XLReporting adds AI to offering for real-time financial decision-making
As companies modify their finance function to try and make the most of artificial intelligence, XLReporting is a company specialising in automated planning and reporting software. The firm’s experts explain how AI supports users in making faster and more informed decisions.
Since the advent of artificial intelligence (AI), the way finance professionals manage their processes has been adapting. The technology is being used extensively to automate repetitive tasks, generate smarter insights from data, reduce manual work in reporting and consolidation processes, and more quickly calculate complex scenarios for future-oriented policy.
At XLReporting, we see AI as a major opportunity for the finance professionals who use our software. It contributes to the software’s overarching goal: improving and accelerating reporting, consolidation, and budgeting processes. The less time finance teams spend on manual tasks, the more time is created for analysis and informed decision-making. We have therefore incorporated AI into our CPM software platform in several exciting ways.
AI Assistant
The integrated assistant helps users navigate their data, reports, and models more quickly. Plain language questions, such as "What are user roles and permissions?", or "How do I create a year-to-date report?" immediately provide relevant answers within the context of the software.
Smart Analysis Function
This function recognises trends, deviations, and patterns in financial data. Crucially, the analysis is substantiated step by step. Users can see exactly which sources and calculations underlie the insights. The function can also generate summaries and explanations for reports.
Improving Data Quality
AI supports the conversion, translation, and matching of data from different systems. Examples include mapping general ledger accounts to internal reporting structures or classifying and cleaning datasets. This reduces error-prone manual work and increases the reliability of the figures.
Xavier: Help Assistant in ChatGPT
Xavier is the new AI-powered support assistant for XLReporting, available directly in ChatGPT. It uses the same knowledge base as our Help Assistant, but with one major advantage: full conversation. Users can ask follow-up questions, stay in context, and get step-by-step explanations without having to search through documentation.
For example, a user might ask, "How do I create an import definition?", or "Explain how I build a variance dashboard." Xavier provides clear instructions, points to the correct settings, and quickly helps users.
Scenario analysis and forecasting
Users can use AI to ask "what-if" questions, based on their own models and data. For example, if a user asked the system to "create a worst-case scenario in which revenue falls by 10% and labor costs increase by 5%", our AI can calculate the scenario, using transparent parameters that are fully controlled by the user.
AI as an assistant – together with the financial professional
At XLReporting, we view AI as an assistant for people – the technology doesn’t replace people. AI acts as a "sidekick": available, sharp, and focused on improving insight. The financial professional monitors the process and always remains in control. We don’t believe in fully autonomous AI that draws conclusions without explanation. Financial professionals must be able to follow how figures are generated. This is essential for internal control, audit trails, and consistency, but also for reliability and trust in the output.
Based on this outlook, our AI functionalities are designed around three pillars: supportive, transparent, and explainable. In the coming period, we will continue to build on our philosophy: "AI together with the financial sector."
