Streamlining Dynamics 365 Business Central bank reconciliation with AI-powered Copilot

Bank Reconciliations are an integral part of month-end close and proper financial reporting for both public and private companies. Microsoft has remained dedicated to streamlining the Bank Reconciliation within D365 Business Central with their latest release of Copilot & AI enhancements within the Bank Reconciliation module.

Microsoft has released several time-saving improvements to the Bank Reconciliation module over the years, such as Bank Statement Imports, Banking Integrations, and Automatic Matching Rules, but there was still often a need for manual review and matching of transactions within the reconciliation process. Microsoft’s latest release aims to reduce much of this manual work with AI-powered tools to streamline your banking processes.

Copilot in D365 Business Central is Microsoft’s AI-powered tool designed to automate and optimize various system processes. It provides intelligent suggestions, streamlines tasks, and reduces manual intervention. Integrated across multiple modules, including Bank Reconciliation, Copilot learns from user behavior and historical data to continuously improve its accuracy. By acting as an intelligent assistant, Copilot enables businesses to focus on strategic activities rather than routine data entry.

Key benefits of Copilot in Business Central:

• Increased efficiency: Automates routine tasks, reducing the time spent on manual data entry and reconciliation.
• Improved accuracy: AI-driven suggestions and insights reduce human error, ensuring more precise financial data.
• Faster decision-making: Streamlines processes, enabling businesses to close books more quickly and make data-driven decisions with confidence.
• Enhanced productivity: Frees up time for employees to focus on higher-value tasks instead of repetitive manual work.
• Scalability: Learns and adapts over time, continuously improving its suggestions and functionality as user behavior and data evolve.
• Seamless integration: Works across various modules of Business Central, providing consistent automation and intelligence throughout the system.

Reconciling bank accounts has traditionally been a time-consuming and laborious task. Manually matching every transaction from bank statements to accounting entries is not only tedious but can also lead to inaccuracies. Copilot, an AI feature in Business Central, simplifies the process by analyzing bank statements you import into the system, matching more transactions, and proposing entries for those not auto-matched. Copilot’s intelligent processes not only improve the accuracy of your bank reconciliations but also significantly reduce manual effort.

Microsoft’s Copilot AI in D365 Business Central addresses two critical challenges: manually matching one-to-many transactions and generating G/L transactions for items like bank fees or interest income. Let’s take a closer look at how Business Central’s Copilot can help streamline these processes:

In many cases, a single Bank Statement line—like a bank deposit—can relate to multiple transaction lines in Business Central. For instance, several deposits received in a single day may all appear as one line on the bank statement. The current Automatic Match functionality in Business Central typically only handles one-to-one matches, leaving multiple transactions unmatched and requiring manual intervention.

With Copilot, Business Central can now automatically match one-to-many transactions, reducing the manual effort involved and ensuring more accurate reconciliations. This AI-driven process improves efficiency and reduces the risk of errors.

Many banks automatically apply monthly fees or deposit interest income to accounts, which aren’t always recorded in Business Central at the time of reconciliation. Previously, users had to manually transfer these bank entries to the General Ledger (G/L) by selecting the appropriate lines from the imported bank statement and manually assigning G/L accounts (e.g., Bank Fees or Interest Income).

Now, Copilot automates this process by suggesting the appropriate G/L accounts based on the transaction description, eliminating the need for manual entry and reducing the risk of misclassification.

By leveraging AI-powered Copilot, Microsoft is helping businesses reduce manual processes, improve accuracy, and increase efficiency in their bank reconciliation processes. If you would like to learn more about how to leverage Copilot within your business for Bank Reconciliation or any other processes, contact Rand Group for assistance. Our experts can provide training, documentation, and customization to ensure that your business uses D365 Business Central as efficiently as possible.