Optimize financial operations with a Copilot-written Python script

Step 1: Describe the manual task in plain languageExcel

Write out exactly what you currently do by hand — which files you open, what you copy, what you calculate — as if explaining it to a new analyst. Vague requests produce scripts that miss edge cases your manual process already handles.

Step 2: Ask Copilot to write the Python scriptCopilotExcel

Give it the task description and a sample of the input data, and ask for a Python script using Excel's built-in Python integration rather than a macro — it's easier to read and debug later.

Prompt idea:

Here's how I currently reconcile these two exports by hand: [steps]. Write a Python script I can run in Excel that does the same thing, and flag any row it can't confidently process instead of guessing.

Step 3: Test it against a cycle you've already reconciled manuallyExcel

Run the script against last month's data, where you already know the correct answer, before trusting it on new data.

Step 4: Save it as the new standard processExcel

Save the script in the workbook's Python cell with a short comment block above it explaining what it does and which files it expects as input, and note in your team's process documentation where to find it — without that pointer, the next person doing this task defaults back to the familiar manual version instead of discovering the script exists.

Source: Microsoft Copilot Scenario Library — Optimize your financial operations (2026)

Check the work

• The script's output matches a manually-reconciled prior period exactly.
• Every flagged/skipped row is reviewed, not silently ignored.
• The script is saved somewhere the next person doing this task will actually find it.