What should your finance team automate with AI?
Book a free 30-minute advisory session with a Finance AI FDE: an engineer who is also a finance expert. You'll leave knowing which workflows are worth automating, what's feasible with your data and controls, and what it would return.
McKinsey, "Bots, algorithms, and the future of the finance function", 2018. Activity-level estimates; your potential depends on your workflows.
- Free, 30 minutes
- No obligation
- A finance expert, not a sales pitch
What a Finance AI FDE can automate for you.
These are the workflows finance teams most often bring to their first session. For each one: what gets automated, and what deliberately stays with your team.
Month-end close automation
- Automated
- Subledger to GL tie-outs, reconciliation prep, close status tracking
- Stays with your team
- Investigating differences, sign-off
Budget variance analysis & reporting
- Automated
- Refreshing actuals, building the pack, drafting commentary
- Stays with your team
- Confirming causes, approving the narrative
13-week cash forecast
- Automated
- Collecting inputs, refreshing the 13-week view, forecast vs. actuals
- Stays with your team
- Assumptions and timing judgment
AP automation
- Automated
- Invoice coding, PO matching, chasing approvals
- Stays with your team
- Exceptions and payment approval
A solution built around your needs
- Automated
- Your own recurring process: data connections, checks and outputs designed around how your team works
- Stays with your team
- Defining what good looks like, approving the result
Less report assembly. More time explaining the business.
A monthly reporting pack, before and after a scoped implementation.
Not sure where your hours go? Estimate them with the Time Waste calculator →
An engineer who thinks like a Controller.
Finance AI often stalls when the builder doesn't know finance. A Finance AI FDE starts from how your month actually runs.
Knows the close calendar
Builds around your deadlines, cut-offs and the week everything has to tie out.
Designs for audit
Every number traceable to its source, with a log of what ran and who approved it.
Respects your controls
Segregation of duties, approval limits and review steps stay exactly where they are.
Speaks finance, not tech
Materiality, accruals, flux and FX revaluation, not just prompts and pipelines.
30 minutes. A clear answer on what's worth automating.
Bring one or two workflows that eat your team's time. You'll leave with a straight view of whether AI is the right answer, and what it would take.
- 1What's worth automating. Your workflows ranked by time saved and effort.
- 2What's feasible. With your data, your systems and your controls as they are today.
- 3What it would return. Hours back each month, and what stays with your team.
- 4What it would take. Scope, timeline and the people involved, before any commitment.
Why finance teams choose an FDE.
Compared with the other ways finance teams try to get AI working.
| Approach | Who builds | What you end up with | Main risk |
|---|---|---|---|
| Finance AI FDE | A finance expert who builds, next to your team | One live workflow with checks, documentation and a handover | Dependency, if the handover is skipped |
| Traditional consultant | Advisors; the build often goes to IT or a third party | A roadmap and recommendations | The plan never reaches production |
| Software alone | Your team configures it | A platform and templates | A licensed tool and an unchanged workflow |
| Do it yourself | One analyst with ChatGPT or Claude and Excel | Prompts and spreadsheets | No controls; it leaves with the person |
AI implementation, step by step.
If you decide to go ahead, a first workflow typically runs like this.
How an engagement typically runs
- Scope one workflow. The data it needs, who reviews it, and what done looks like.
- Build with your data. Connect the sources, build the steps and the checks.
- Run alongside your process. Side by side with the manual version until the numbers match.
- Hand over. Documentation, a runbook and training for the people who run it.
Exact plan, timeline and price are agreed before you commit.
Built to be owned by your team
- Every step and rule documented, so it can be checked and changed.
- A month-end runbook your team can follow without the builder.
- Review and sign-off stay where they are today.
- Your team trained to operate it. The Academy covers the basics.
- Clarity on what it costs to keep running.
Is the session a fit?
A good fit if
- A workflow repeats every month or more often and eats real hours.
- Your data sits in Excel and an ERP.
- Someone on your team would own the workflow once it's automated.
- You'd like to see results this quarter, not in two years.
Start elsewhere if
- You are still choosing a planning platform. Try the FP&A Software Finder.
- You don't know where the time goes yet. Try Time Waste.
- You want to learn the tools first. Try the Academy.
Questions
Straight answers, including the commercial ones.
Find out what's worth automating. In 30 minutes, for free.
A finance expert, your workflows, and a straight answer.