Exercise: Summarize financial results using Microsoft 365 Copilot in Word

  • 10 minutes

In the prior exercise, you used Microsoft 365 Copilot in Word to analyze a table of data and then create a report that summarized the information in that document. In this exercise, you open a file that contains a table with five years of financial results for a company, and you ask Copilot in Word to summarize the financial results that appear in the table.

Whereas the prior exercise created a report for you based on a file you attached to the prompt, this exercise displays a summation within the Copilot pane of a file that you opened. It's up to you whether you want to copy and paste the results into the document. The purpose of this exercise is to show the flexibility of Copilot in Word in how it can review and summarize documents - in this case, documents containing financial results.

Exercise

As the CFO for Adatum Corporation, a U.S. plastics manufacturer, you're interested in analyzing the company's financial performance for the past five years. You want to determine if Adatum's financial performance is improving or getting worse. You have a multi-part strategy for performing this analysis:

  • You want to identify trends and patterns.
  • You want to steer the company in the right direction and ensure it remains financially viable and capable of meeting its operating objectives.
  • You want to gauge performance by evaluating the percentage increase or decrease of expenses and sales, which enable you to measure operating performance and adjust your strategies.

To complete this task, you open a Word document prepared by your accounting team that provides a financial summary of the company's annual performance over the past five years. You then use Copilot in Word to summarize the company's performance during that time.

  1. Select the following link to download the Adatum 5 Year Financial Results.
  2. Once the download is complete, open File Explorer and move the file from your Downloads folder to a folder in your Microsoft - OneDrive folder.
  3. On the Microsoft 365 home page, select the Word icon in the navigation pane on the left. If the icon doesn't appear, select Apps in the navigation pane, and then select Word from the Apps page.
  4. In Microsoft Word, open the Adatum 5 Year Financial Results.docx file that you downloaded and moved to your Microsoft - OneDrive folder.
  5. On the Microsoft Word ribbon, select Copilot.
  6. In the Copilot pane that appears, several predefined tasks appear towards the top. You want Copilot to summarize the contents of the Adatum 5 Year Financial Results document, so select the Summarize this doc tile.
  7. Review the results. In doing so, you would like to see Word add more details to support the summation that it provides for each area. You can either request that it do so in a prompt, or you can take advantage of the predefined tasks that Word displays above the prompt field. If an Include more details in the summary prompt appears, then select it now. Otherwise, enter this request in the prompt field: Include more details in the summary.
  8. Once Copilot finishes regenerating a new summary with more details, review the results. Compare the previous summary to the current one. Notice how Copilot displayed specific financial metrics from the report to support its summation in each area.
  9. Select the Refresh icon that appears above the prompt field. If a Highlight the key financial challenges prompt appears, then select it now. Otherwise, enter the following prompt: Highlight the key financial challenges.
  10. While you're satisfied with the summary, you want to see a definitive statement on how the company has been performing over the past five years. Enter the following prompt and select the Send icon: Based on the information in this document, how would you rate Adatum's financial performance over the past five years? Is it getting better or worse?
  11. Review the results. You now want to see if there are any poorly performing areas that need attention. Enter the following prompt and select the Send icon: Is there any area that's performing poorly that should be addressed?
  12. Review the results. You used Copilot to analyze the company's prior five years of financial results. You also identified the areas of your operation that you must focus on to improve the company's profitability.
  13. You want to retain this summation into the current document that's open in Word. Place your cursor a couple of lines below the "Where N = Current year" line in the document. This line is the point at which you want Copilot to insert the summary. In the Copilot pane, scroll up to the window showing the complete summation that contains the detailed metrics. At the bottom of that window, select the Insert button.
  14. Repeat the previous step for both the window that indicates whether the company is doing better or worse, and the window that shows the area that needs improvement. You have now captured all the information in the document for future reference.
  15. You don't use this document in any further exercises. Close the tab in your Microsoft Edge browser containing this Word document.