XLReporting adds AI to offering for real-time financial decision-making
07 January 2026
Finance teams don't need more dashboards. They need faster answers they can trust. XLReporting has added AI across its planning and reporting platform to help cut manual work, surface clear insights, and support decisions in real time.
AI now handles repetitive steps, explains how results are produced, and makes scenario modeling far quicker. Less time spent fixing files. More time pressure-testing assumptions and making the call.
What's new inside XLReporting
- AI Assistant: Ask plain questions inside the product and get direct, contextual answers. Queries like "What are user roles and permissions?" or "How do I create a year-to-date report?" return clear guidance right where you work.
- Smart Analysis Function: Spots trends, variances, and patterns in your financials and shows exactly which sources and calculations drive each insight. It can also summarize reports and add explanations your stakeholders will actually read.
- Improved data quality: Automates conversion, translation, and matching across systems. Think mapping GL accounts to internal reporting structures, classifying messy datasets, and removing duplicates-reducing error-prone manual steps.
- Xavier: help assistant in ChatGPT: Get full conversational support using the same knowledge base as the in-app assistant. Ask follow-ups like "How do I create an import definition?" or "Explain how I build a variance dashboard," and get step-by-step instructions and pointers to the right settings.
- Scenario analysis and forecasting: Run "what-if" questions against your own models and data. For example: "Create a worst-case scenario where revenue drops 10% and labor costs rise 5%." The system calculates the impact with parameters you control and can audit.
Why this matters for Finance
- Shorter cycles: Reporting, consolidation, and budgeting move faster with fewer manual reconciliations.
- Better control: Transparent calculations and audit trails support internal control requirements and reviews. For reference, see the COSO Internal Control framework.
- Higher confidence: Explanations and source tracing build trust with management, auditors, and the board.
AI as an assistant-people stay in control
XLReporting treats AI as a sidekick, not a replacement. Financial professionals stay in charge of assumptions, thresholds, and approvals. No black boxes, no surprises.
- Supportive: Speeds up work and removes friction without changing your governance.
- Transparent: Every insight is traceable to sources and logic.
- Explainable: Users can follow the steps, verify, and sign off with confidence.
How to put this to work this quarter
- Pick a high-friction process: Month-end variance analysis, intercompany eliminations, or budget versioning are good candidates.
- Standardize inputs: Confirm mappings for GL accounts, entities, and products. Lock the naming conventions first; cleanup gets easier.
- Set review guardrails: Define materiality thresholds, owner sign-offs, and exception rules before automating.
- Build a "what-if" library: Create baseline, best, and worst-case scenarios you can rerun on demand with clear labels and documented drivers.
- Track outcomes: Measure cycle time, manual journal errors, forecast accuracy, and self-serve report usage. Report the wins to your CFO and audit committee.
Practical prompts finance teams can use
- "Summarize the top three drivers of margin variance vs. budget for Q4, and show the calculations."
- "Map new GL accounts to our internal structure and flag any that don't match."
- "Create a cash forecast with DSO +5 days and inventory +8%, then compare to baseline."
- "Explain how this consolidation adjustment was calculated, including source entities and rates."
Keep building your team's AI capability
If you want structured ways to upskill your finance team on tools and use cases, explore these resources:
Bottom line: automate the grunt work, keep the logic transparent, and move faster with scenarios you can stand behind. That's how finance drives better decisions-consistently and in real time.
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