Microsoft 365 for Finance: Enterprise Consulting Services

Why Finance Departments Need M365 Consulting

Finance teams use Excel for data, Outlook for communication, Teams for collaboration, and SharePoint for document storage, all within Microsoft 365. However, many finance departments view these tools as separate applications instead of a unified platform. This leads to several challenges:

• Increased risk of data silos
• Reduced efficiency in workflows
• Difficulty in maintaining consistent communication

• Increased risk of errors due to manual data entry.
• Difficulty in tracking changes across different applications.
• Reduced efficiency in workflows and collaboration.

• Budgets are kept in isolated Excel files.
• Close checklists are handled through email chains.
• Financial reports need manual data extraction.
• Compliance documents are spread across personal drives.

Microsoft 365 finance consulting transforms these disconnected workflows into an integrated financial operations platform. Copilot accelerates analysis and reporting. Power BI provides real-time financial dashboards. SharePoint governs financial documents with compliance controls. Power Automate eliminates manual handoffs in close and reporting processes.

EPC Group has provided Microsoft 365 solutions to finance departments at Fortune 500 companies, private equity-backed portfolio companies, healthcare systems, and public sector organizations.

Our consultants are experts in both technology and financial workflows. They understand key processes such as:

• Close processes
• Budget cycles
• Audit requirements
• Regulatory obligations

These elements are crucial for achieving success.

Excel + Copilot for Finance Teams

Copilot in Excel is a vital AI tool for finance professionals. It allows for natural language data analysis. For instance, you can ask, "Show me the top 10 cost centers by variance to budget."

Additionally, it offers several automated features:

• Generates forecasts automatically
• Creates pivot tables from conversational prompts
• Explains formulas in inherited spreadsheets

For finance teams that spend 40-60% of their time handling Excel data, Copilot can save 10-15 hours per analyst each week.

Enterprise deployment of Copilot for finance needs careful governance. Financial models, board presentations, and M&A analyses include sensitive data. Copilot must not expose this information to unauthorized users.

EPC Group implements Copilot with finance-specific controls, including:

• Sensitivity labels on financial workbooks
• Conditional Access policies that restrict Copilot to managed devices
• SharePoint permission audits to ensure data access aligns with finance team authorization levels

Power BI Financial Dashboards

Power BI replaces the monthly PDF report cycle with interactive, self-service financial dashboards. These dashboards update in near real-time. EPC Group creates financial dashboard suites for enterprise finance departments:

• Customizable dashboards tailored to specific needs
• Real-time data updates for accurate insights
• User-friendly interfaces for easy navigation

• Executive Financial Summary: Revenue, EBITDA, cash position, and key ratios with drill-through to business unit detail
• Budget vs. Actual: Variance analysis with trend visualization, department drill-down, and automated commentary
• Cash Flow Forecasting: 13-week cash flow projections combining AR/AP data, budget assumptions, and historical patterns
• Close Status Dashboard: Real-time visibility into close task completion, bottlenecks, and timeline adherence
• Accounts Receivable Aging: Customer-level aging analysis with collection priority scoring and trend identification
• Cost Center Performance: Departmental spending against budget with anomaly detection and manager accountability

These dashboards are embedded in SharePoint finance team sites and Teams channels, putting financial intelligence where finance professionals already work. Row-level security ensures that department managers see only their cost centers while the CFO sees the consolidated view.

Financial Close Automation

The monthly financial close is the most process-intensive recurring workflow in any finance department. EPC Group automates close processes using Microsoft 365 components:

SOX Compliance on Microsoft 365

Public companies and their subsidiaries must comply with Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) requirements for financial reporting controls. Microsoft 365 provides the necessary technical controls, but proper configuration is essential. EPC Group assists in implementing SOX-aligned M365 environments by:

• Ensuring compliance with SOX regulations.
• Configuring Microsoft 365 for optimal performance.
• Providing ongoing support and guidance.

• Ensuring compliance with SOX regulations.
• Configuring Microsoft 365 for optimal performance.
• Providing ongoing support and guidance.

• Access controls: Entra ID role-based access, Conditional Access policies, and quarterly access reviews for financial systems
• Change management: SharePoint version control, approval workflows for financial document changes, and audit logging of all modifications
• Data integrity: Sensitivity labels preventing unauthorized editing, DLP policies blocking external sharing of financial data, and encryption for financial documents
• Audit trail: Purview audit logging with 10-year retention, capturing every access, edit, share, and download of financial content
• Segregation of duties: Information barriers and permission models ensuring appropriate separation between financial functions

Dynamics 365 Finance Integration

For organizations using Dynamics 365 Finance (or planning to adopt it), Microsoft 365 integration creates a seamless financial operations platform. EPC Group designs integrations that connect:

• Dynamics 365 Finance transactional data to Power BI for real-time financial dashboards
• Dynamics 365 approval workflows to Teams notifications for faster processing
• Dynamics 365 financial documents to SharePoint for governed storage and collaboration
• Dynamics 365 budget data to Excel + Copilot for intelligent variance analysis
• Dynamics 365 vendor invoices to Power Automate for automated three-way matching

This integration eliminates the data silos between your ERP, productivity suite, and analytics platform — giving finance teams a unified experience across Microsoft 365 and Dynamics 365.

Azure Cost Management Dashboards

For organizations with significant Azure cloud spend, EPC Group builds cost management dashboards in Power BI that combine Azure Cost Management data with internal budget data from SharePoint or Dynamics 365. These dashboards provide:

• Real-time Azure spend tracking against budget with anomaly alerting
• Resource-level cost allocation to business units and cost centers
• Reserved instance utilization tracking and optimization recommendations
• Savings plan coverage analysis and right-sizing opportunities
• Month-end Azure accrual automation for financial close

Frequently Asked Questions