AI AND REPORTING

REPORTING UNDER INTENSE TIME PRESSURE

The reporting function is under constant pressure. CFOs and finance teams struggle with ever tighter deadlines, increasingly complex rules — enter IFRS, US GAAP and CSRD — and an unrelenting stream of figures. Every month-end close feels like a race against the clock. Version after version of Excel files are exchanged, and people puzzle late into the night with Power BI/DAX to make all the numbers reconcile and look presentable. And then there still needs to be a coherent narrative. Recognisable? Because you too are asking how you can report both faster and flawlessly without exhausting your team time and again…

AI: FROM HYPE TO HANDS-ON APPLICATION

Everyone is talking about ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini, Claude … and other GenAI tools. But how do they actually help you in your reporting process? AI tools can now take on tasks you thought only humans could handle yesterday: think of automatically consolidating figures, running variance analyses, or drafting a first version of management commentary. Yet real-world use often remains superficial: a single controller trying something once, or a CFO steering clear of AI for fear of errors. In our training, we move from hype to action. You will learn to deploy AI as a fully-fledged, smart and fast digital junior assistant in your reporting process — not as a casual experiment, but to achieve genuine time savings and quality improvements.

FROM CONFUSING NUMBER SOUP TO A CRYSTAL-CLEAR STORY

Reporting is more than structuring numbers: it is about the message behind the figures. AI helps you not only calculate faster, but also tell the story better. Imagine: from a mountain of data, AI distils what truly matters within moments and suggests a compelling management summary. With the right AI tools and the right prompts, you generate structure in your report: tables, charts, and even first drafts of explanatory texts roll out. This gives your team a flying start when preparing monthly and annual reports or board reports. Figures come to life within a clear narrative. You, of course, remain in control — AI provides the building blocks, but you determine the final tone and nuance and assess the outcome. The result: reports that not only add up, but also speak — and how.

MASTER THE RISKS, EMBRACE THE OPPORTUNITIES

Deploying AI does not mean blindly trusting a magical black box. That is why, in our training, you learn how to keep control yourself. We cover the pitfalls: from privacy (what happens to sensitive financial data in AI tools?) to bias and factual inaccuracies, hallucinations in generated texts. You will discover how to maintain an audit trail and thoroughly validate AI output before it goes out; AI does part of the work, but humans remain (for now) responsible. We align AI use with your familiar frameworks (IFRS, US GAAP, Dutch GAAP, Sustainability GAAP) so that compliance is assured. With the right governance — clear rules and controls — AI finally becomes a safe accelerator rather than a risk. After this session, you will know exactly how to seize AI’s opportunities while effectively managing the risks.

TOOLKIT FOR THE FINANCE PROFESSIONAL OF TOMORROW

Last but not least: you will get hands-on. No abstract talk, but concrete practical exercises with AI tools on financial cases. In the hands-on lab, you will build your own AI-assisted reporting workflow step by step. You will learn to write the right prompts to, for example, accelerate a consolidation or have inconsistencies in a report detected. You will create a personal prompt library and discover which AI tools are immediately deployable within your team. By the end of the training, you will have tangible results: a set of directly usable prompts, new insights into tool usage, and a blueprint to make your next close faster, more consistent and stress-free. In other words: you will be ready to apply tomorrow’s reporting today.

TOO MUCH DATA, TOO LITTLE TIME

The world of financial analysis is changing at breakneck speed. Analysts and accountants are facing tighter deadlines, more complex regulation and a true data explosion. Every new analysis and each requested report feels like a race against the clock. Yet many still work with yesterday’s methods: endless spreadsheets and manual checks consume precious hours. Those who do not analyse faster and smarter risk overlooking crucial insights and red flags.

STOP EXPERIMENTING, START BENEFITING

ChatGPT, Copilot, you name it — everyone has toyed with AI. Yes, AI can summarise figures at lightning speed, spot trends and flag inconsistencies. But too often it stops at ad-hoc experiments without a plan. One person has ChatGPT read an annual report out of sheer curiosity, another blindly trusts an AI summary. Both are equally risky. It is time to use AI seriously as your smart and fast junior assistant. This training shows you how to move from tinkering to professional application. You will stop experimenting and start truly reaping the rewards of AI in your analytical work.

FOCUS ON INSIGHT, AUTOMATE THE REST

Leave routine tasks to the AI agents you have built yourself, so you can focus on insights. AI can accelerate the painstaking work: running variance analyses, checking intercompany reconciliations, or performing a first scan of a set of annual financial statements — in minutes instead of hours. Your role shifts from gathering data to understanding patterns. AI acts as a co-analyst that alerts you to notable trends and deviations, allowing you to concentrate on interpretation and judgement. Automating routine work means more time for what you were really hired to do: critical analysis and, as a result, sharper decision-making.

NO BLIND TRUST: KEEP CONTROL OF AI

AI is powerful, but not a holy grail, not a silver bullet. In our training, you learn to approach and verify AI output critically. Trust is good; checking remains essential — especially with AI. We discuss how to maintain an audit trail: every AI suggestion must be traceable and explainable. Privacy and compliance are covered in depth: you will discover how to protect sensitive financial data when deploying AI tools. We also address AI’s limitations — what it can do and what it (as yet) cannot. You will learn exactly where you can rely on AI and where your own professional judgement remains indispensable.

TOOLKIT FOR THE ANALYST AND ACCOUNTANT OF TOMORROW

Theory is useful, but practice makes the difference. In a hands-on lab, you will work with current cases and AI tools designed for financial analysis. You will learn to write powerful prompts that help you make sense of annual reports and other statements, and you will build your own prompt library. Together, we will set up a workflow that integrates AI seamlessly into your daily analysis or audit process. The result: you will leave the session with a concrete arsenal of AI tools, ready-to-use prompts, and a clear framework to make your analyses faster, more consistent and smarter as soon as tomorrow — and you will discover a range of AI tools you may never have heard of, but which you may well use daily after our training.