How to Use Copilot Accounting Skills in Excel

If you work in accounting, you know the end of the month. Hours of matching the bank statement against the general ledger, line by line. Microsoft now has something for exactly this: Copilot accounting skills in Excel. They were announced on October 29 and reach all Copilot customers in the second half of November.

What is new

A skill is a saved set of steps that Copilot follows for one kind of task. Microsoft already had finance skills in Excel for things like LBO models. Now there is an Accounting folder with skills for the boring but important work: reconciliation, journal entries, close management, variance analysis, financial statements, budget and forecast, audit support, compliance and tax preparation.

You call one by typing @ and the skill name in the Copilot pane, for example @reconciliation. You can also switch a skill on in Manage plugins & skills, and then Copilot uses it by itself when it fits. The full list is on the Microsoft Support page for Excel skills.

Two details I like. You can start an optional audit trail, so the chat history shows what Copilot changed and why. And Copilot can undo a single edit without touching the rest of the workbook.

Who Copilot accounting skills in Excel help

An in-house accountant doing the month-end close. Reconciliation and accruals are slow and repetitive, but the rules are clear. That is a good fit for a tool that follows fixed steps and leaves the final decision to you.

A bookkeeper in a small firm with many clients. Every client has its own export format. A skill gives you the same process every time, and the audit trail helps when someone asks later why an entry looks the way it does.

How people already use it

Microsoft says that in a seven day Insiders preview, more than 8,000 people used the accounting skills over 44,000 times. In the official announcement, Cyril Mannion from EY Ireland says early access made their weekly reporting faster, with analysis and commentary built from reconciled data. He also says they are still testing it. I think that is the honest way to start.

How to try it

1. Put the bank export and the ledger export on two sheets in one workbook.
2. Open Copilot in Excel and turn on the audit trail when you start the skill.
3. Paste a prompt like this:

@reconciliation Compare the sheet Bank_Oct with the sheet GL_Oct for account 1200.
Match by date, amount and reference. Show unmatched items in a new sheet
with a short reason for each one. Then draft reconciling journal entries
for my review. Do not change the original sheets.

4. Check every proposed entry against the source documents. Then post it yourself.

The honest part

You need a Microsoft Copilot work license. Right now the skills are only in the Frontier preview. General availability starts worldwide on November 13 and should finish by the end of November, so Germany and the rest of the EU are included. I could not confirm which languages the skills support, so test them with German account names first. Microsoft also says clearly that Copilot does not give accounting or tax advice. You stay responsible for the numbers, and nothing is posted to your ERP without your approval.

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Sources

1. Microsoft Copilot for finance: Purpose-built for the way finance teams work (Microsoft)
2. Use built-in skills and skills created by Microsoft with Copilot in Excel (Microsoft Support)
3. MC1536053: New accounting capabilities in Excel and Cowork (Microsoft 365 Message Center)
4. Microsoft Touts New Accounting Capabilities for Copilot (CPA Practice Advisor)