Course overview
The AI-Powered Financial Reporting, Forecasting and Analysis with Excel, Power Query and Power BI Training Workshop equips finance professionals with practical skills to automate financial reporting, analyse financial performance, forecast revenue and expenditure, and generate actionable business insights using modern analytics tools and AI-assisted workflows.
Participants learn to transform raw accounting and financial data into reliable management reports, interactive dashboards, financial forecasts and decision-support models. The workshop combines Microsoft Excel for financial analysis and modelling, Power Query for data extraction and transformation, Power BI for interactive reporting, and AI-assisted techniques for identifying trends, investigating variances, summarising financial results and supporting forecasting.
Course objectives
- Automate the collection, cleaning, consolidation and transformation of financial data using Excel and Power Query.
- Use AI responsibly to interpret financial trends, investigate anomalies, generate management commentary and improve reporting workflows while validating calculations and protecting confidential financial information.
- Apply forecasting techniques and AI-assisted analytics to support financial planning, scenario analysis and decision-making.
- Build interactive Power BI dashboards for revenue, expenditure, cash flow, profitability and financial performance monitoring.
- Develop financial reports, budgets, variance analyses, profitability models and management accounts using Excel.
Who should attend
This workshop is designed for accountants, finance managers, financial analysts, management accountants, auditors, budget officers, CFOs, financial controllers, treasury officers, business analysts, project accountants, investment analysts, consultants and professionals responsible for financial planning and reporting. It is also suitable for NGO finance teams, public-sector finance departments, banking professionals and business owners who want to improve financial visibility and decision-making through automation and analytics.
Course content
- Module 1: Foundations of AI-Powered Financial Analytics Evolution of financial reporting and business intelligence, role of AI in finance and accounting, distinction between traditional financial analysis and AI-assisted analytics, financial data sources
- Module 2: Advanced Excel for Financial Analysis and Reporting Financial data organisation and structured tables, Excel formulas for financial reporting, SUMIFS and COUNTIFS for financial aggregation, XLOOKUP and lookup techniques, IF and nested conditiona
- Module 3: Financial Data Cleaning and Transformation with Power Query Importing financial data from Excel, CSV files, folders and supported databases, combining monthly financial reports, appending transactions from multiple periods, merging budgets with
- Module 4: Financial Data Modelling and Chart of Accounts Integration Understanding transactional and summary financial data, designing fact and dimension tables, creating a financial reporting data model, integrating general ledger transactions, mapping a
- Module 5: Automated Financial Reporting with Excel and Power Query Building automated monthly management reports, consolidating trial balances, producing departmental expenditure reports, generating income and expense summaries, preparing budget utilisati
- Module 6: Power BI for Financial Dashboards and Management Reporting Connecting Power BI to Excel, Power Query and supported data sources, importing and transforming financial datasets, designing financial data models, creating relationships and hierarchi
- Module 7: DAX for Financial Metrics and Performance Indicators Understanding measures and calculated columns, developing reusable financial measures, calculating revenue and expenditure, gross and operating margins, contribution margin, budget utilisation
- Module 8: Budgeting, Variance Analysis and Cost Control Developing annual and departmental budgets, consolidating operating budgets, comparing actual expenditure against approved budgets, calculating favourable and unfavourable variances, analysing spendi
- Module 9: Financial Forecasting and Time-Series Analysis Preparing historical financial data for forecasting, identifying trends and seasonal patterns, moving averages, exponential smoothing concepts, trend-based projections, revenue forecasting, expendit
- Module 10: AI-Assisted Financial Analysis and Management Commentary Using approved AI assistants for financial analysis, preparing effective prompts for financial reporting tasks, summarising income statements and budget reports, generating initial explan
- Module 11: Cash-Flow, Liquidity and Working Capital Analysis Understanding operating, investing and financing cash flows, preparing cash-flow forecasts, monitoring cash inflows and outflows, analysing receivables and payables, calculating debtor and credi
