Gaining insight from financial data is now crucial for businesses looking to stay ahead of the curve, overcome obstacles, and make wise choices. Creative AI-powered solutions are becoming more and more prevalent due to the complexity of financial data and the need for precise forecasts. One such program that has become rather popular is Microsoft’s Finance Insights.

The main characteristics, advantages, system requirements, setup procedures, and recommended practices for utilizing Finance Insights with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance will all be covered in this tutorial.

With the help of Finance Insights, you can more effectively forecast your company’s cash flow, estimate when you might get paid for outstanding receivables, and create a budget proposal that will expedite the budgeting process.

All of these features are customizable and extensible. These capabilities construct models with your data (or data from a third party, like consumer report information from a bureau) using sophisticated machine learning templates.

These cognitive capabilities assist you in making decisions and in taking appropriate action to address present and future business difficulties. Any data that is input into or output from Finance Insights is your responsibility.

Features of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance

You should choose financial management software for your company with the ability to remove errors, manual labor, and potential redundancies in mind.

Additionally, you’ll want the software to ensure timely payment collections and compliance with accounting and tax laws.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance covers this and much more, handling all facets of financial administration.

Among the essential elements are:

• General Ledger Management: Organizations can monitor and handle their financial transactions with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance.
• Accounts Payable and Receivable: The system makes handling invoices and payments easier.
• Cash Flow Forecasting: Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance generates precise cash flow estimates for businesses by evaluating both historical and current data.
• Financial Reporting and Analysis: Users can design unique financial dashboards and reports using its robust reporting tools.
• Expense Management: By effectively tracking and managing spending, the platform helps organizations ensure that they are adhering to company laws and regulations.
• Asset Management: Businesses can efficiently manage their assets at every stage of their lifecycle with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance. The technology offers visibility into asset performance from purchase to disposal.
• Strong Security protections: To safeguard sensitive financial data, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance is outfitted with strong security protections. Financial information can only be viewed or modified by authorized personnel thanks to role-based access control.

Benefits of Finance Insights

The following list of the main advantages of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance’s Finance Insights shows how much it affects financial management:

Reliable Cash Flow Forecasts:

With the use of historical data from Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance, Finance Insights provides accurate cash flow projections.

Through the examination of crucial elements such as past trends, unpaid invoices, and client payment habits, Finance Insights offers businesses a thorough understanding of their financial position going forward.

This makes it possible for companies using the Microsoft Dynamics 365 environment to make well-informed decisions about spending, investments, and working capital management.

Better Receivables Management:

Businesses can use Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance’s skills to predict when customers will pay outstanding invoices by leveraging the Customer Payment Predictions function in Finance Insights.

With the Microsoft Dynamics 365 platform, this proactive approach helps organizations maximize their collection efforts, lower delinquencies, and enhance cash flow management.

Simplified Budgeting Process:

By comparing past budgets and actuals, Finance Insights uses historical data to produce insightful budget recommendations.

Using data to inform decisions, this data-driven method streamlines, expedites, and allows for more efficient resource allocation inside the Microsoft Dynamics 365 ecosystem for enterprises.

Improved Decision Making:

Finance information helps businesses make well-informed decisions. It offers precise and trustworthy financial data within the framework of Microsoft Dynamics 365.

Businesses can foresee market trends and spot potential hazards. They can also seize new opportunities by utilizing the predictive power of Finance Insights in Microsoft Dynamics 365.

This allows businesses to thrive financially within Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance. It helps them stay competitive and make wise decisions.

Flexible and Adaptable Solution:

Finance Insights offers extensive configurability within the Microsoft Dynamics 365 architecture. It integrates seamlessly with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance and other modules.

This enables businesses to alter the tool to suit their unique needs.  Finance Insights enhances financial analysis and decision-making across the Microsoft Dynamics 365 platform.

It can integrate with other Microsoft tools and external applications.

Prerequisites

This section lists the requirements for using Finance Insights. Wherever possible, links to sources of additional information are provided.

System Requirements

A Tier-2 environment (multi-box) is required to preview Finance Insights. For background information about environments, see Environment planning.

This is for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance version 10.0.21 and later.

License Requirements

Finance Insights uses AI Builder credits to create financial predictions. The tenant license includes all the necessary licenses for this.

Each Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance tenant is provided 20,000 AI Builder credits each month. If your business needs additional credits, you can purchase them directly from AI Builder.

Historical Data Requirements

To train the machine learning model for Customer Payment Predictions, you need at least one year’s worth of customer invoices.

This data ensures accurate predictions. We recommend three years of historical data for cash flow forecasts. We also recommend three years of historical budget and/or actuals for intelligent budget proposals.

Configure Finance Insights

You must complete configuration steps before you can use Finance Insights within Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance. For more information about how to configure Finance Insights, see Configuration for Finance Insights.

Create a Data Integrator Project

You’ll need to create a data integrator project so that data that the machine learning model generates can flow into Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance. For the steps to create that project, see Create a Data Integrator Project.

Enable Finance Insights Capabilities

When you’ve completed the configuration steps and set up demo data, you must set up each capability that you plan to use: customer payment predictions, cash flow forecasting, and budget proposals.

• Enable Customer Payment Predictions: If you are using demo data to test customer payment predictions, you may have to import additional demo data to create your AI model successfully. To enable Customer Payment Predictions, you must complete a set of steps to build a machine learning model that uses your organization’s data to generate predictions about when customers are likely to pay outstanding invoices and when specific invoices are likely to be paid. For more information and the specific steps to complete, see Enable Customer Payment Predictions.
• Enable Cash Flow Forecasting: To enable Cash Flow Forecasting, you must complete a set of steps to build a machine learning model that uses your organization’s data to generate cash flow forecasts. For more information and the specific steps to complete, see Enable Cash Flow Forecasting.
• Enable Budget Proposals: The Budget Proposals feature uses a machine learning model along with your organization’s historical data to generate a budget proposal. The generated proposal can help you begin a budgeting process that is more effective and efficient than a manual process. For the specific steps to enable this feature, see Enable Budget Proposals.

By leveraging Finance Insights within Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance, organizations can unlock the full potential of their financial data, enabling smarter decision-making and more efficient financial management.