Microsoft
Microsoft Copilot adds 25 finance skills, with accounting in Frontier
Microsoft is adding more than 25 finance skills and plugins to Copilot. The accounting skills are in Frontier, and the work can start outside Excel.
Microsoft is adding more than 25 finance skills and partner-built plugins to Copilot, and accounting work such as reconciling accounts and drafting journal entries no longer has to start in Excel.
Microsoft announced the expansion Oct. 29, 2026 in a Copilot blog post by Brian Jones, CVP of the Excel Product Group. The skills build on finance skills Microsoft introduced in Copilot in Excel in June 2026.
Accounting Is in Frontier While Finance Skills Are Generally Available
The accounting capabilities in Copilot in Excel and Cowork are available in Frontier. Finance skills in Copilot in Excel, the Capital Markets and Finance plugins in Cowork, and Fabric IQ in Cowork are generally available. The Dynamics 365 ERP apps plugin and the partner plugins are beginning to roll out through the Microsoft plugin registry.
Copilot Now Reconciles Accounts and Drafts Entries
Copilot can compare balances and transactions, identify discrepancies and prepare reconciling items for review. It drafts accruals, reclassifications, allocations, reversals and recurring entries, and checks that required inputs are present and entries balance. It also analyzes financial performance against plan and prepares reporting that explains what changed.
In seven days of limited Insiders availability, more than 8,000 unique users invoked accounting skills more than 44,000 times across more than 18,000 Copilot conversations, Microsoft said. Cyril Mannion, Strategic Reporting and Analysis Lead at EY Ireland, said early access streamlined weekly reporting and that the firm is “still testing the functionality.”
Work Can Start in the Copilot App
Excel is embedded in the Copilot app through Office in Copilot, so users can analyze, edit and co-author workbooks in Chat or Cowork. In Cowork they can delegate multistep work that combines Excel models with other deliverables, such as a close package or an investment committee memo.
Cowork Plugins Split Banking From Corporate Finance
The Capital Markets plugin is for banking, research, private equity and wealth management. It can prepare an investment case or test an acquisition thesis, which includes building an LBO model with sourced inputs and analyst assumptions kept distinct.
The Finance plugin is for corporate finance teams. It can prepare a close review package or carry a forecast review through to leadership. Cowork prepares the material “for review before acting.”
Plugins Connect to Outside Data
The Dynamics 365 ERP apps plugin brings finance and operations data into Copilot so accountants can prepare journal entries and supporting schedules from the system of record. Fabric IQ makes governed Microsoft Fabric data usable, starting with Power BI reports and semantic models. Partner plugins include Intuit QuickBooks, Xero, FactSet and S&P Global. Third-party services may require separate licensing, subscriptions, authentication or administrator enablement from the provider, Microsoft said.
Our View
Finance professionals in Excel will have the option to start an audit trail whenever they invoke an accounting capability. An audit trail is a record of edits and the reasons for them. Microsoft said this one is written to the user’s chat history and covers what Copilot changed and why.
Because the trail is an option, it exists only for the invocations where the accountant chooses it. A reconciliation or a journal entry drafted without it leaves no such note. A reviewer then has to rebuild the story from the workbook, where Copilot can summarize recent activity and show who made which changes.
That puts a small habit at the center of review. Finance teams that want every Copilot-prepared entry to be traceable will depend on each accountant starting the trail each time. The benefit holds only as far as that choice is made.