time wrestling with manual downloads, improve your data analysis, and focus on what matters more with Spreadsheet Server.
Takeaways
- Finance teams are facing scaling pressures and resource constraints.
- The need for speed in decision-making is critical for finance leaders.
- Automation can save finance teams significant time and improve productivity.
- CFOs are increasingly expected to be strategic leaders within organizations.
- Excel remains a preferred tool for finance teams and should be leveraged in digital transformation.
- Mid-market companies should identify specific areas for technology to deliver efficiencies.
- Real-time data access is essential for better decision-making.
- Upskilling in AI is necessary for finance professionals to remain competitive.
- Finance teams can develop analytical skills while automating reporting processes.
- Building trust in data is crucial for effective AI implementation.
Chapters
- 00:00 Introduction to the Podcast and Guests
- 02:22 Current Challenges in Financial Reporting
- 06:31 Transforming Finance Teams With Automation
- 11:15 Digital Transformation for Mid-Market Companies
- 13:32 Accessing ERP Data for Better Decision Making
- 17:50 Upskilling Finance Teams for AI Integration
- 20:40 Key Takeaways for CXOs