AI-Powered Accounting with Excel and Power BI: Transform finance workflows with real-world cases using AI, Excel, Power BI, Claude, and Copilot

Learn how accountants and finance teams can use AI tools in the real world with practical cases that reduce manual accounting and finance processes, improve reporting accuracy, and build AI-augmented workflows in Excel and Power BI

Key Features

• Automate accounting workflows with AI-powered Excel techniques
• Build Power BI reporting, reconciliation, and validation workflows
• Apply repeatable AI frameworks for safer, audit-ready finance work
• Free with your book: DRM-free PDF version + access to Packt’s next-gen Reader*

Book Description

Finance teams need faster reporting and sharper insight without compromising accuracy, control, or trust. AI-Powered Accounting with Excel and Power BI shows accountants and finance professionals how to apply generative AI to real-world accounting workflows while keeping human judgment at the center.

Drawing on Lance Rubin’s experience as a CFO, financial modeling specialist, and founder of Model Citizn, this book uses tools such as the HACK Framework and Six Pillars to help you structure data, evaluate AI tools, write reliable prompts, and verify outputs. Ten practical modules cover Excel formulas, PDF extraction, reconciliation, financial controls, management accounting, account mapping, workbook restructuring, audit-ready validation, and dashboards in Excel and Power BI.

This book will help you build AI-assisted accounting and financial reporting workflows, turn recurring tasks into reusable Skills, and identify hallucinations before they affect decisions. By the end, you’ll have a practical roadmap for safer finance automation and the confidence to know when to trust AI and when to step in.

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What you will learn

• Extract and structure finance data from PDFs using AI
• Build AI-assisted reconciliation and control workflows
• Automate financial reporting with Excel, Power BI, and AI
• Restructure complex workbooks into reliable data models
• Create validation and audit-ready accounting processes
• Evaluate AI tools for finance and accounting tasks
• Build reusable prompt libraries for recurring workflows
• Apply governance and privacy practices when using AI in finance

Who this book is for

This book is for accountants, finance analysts, management accountants, FP and A professionals, controllers, CFOs, audit professionals, finance transformation teams, practice partners, and finance educators, including candidates working toward CA, CPA, ACCA, or AICPA qualifications. It suits professionals who use Excel and financial reporting and want practical AI automation for reconciliation, controls, validation, and Power BI. Basic Excel knowledge is recommended; prior AI experience is not required.

Table of Contents

1. Defining the AI-Powered Accountant
2. The HACK Framework
3. The Six Pillars of an AI-Powered Accountant
4. Why AI Is Fundamentally Different
5. The Technology Assessment Framework
6. AI Concepts: How LLMs Actually Work
7. Growth Mindset
8. Human-Centric Skills
9. How to Prepare for the Journey Ahead
10. Introducing the Modules – the Operating Manual
11. Module 1 – Foundations and Formula Ideas
12. Module 2 – PDF Extraction and Analysis
13. Module 3 – Transaction Reconciliation and Financial Control
14. Module 4 – Management Reporting and Analysis
15. Module 5 – Mapping Tables and Source Systems
16. Module 6 –Workflow Analysis on a Real Workbook
17. Module 7 – Restructuring a Messy Workbook
18. Module 8 – Validation, Checks, and Comprehensive Audit

(N.B. Please use the Read Sample option to see further chapters)