Microsoft announced on October 29 that it is expanding Copilot for finance teams with more than 25 new finance skills and partner-built plugins across Microsoft Copilot, building on the finance skills it first brought to Copilot in Excel in June. The new accounting capabilities — reconciling accounts, comparing balances and transactions, drafting journal entries and analyzing performance against plan — are available in Frontier for Copilot in Excel and Cowork.

Work no longer has to start in Excel. With Office in Copilot, Excel is embedded directly in the Copilot app, so users can analyze, edit and co-author workbooks from Chat or Cowork, and Cowork can assemble close packages, forecast reviews and investment committee memos. Microsoft says that in seven days of limited Insiders availability, more than 8,000 users invoked the accounting skills more than 44,000 times.

Copilot also connects outward: a Dynamics 365 ERP apps plugin and Fabric IQ bring Microsoft's own systems in, and partner plugins cover accounting tools such as QuickBooks, Xero and Zoho Books, plus data providers including FactSet, Morningstar, LSEG and S&P Global. Availability varies by component — some pieces are generally available, while the accounting skills remain Frontier and partner plugins are beginning their rollout.