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Reporting and Analysis

Management reports, commentary, forecasts, trends, and benchmarks.

Reporting is where AI saves the most writing time: turning numbers into commentary, summaries and forecasts. The workflows in this category cover management report commentary, executive summaries, trend and ratio analysis, client financial health reviews, industry benchmarking, 13-week cash flow forecasts and outlier checks on ledger exports.

Tools include Fathom, Spotlight Reporting, Copilot in Excel and general assistants such as ChatGPT, Claude, Grok and Gemini. Xero describes JAX as able to find trends, create cash flow projections and benchmark against similar businesses[1], and OpenAI lists board-ready summaries from financial statements as a use for file uploads[2].

Treat every figure in a draft report as unverified until you have tied it back to the source.

Workflows

AI tool
  • Reporting and Analysis

    Build a Budget vs Actual Report in Google Sheets with Gemini

    Google's help page for Gemini in Google Sheets says Gemini can create tables and formulas, generate data analysis and insights, build charts, and perform actions such as conditional formatting, pivot tables, filters and number formats, each shown on a preview card you apply or undo. It works best with native Google Sheets files, so Google says to save an Excel file as Google Sheets first. Inserted charts go on a new tab with their data and do not change when the original data changes, and the conversation history is lost when you reload or reopen the file. The feature requires an eligible Google Workspace or Google AI plan.

    Google Sheets, Google Gemini

    Google Docs Editors Help (Collaborate with Gemini in Google Sheets)
  • Reporting and Analysis

    Write Bookkeeping Excel Formulas with ChatGPT

    OpenAI's help article on data analysis says ChatGPT can analyze uploaded spreadsheets, including .xls, .xlsx and .csv files, answer questions about the data and create tables or charts. It recommends descriptive column headers in the first row, one row per record, and no empty rows or columns splitting the data. For some tasks ChatGPT writes and runs Python code, and OpenAI says to review the generated code, outputs and assumptions before relying on the result. The article also notes that the number and complexity of formulas in a spreadsheet can affect processing.

    ChatGPT, Microsoft Excel

    OpenAI Help Center (Data analysis with ChatGPT)
  • Reporting and Analysis

    Ask Xero JAX for Profit Trends, Cash Flow and Benchmarks

    Xero Central describes JAX (Just Ask Xero) as a generative AI finance partner that answers questions about a business's financials and about using Xero. With Analytics, JAX can find trends, create cash flow projections, and benchmark the business against similar businesses in its industry. Its feature table lists financial insights such as revenue or profit trends, past and projected cash flow position, and industry comparisons. JAX is in beta, needs the admin or standard user role, and its features depend on the Xero pricing plan.

    Xero, JAX (Just Ask Xero)

    Xero Central
  • Reporting and Analysis

    Benchmark a Client P&L Against Industry Norms by NAICS

    This TechNews.Tax newsletter post describes how a tax firm reviews Profit and Loss statements from clients who do their own books, using an AI prompt that compares the P&L to typical expense categories and percentages for the client's NAICS code. The prompt asks for a NAICS summary, a category and percentage comparison, a judgment on whether expenses are in line (within a 10% variance), and a risk explanation for outliers. The author uses the OpenAI API but notes the same process works in ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot or similar tools.

    Works in ChatGPT, Claude, Grok, Gemini

    TechNews.Tax (newsletter)
  • Reporting and Analysis

    Build a Rolling 13-Week Cash Flow Forecast with AI and Excel

    In this Mostly Metrics tutorial, the author records building a 13-week rolling cash forecast for a fictional software company from eight messy data tabs, including an invoice export with inconsistent terms, collections history, AP, a payroll calendar and one-off items. Claude first works out each customer's actual days-to-pay from collections history rather than nominal terms, then builds a forecast with beginning cash, collections, disbursements, net change and ending cash chained week to week. The model includes a covenant line with an automatic OK/BREACH flag.

    Works in ChatGPT, Claude, Grok, Gemini

    Microsoft Excel

    Mostly Metrics (newsletter)
  • Reporting and Analysis

    Build Horizontal, Trend and Ratio Analysis in Excel with AI

    A Journal of Accountancy technology Q&A shows how ChatGPT-4o can create Excel spreadsheets from scratch and analyze uploaded files. In the financial analysis example, the author pasted raw financial data and ChatGPT returned a workbook with tabs for Raw Financials, Horizontal Analysis, Trend Analysis and Ratio Analysis. The author advises being specific in the prompt if you want working formulas rather than values.

