I Built My First Finance Agent in a Couple of Weeks

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The first article in my Finance Agent series Over the last couple of weeks, I've been experimenting with Microsoft Copilot Studio, Dynamics 365 ERP MCP, and Power Automate to see what was really possible inside Dynamics 365 Finance. What started as a demo scenario quickly turned into something much more interesting. The original goal was simple. I wanted to help credit and collections teams respond to credit holds more efficiently. As I continued building and testing, I started discovering that agents could fundamentally change how people interact with ERP systems. And honestly, I don't think we're anywhere close to seeing the full potential yet. Quick Video  The Problem I Wanted to Solve If you've spent time working with Credit & Collections in Dynamics 365 Finance, you've probably seen this scenario before. A sales order gets placed on credit hold. The sales team starts asking questions. The credit team may not even know the hold exists until someone ...
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RPA with Dynamics 365 Finance & Supply Chain

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Are you looking for ways to automate some of your routine accounting functions, like reconciling sub ledgers to the general ledger?

 

Microsoft has recently created some examples using Power Automate Desktop (think of it like Task Recording on steroids). It can not only automate steps through Dynamics 365, but it can also automate Excel and other applications.


In one example from Microsoft they automate the AR to GL reconciliation:

  • Automatic running of the AR aging and the customer/ledger reconciliation reports.
  • Power Automate then extracts data from both reports in Excel and compares the balances.
  • Power Automate then posts a Team message letting you know the subledger is in balance.
  • Power Automate saves the reports with the date in the file name, so there is backup.

Microsoft Directions & Example

 

I working with the example, I needed to make a couple of adjustments to the sample flow that was provided but I was able to get it to work. Here is a video of the flow running in my demo environment




(In my video, I manual start the flow, but I would expect this would actually be a scheduled flow that could run every day)


I think this is a great use of automation with the Microsoft platform, and I am already thinking of other ways I might be able to use this beyond just account reconciliations. One thing to keep in mind, is Power Automate Desktop work with not only cloud solutions but also on premise software. I have been able to use Power Automate Desktop to pull data from a website and move it to Excel or even move it to Dynamics 365. So anything you do on a regular basis, is a good candidate for Power Automate Desktop.

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