Give Copilot in Excel three prompts in order: clean the export with a change note on every row it touches, build a budget-versus-actual sheet with formulas, then write a one-page sponsor summary. Before you send it, filter the raw export for the lines that matter and ask Copilot where it put its pre-send checks.
I ran this in the video walkthrough with a made-up project budget for Ashworth Logistics, a fictional company, on the Microsoft 365 home plan with Copilot. Microsoft lists the same Excel feature for work licences, but the panel may look different there. From raw export to sponsor page took 14 minutes, and every figure I checked by hand was right.
What does the workbook look like before Copilot starts?
The workbook has three sheets. Finity_Export_Sep26 is the raw September export: 227 rows, amounts stored as text, a duplicate invoice and a supplier that labels contractors its own way. Actuals_Apr_Aug holds April to August, and Budget_FY26 holds the budget for each cost line. If your sheets have different names, change them in the prompts and leave the rest as written.
To follow along with the same mess, download the practice workbook (Ashworth_Finity_Sep26.xlsx, 28 KB). It's the raw file from the video, before Copilot touched it, and every name, supplier and figure in it is made up. No sign-up needed.
Prompt 1: how do you get Copilot to clean the export?
Set the dropdown above the prompt box to Allow editing so Copilot makes the changes itself. Plan mode lists the steps without making them, which is a safer first run on a real file. The prompt asks Copilot to report what it found before it touches anything, and the Change note column gives you a record of every edit to check. On my sheet it found 45 amounts stored as text across 15 rows and corrected the September total to £160,720 net (£183,970 with VAT). Click Done to keep the changes or Undo to throw them away.
This is a September cost export from our finance system for one project. Turn Finity_Export_Sep26 into a proper Excel table. Before you change anything, check for things that would make the totals wrong: amounts stored as text, repeated document numbers, and cost line names that don't match the Budget_FY26 sheet. List what you found, then fix it, and add a column called Change note that says what you changed on each row you touched.Prompt 2: how do you compare budget with actuals?
Naming the period and the Net (GBP) column keeps Copilot to September and leaves VAT out, and asking for formulas means you can click any cell to see how it was worked out. My Sep Report covered eight cost lines. September came in £720 over a £160,000 budget, about half a percent, while the year to date ran about 4.3% under. It flagged software licences at 30% over for the month, data migration services under for both the month and the year to date, and contingency 64% under for the year to date.
Add a new sheet called Sep Report. For each cost line in Budget_FY26, show the September budget, September actual, variance and variance %. Then show the same for the year to date, April to September, using Actuals_Apr_Aug for April to August. September means period 06. Use Net (GBP) only. Flag any line more than 10% over or under budget, for the month or the year to date. Use formulas, not typed numbers, so I can check them.Prompt 3: how do you turn it into a page for the sponsor?
Telling Copilot the sponsor isn't a finance person kept the three sentences plain, and one of its checks reminded me to tell the sponsor that every figure excludes VAT. The last line of the prompt gets you Copilot's own list of things to verify before anyone else sees the page.
Add a sheet called Sponsor Summary for the project sponsor. Include one chart comparing budget and actual by cost line for September, and three short sentences on what matters this month. The sponsor isn't a finance person, so keep it plain. Then list anything I should check before I send it.Where did Copilot put the pre-send checks?
Behind the chart. Copilot said it had put the checks in columns I to L on the Sponsor Summary sheet, but the chart sat on top of them, and it only moved them below the chart once I asked. My list asked me to confirm the data migration underspend is delayed work that will land later, to double-check why contingency was so far under budget, and to make sure the sponsor knows the figures exclude VAT. If you can't see the checks, ask Copilot where they are, or add a line to the end of prompt 3 telling it to put them below the chart.
What should you check by hand before you send it?
Filter the raw export for the lines the sponsor will look at first. I filtered Finity_Export_Sep26 on cost code 5100, contractors. It came to £56,400, including invoice INV-40246 twice: same person, same invoice, same days. Take off that £4,000 and you get Copilot's £52,400. A second repeated PO covered two different people, which is legitimate, and Copilot left it alone.
Then open the overspend it flagged. Software licences (cost code 5300) were £3,600 over for September, and the whole £3,600 was one invoice: a sandbox environment uplift for August, billed in September. That's a timing question to raise with the sponsor before the number reaches a slide.
Copilot dealt with the duplicate by setting its amount to zero and adding a change note. I'd rather it kept the original amount and left the row out of the formula, so the raw figure stays visible, but the note does record what it did.
What if the contractors figure is wrong?
Mine was right, so I didn't need this. If your hand check disagrees, send a follow-up that names the cost code and the duplicate, and ask what changed.
Contractors should include every row with cost code 5100, and document INV-40246 appears twice. Recalculate Sep Report and tell me what changed.Would I send it?
Yes, after reading its checks and spending two minutes comparing it with the raw data. The Sponsor Summary is ready to lift into a written report or a slide deck. For the wider habit, see how to check AI output before using it at work.
Sources
How to Create a Budget Report with Copilot in Excel, cliffinkent on YouTube, 3 October 2026. Prompts frozen 30 September 2026.