- Module 12: Profitability, Financial Ratios and Business Performance Analysing revenue and cost structures, calculating gross profit and operating profit, evaluating gross and net profit margins, calculating return on assets and return on equity, assessing
- Module 13: Scenario Modelling, Sensitivity Analysis and Financial Planning Developing best-case, base-case and worst-case scenarios, modelling changes in sales volumes and prices, analysing changes in input costs, evaluating inflation and exchange-rate as
- Module 14: AI-Assisted Anomaly Detection, Financial Controls and Audit Analytics Identifying unusual transactions and unexpected financial movements, detecting duplicate payments and potential duplicate invoices, analysing unusual expense patterns, identi
- Module 15: Integrated Financial Analytics Capstone Project Importing general ledger, budget, sales and expense datasets, cleaning and transforming records with Power Query, mapping accounts to reporting categories, building a financial data model, develop
General notes
- The course emphasises practical applications in budgeting, cash-flow analysis, profitability assessment, cost control, financial planning, management accounting and executive reporting. It is suitable for organisations seeking to improve reporting efficiency, strengthen financial controls and move from manual spreadsheet reporting to data-driven financial management
- Training tools and software The workshop uses Microsoft Excel for financial calculations, financial modelling, PivotTables and reporting templates; Power Query for data extraction, cleaning, transformation and automation; and Microsoft Power BI Desktop for data modelling, DAX measures, interactive dashboards and management reporting. Depending on availability, participants may use Microsoft Copilot or another organisation-approved AI assistant for financial commentary, formula support and analytical interpretation. Sample datasets can include general ledger transactions, trial balances, budgets, revenue, expenditure, receivables, payables and cash-flow records.
- Practical exercises and expected outputs Participants will clean and consolidate multiple monthly financial files, automate a financial reporting workflow, build a budget-versus-actual analysis, develop a profitability dashboard, calculate financial ratios and performance indicators, create a cash-flow forecast, conduct best-case and worst-case scenario modelling, identify unusual transactions, draft AI-assisted management commentary and validate findings against source records. Expected outputs include an automated financial reporting workbook, a reusable Power Query transformation workflow, a Power BI financial performance dashboard, a financial forecasting model, a budget variance report, a scenario analysis template and an AI-assisted financial reporting checklist.
- Learn AI-powered financial reporting, forecasting and analysis using Microsoft Excel, Power Query and Power BI. This practical training workshop covers automated financial reports, budget variance analysis, cash-flow forecasting, profitability dashboards, financial KPIs, scenario modelling and AI-assisted management reporting for finance professionals and organisations in Kenya and across Africa.
Frequently asked questions
1. 1. Who should attend this workshop?
Accountants, financial analysts, finance managers, auditors, budget officers, CFOs, financial controllers, project accountants and other professionals involved in financial reporting, planning and analysis.
2. 2. Do I need prior programming experience?
No. The course focuses on Excel, Power Query, Power BI and accessible AI-assisted workflows. Basic Excel knowledge is recommended. Advanced modules introduce DAX and forecasting concepts progressively.
3. 3. Will the course cover AI-based financial forecasting?
Yes. Participants explore trend analysis, time-series forecasting concepts, scenario modelling, forecast evaluation and AI-assisted interpretation. The emphasis is on selecting appropriate methods, validating predictions and documenting uncertainty rather than treating AI outputs as guaranteed results.
4. 4. Will I learn to automate monthly financial reports?
Yes. Participants learn to combine recurring financial files with Power Query, apply repeatable transformation steps, build reusable reporting models and refresh dashboards when source data changes.
5. 5. Can the workshop be customised for an organisation?
Yes. The content can be adapted to corporate finance, banking, NGOs, donor-funded projects, public-sector budgeting, SACCOs, SMEs or other organisational settings, using relevant financial reporting requirements and approved sample datasets.
Schedule & fees
| Dates | Location | Duration | Fee (USD) |
|---|
| 04/01/2027 - 15/01/2027 |
Nairobi,kenya or Virtual |
10 Days |
$2,000 |
| 07/06/2027 - 18/06/2027 |
Arusha,Tanzania |
10 Days |
$2,500 |
| 02/08/2027 - 13/08/2027 |
Accra,Ghana |
10 Days |
$3,000 |