A finance manager’s day, with Copilot.
Five dashboards that answer the questions finance gets asked every week, from cash runway to the board pack. Copy each prompt, fill in the brackets, and attach this month’s file.
Five dashboards. Five prompts.
Copy a prompt, press Open Copilot to start Microsoft 365 in a new tab, attach your file and paste it in. Words in [brackets] are yours to fill in.
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Copilot Chat8:00
Check the cash runway
One number the finance team watches every week: how many months of cash are left. The bank export doesn’t contain it, so you give Copilot the logic and it projects the rest.
Cash runway trackerI’m a CFO tracking cash runway from our bank export. I need the monthly net burn split into two views: one with exceptional one-time amounts, one without, because a one-off deposit like an office payment shouldn’t distort my real burn rate. Calculate the burn, build both views, and if I mention a financing event coming, like funds landing in [X months], factor that in. Set a threshold at [X months] of runway and flag it red if we’re getting close.
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Copilot Chat or Excel9:30
Decide who to call first
An aged debtors list tells you how old each invoice is. Before the phone calls start, you need to know who matters most.
Collections priority listI’m chasing collections from an open invoices export. The real question isn’t how old each invoice is, it’s who I need to call first. Bucket the invoices into age groups, then rank the clients I should contact first based on amount owed and days overdue.
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Copilot in Excel11:00
Catch overspend before it becomes a problem
Departmental spend sits across three tabs. Give Copilot the exact sort order and the exact threshold, so it never has to guess what “overspend” means.
Budget variance dashboardI’m reviewing departmental spend from a file with multiple tabs: cost by department, budget, and actuals. I want one row per department showing budget, actual, variance, and variance in percentage, sorted from worst to best. Build this as a dashboard, flag anything over [X%] or [X amount] with a red, amber, or green signal, and add a filter button for department and cost type.
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Copilot Chat · Think deeper14:00
Test the forecast, live
Someone will ask “what if prices drop?” Instead of rebuilding the model, move a slider and watch the forecast redraw against your base case.
Forecast scenario slidersHere’s my business model and current assumptions: [describe your model]. I want to see what happens to the forecast when price, growth rate, or churn move, live. Build sliders for those three levers. Every time one moves, recalculate and redraw everything, and show my original base case as a dotted line next to the live full line so I can always see what’s changed.
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Copilot Chat · Think deeper16:00
Build the board KPI scorecard
The board wants one answer: are we on track for the quarter? Attach the trial balance against budget, and ask for one screen with no scrolling.
Board KPI scorecardI’m the CFO of a [type] company, presenting to our board. I need a dashboard that answers one question only: are we on track for the quarter, looking at revenue, gross margin, EBITDA, and cash. Build me an HTML dashboard using the attached trial balance against budget, plus the detail behind it: revenue by product, margin by product, the P&L so you can build an EBITDA waterfall, and the major cash movements. Put the big KPIs at the top, and turn anything off-track red. One screen, no scrolling.
When you ask for an HTML dashboard, Copilot replies with the code for the page: save it as a .html file and open it in your browser. Think deeper and Copilot in Excel depend on your Microsoft 365 Copilot licence and the features your IT team has switched on. Use Copilot signed in with your work account, so your financial files stay inside your organisation’s Microsoft 365.
- Decisions on numbers you trustDashboards built from your own trial balance, bank export and invoices, and checked against them, mean the board sees figures you’ve verified.
- Overspend and overdue find youRed, amber and green flags and a ranked call list show where to look, instead of you hunting for it.
- Answers while you’re in the roomMove a slider when someone asks “what if?”, instead of promising to come back with the numbers.
Three habits that make every prompt better.
- Use a deeper modelFor dashboards and forecasts, switch Copilot to Think deeper. It takes a little longer and works through the logic step by step.
- Context, specifics, instructionSay who you are and what the work is for, spell out exactly what you need, then give one clear instruction. Every prompt here follows that order.
- Audit before you presentBefore you screen-share a dashboard, ask Copilot to check every figure against your Excel file, then spot-check the big numbers yourself. You own what goes to the board.
Prompts for other roles.
- Day in the lifeBusiness LeaderFrom the morning briefing to tomorrow’s prep.Get the prompts →
- Day in the lifeBusiness ManagerFrom the overnight inbox to the last reply.Get the prompts →
- Day in the lifeBusiness AnalystFrom a messy export to the executive summary.Get the prompts →
- Day in the lifeFinancial AnalystFrom sorting cost data to what-if scenarios.Get the prompts →
- Day in the lifeAccount ManagerFrom prepping the pitch to the follow-up.Get the prompts →
- Day in the lifeIssues Management ManagerFrom a media enquiry to the approved statement.Get the prompts →
- Day in the lifeFashion DesignerFrom the first concept to the approved design.Get the prompts →
- Day in the lifeMarketing ManagerFrom the swag shortlist to the hand-out.Get the prompts →
One day is the start, not the finish.
Get your first win with the Quick Win Checklist, then turn it into a habit across your team with The Copilot Playbook.
Want prompts like these for your own team?
We’ll look at how your people actually spend their day and build the prompts and habits that fit it.
