Applied AI for Accounting

Course outline

This course focuses on the practical use of AI assistants in day-to-day accounting: from writing clear requests and working in spreadsheets to invoices and reports. Exercises use sample data, and the course is not about complex mathematics.

1. 1

   1. Choosing an AI assistant for accounting

   • Hands-on introduction to ChatGPT, Gemini and Excel helper tools
   • Picking the right tool for text, tables and documents
   • Understanding limits, costs and the need for human review
2. 2

   2. Writing practical requests

   • Describing the role, context and expected output
   • Asking for a table, checklist or clear summary
   • Refining answers with examples and feedback
3. 3

   3. Organizing spreadsheet data

   • Cleaning descriptions and standardizing data formats
   • First-pass expense categorization, checked by the accountant
   • Spotting duplicate or incomplete entries using sample data
4. 4

   4. Working with invoices and receipts

   • First-pass extraction of details from an image or document
   • Turning the details into a table you can review
   • Matching amounts, dates and names against the original document, with no automatic posting
5. 5

   5. Getting help in Excel

   • Explaining and suggesting simple formulas
   • Sorting, filtering and summarizing tables
   • Using Copilot where available, and checking its output
6. 6

   6. Reporting and professional communication

   • Drafting a management report from approved data
   • Writing follow-up emails and clear explanations for colleagues
   • Building daily and period-end task checklists
7. 7

   7. Confidentiality and quality control

   • Removing identifying details and using made-up data for practice
   • Checking claims and matching answers to documents
   • Keeping the accountant responsible for financial and regulatory decisions
8. 8

   8. Final exercise: one complete workflow

   • From a sample document to a clean table and a short report
   • Recording the steps, tools and corrections made
   • Presenting the result and assessing accuracy and time saved