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Showing posts from August, 2022

AI in Financial Reporting

It has been a while since I posted, but I have been getting a lot of questions lately from clients and from my accounting students about the same topic:  Where does AI actually belong in the financial reporting process?  Everyone wants to know if they should be using it, and the honest answer is that it depends a lot on which part of the process you are talking about. I have been working with several clients on this over the last few months, plus I have an upcoming speaking session on AI in reporting, so I thought I would put some of these thoughts together here. For each point, I am also going to push back on myself a little, because I think that is a more useful way to think through this than just picking a side. Where AI is actually helping right now The clearest win I have seen is variance analysis. AI tools are good at scanning through a large number of GL lines and flagging the ones that look different from what history would predict. Think of a vendor payment that...

What should I use, a hammer or screwdriver???

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  Lately, I have been working with several of our team members and clients regarding various reporting needs.   Since I do a lot of work with Power BI, they will bring me in because they believe Power BI is the correct answer.   In most cases, when they think Power BI, they are considering either the free version or Power BI Pro.   In other words, they are looking for a visualization to replace their report.   In many cases, this is possible, but other times there are struggles and issues.   It made me think about the toolbox I have in my garage.   I am not a handyman by any means, but I do have a few of your typical tools including a couple hammers and few screwdrivers so I can take care of various household projects, like hanging a picture, putting together furniture, building all the toys my wife is buying for our granddaughter, etc.   These household projects remind me a lot the various report requests I see from our clients.   Someti...