Finance teams rarely struggle because they lack expertise. More often, they struggle because too much of their day is consumed by routine administrative work. Invoice approvals, reconciliations, financial reporting, procurement workflows, and exception handling can quietly consume thousands of working hours each year. Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations combines workflow automation with Microsoft Copilot to reduce this administrative burden, freeing finance professionals to devote more time to analysis, planning, governance, and strategic decision-making.
The highest cost in finance is often measured in hours, not dollars
When organizations evaluate finance automation, conversations usually begin with software costs, implementation budgets, or projected return on investment. Yet one of the largest expenses rarely appears on financial statements: the value of time spent on repetitive administration.
Consider a finance department of 15 employees. If workflow automation and Microsoft Copilot help an employee reclaim just two hours of administrative work each day, the organization could recover more than 7,500 productive hours annually. Assuming a fully loaded finance labor cost of $45 to $60 per hour, that represents approximately $340,000 to $450,000 in annual finance capacity.
The larger benefit, however, extends beyond payroll calculations. Those recovered hours can be redirected toward financial planning, forecasting, governance, profitability analysis, and supporting business decisions, rather than processing routine transactions.
This article explores where organizations typically lose the most time in Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations and how Microsoft Copilot helps finance teams reclaim that capacity.
Where companies lose the most time
Despite differences in industry or business size, finance departments often face remarkably similar operational bottlenecks. Individually, these tasks appear routine. Together, they consume a substantial portion of the workweek.
The largest time drains commonly include:
- Invoice matching and approval workflows
- Purchase requisitions and procurement approvals
- Month-end close and account reconciliations
- Financial reporting and executive summaries
- Expense validation and reimbursements
- Asset tracking and compliance reviews
- Investigating transaction exceptions
Each activity serves an important purpose. The challenge lies in the volume of administrative work required for each activity. A single invoice may pass through procurement, warehouse operations, finance, and management before reaching final approval. Multiply that process by hundreds each month, and the cumulative impact becomes considerable.
How Microsoft Copilot expands finance automation
Enterprise ERP platforms have long supported automation with approval workflows, recurring journals, scheduled jobs, and business rules. Microsoft Copilot builds on these capabilities by helping finance professionals retrieve information, interpret business data, and complete routine tasks with less manual effort.
Within Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations, organizations can enable Microsoft Copilot to support activities such as:
- Summarizing financial records and transactions
- Retrieving ERP information through natural-language prompts
- Highlighting unusual variances and exceptions
- Assisting with financial reporting and analysis
- Supporting procurement and operational workflows
These capabilities are available in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations and can be enabled based on an organization’s licensing, configuration, and business requirements.
Organizations can also expand their AI capabilities through Copilot Agents, which can execute more complex, multi-step business processes with minimal human intervention. These agents extend automation beyond individual tasks by coordinating activities across finance and operational workflows while upholding business rules and governance.
Where automation creates the greatest value
While every organization uses finance automation differently, certain business activities consistently deliver the greatest return. These are typically high-volume, repetitive processes where even small reductions in manual effort can translate into significant time savings over the course of a month.
Some areas where organizations commonly recover the most time include:
| Business Activity |
How Automation Helps |
Example Prompt |
| Invoice Processing |
Automates approval workflows, assists with invoice matching, and highlights exceptions requiring review. |
“Show me invoices awaiting approval with matching discrepancies.” |
| Purchase Approvals |
Routes requests through structured approval processes while providing greater visibility into procurement activities. |
“Summarize purchase requisitions awaiting my approval.” |
| Financial Reporting |
Copilot summarizes financial information and answers natural-language questions across ERP data. |
“Summarize this month’s operating expenses compared to last month.” |
| Account Reconciliations |
Surfaces unusual transactions and variances, allowing finance teams to investigate exceptions more quickly. |
“Identify unreconciled transactions above $10,000.” |
| Expense Management |
Supports policy-driven approval workflows and reduces manual review effort. |
“Show expense claims pending approval that exceed company policy limits.” |
| Asset Management |
Centralizes asset records for lifecycle tracking, depreciation management, and compliance reporting. |
“List assets due for maintenance or approaching the end of their depreciation schedule.” |
Turning Finance Automation into Business Value with LevelShift
Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations provides a strong foundation for financial automation through built-in workflows, Microsoft Copilot, and an expanding portfolio of Copilot Agents. However, realizing meaningful business value often requires more than simply enabling these features. Organizations must identify where automation will have the greatest operational impact, align it with existing business processes, and ensure the underlying ERP environment is prepared to support AI-driven workflows.
LevelShift helps organizations implement a business-first approach that combines ERP modernization, process optimization, and AI readiness. In addition to implementing Microsoft’s out-of-the-box Copilot capabilities, LevelShift helps organizations identify opportunities where AI can reduce administrative effort and improve day-to-day finance operations.
For organizations with unique operational requirements, LevelShift also designs and develops custom Copilot Agents that automate business-specific processes beyond Microsoft’s standard capabilities. These agents can be tailored to support multi-step finance and operational workflows and to align with an organization’s governance, approval structures, and business rules.
By combining Microsoft’s AI capabilities with tailored ERP solutions and custom Copilot Agents, LevelShift helps organizations build finance operations that spend less time on repetitive administrative tasks and more time delivering strategic business value.
Conclusion
The greatest challenge facing finance teams today is the time consumed by routine administrative work. This work often prevents finance professionals from focusing on what actually drives business performance.
Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations addresses this challenge by combining workflow automation with Microsoft Copilot to simplify everyday finance processes. When paired with LevelShift’s ERP modernization expertise and custom Copilot Agents, organizations can extend these capabilities to automate business-specific workflows, reduce repetitive administrative tasks, and create greater capacity for planning, governance, and informed decision-making.
As finance operations evolve, AI will become integral to how everyday business processes are managed. Organizations that establish a strong ERP foundation today will be better positioned to embrace future innovations that enable their workforce to deliver long-term business value.
FAQs
- What is finance automation in Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations?
Finance automation uses workflow automation and Microsoft Copilot to reduce manual effort across processes including approvals, reporting, reconciliations, and invoice processing.
- Which finance processes save the most time through automation?
Invoice processing, procurement approvals, financial reporting, reconciliations, expense management, and asset management typically yield the greatest time savings.
- How does Microsoft Copilot support Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations?
Microsoft Copilot summarizes financial information, retrieves ERP data via natural-language prompts, identifies anomalies, and assists with reporting and routine finance tasks.
- Does finance automation reduce financial control?
No. Automation operates within existing business rules, approval workflows, and governance policies, reducing repetitive administrative work.
- Is finance automation suitable only for large enterprises?
No. Organizations of all sizes can benefit from financial automation, although larger enterprises often achieve greater savings because of higher transaction volumes.