    Works in ChatGPT, Claude, Grok, Gemini

    Microsoft Excel

    Journal of Accountancy
  • Reporting and Analysis

    Draft a Client Financial Health Review from an Income Statement

    CPA Practice Advisor walks through pasting an anonymized landscaping company's income statement into ChatGPT and Gemini Advanced and asking how financially healthy the business is and what to recommend. Both tools identified the net loss, flagged salaries as a large share of expenses, and suggested cost and revenue actions. The author stresses anonymizing data, getting client permission, having an expert check every answer, and reviewing terms of service.

    Works in ChatGPT, Claude, Grok, Gemini

    CPA Practice Advisor
  • Reporting and Analysis

    Draft Management Report Commentary with Fathom Commentary Writer

    Fathom's help centre explains how the Commentary Writer, an AI tool inside Fathom Pro reports, drafts data-based commentary from up to six selected report components. Users add persistent Business Context (goals, strategy, market conditions) and per-period Report Context (one-off events, audience), choose a Simple or Technical style and length, then prompt and refine before adding the text to the report. Figures in the generated commentary can be hovered over to check where they came from.

    Fathom, Fathom Commentary Writer

    Fathom Help Centre
  • Reporting and Analysis

    Find Trends and Outliers in Ledger Exports with Copilot in Excel

    Microsoft Support explains that Copilot in Excel lets users ask questions in their own words to surface summaries, trends and outliers, returning results as charts, PivotTables or summaries. It can also add formula columns and rows (for example profit margin or percent of total), suggest single-cell formulas, build lookups such as XLOOKUP, and explain existing formulas. Microsoft advises being specific about which columns to analyze and to review and verify anything Copilot creates.

    Microsoft Copilot, Microsoft Excel

    Microsoft Support
  • Reporting and Analysis

    Generate Executive Summary Insights with Spotlight AI Suggestions

    Spotlight Reporting's help article describes AI options on the Executive Summary page and in Text Panels that can generate commentary on a report for up to five topics, or rewrite existing commentary to be shorter, longer, or more professional. The article notes that AI-generated text reflects the values at the time it was created and does not update automatically when data changes, unlike tags and auto-text. It also recommends checking generated text before completing the report because the AI can occasionally make mistakes.

    Spotlight Reporting, Spotlight AI Suggestions

    Spotlight Reporting Help
  • Reporting and Analysis

    Trace Formula Errors in an Inherited Workbook with Claude for Excel

    Anthropic's documentation describes Claude for Excel as an add-in for Pro, Max, Team and Enterprise plans that brings Claude into Excel. It can answer questions about an open workbook with cell-level citations, adjust assumptions while keeping formula relationships intact, identify errors and their root causes, and work across multi-tab workbooks. It can also sort, filter, edit pivot tables and add data validation dropdowns. The documentation warns that files from external sources can contain hidden instructions that try to manipulate the add-in, and says to start with a trusted copy before asking Claude to edit widely.

    Claude for Excel, Microsoft Excel

    Claude Docs (Claude for Excel)
  • Reporting and Analysis

    Write and Fix Spreadsheet Formulas with Gemini in Google Sheets

    Google's Docs Editors Help explains that Gemini in Google Sheets can create tables and formulas, generate data analysis and insights, build charts, and perform actions such as creating pivot tables, applying conditional formatting, sorting, filtering and find and replace. Users open the Ask Gemini side panel, describe the formula they need with references to their sheet, and insert or retry the suggestion. When a formula shows an error, users can hover over the cell and click Fix so Gemini reviews the formula and analyzes the issue.

    Google Sheets, Google Gemini

    Google Docs Editors Help

Frequently asked questions

Can AI write management report commentary?
An assistant can draft it from the period's figures. OpenAI names board-ready summaries from financial statements as a use case[2]. Check each number and explanation before the report goes out.
Can AI build a cash flow forecast?
It can build the structure and formulas from your exports, as in the 13-week forecast workflow here. ChatGPT[3], Claude[4], Gemini[5] and Grok[6] all accept uploaded files for analysis. The assumptions are still yours to set.
How accurate is AI financial analysis?
Only as accurate as the data you give it and the review you do afterward. OpenAI, for example, says ChatGPT can be inaccurate and tells users to double-check critical facts[7].

Sources

  1. 1.Xero Central: About Just Ask Xero (JAX)
  2. 2.OpenAI Academy: Working with files in ChatGPT
  3. 3.OpenAI Academy: Data analysis with ChatGPT
  4. 4.Claude Help Center: Create and edit files with Claude
  5. 5.Gemini Apps Help: Upload and analyze files in Gemini Apps
  6. 6.xAI docs: Files overview (Grok)
  7. 7.OpenAI Academy: Responsible use of ChatGPT at work

Sources were checked when this page was last updated. Archived copies are cited where the original page could not be reached from our checker. Features and settings change, so confirm details with each vendor.

If you want somewhere to check the numbers these reporting workflows produce, the Small Business Bookkeeping Spreadsheet Bundle is on our sister store.