Use Excel's AI to Analyze Your A/R Aging Report

What This Does

Copilot in Excel lets you ask plain-English questions about your A/R aging data and get instant analysis — without writing formulas or pivot tables manually. You can find which payers are slowest to pay, which denial categories are growing, and which accounts need urgent attention.

Before You Start

• You have Microsoft 365 (Business Basic or higher) — Copilot is included
• Your A/R aging report is open in Excel (exported from your billing software)
• You're signed in to your Microsoft 365 account
• The data has column headers (Payer, DOS, Balance, Days, Denial Category, etc.)

Steps

1. Open your A/R aging report in Excel

Export the report from your billing software (Kareo, AdvancedMD, eClinicalWorks) as a .csv or .xlsx file, then open it in Excel.

What you should see: Your data in rows and columns with headers in Row 1.

2. Format as a Table

Click any cell in your data, then press Ctrl+T (or go to Insert → Table). Check "My table has headers" and click OK.

What you should see: Your data highlighted in a formatted table with filter dropdowns on each column header.

Troubleshooting: If Ctrl+T doesn't work, click a cell inside your data first, then try again.

3. Open Copilot

Click the Copilot button in the right side of the Home ribbon (it looks like a sparkle/star icon). A panel will open on the right side of your screen.

What you should see: A chat panel appears on the right with a text box at the bottom saying "Ask me anything about this data."

Troubleshooting: If you don't see the Copilot button, your Microsoft 365 plan may not include it, or your IT admin may have disabled it. Check with your administrator.

4. Ask your first question

Type your question in the chat box. Start with something simple to test it's working, then build up to more complex questions.

What you should see: Copilot responds with analysis, a formula suggestion, or a chart — directly below your question in the panel.

5. Apply the result

If Copilot suggests a formula or creates a chart, click "Insert" or "Add to sheet" to apply it to your spreadsheet.

Real Example

Scenario: You have a 500-row A/R aging export and need to know which payer is causing the most 90+ day balances before your weekly meeting.

What you type: "Which payer has the most accounts over 90 days? Show me the top 5 payers by total balance over 90 days."

What you get: A summary table showing the top 5 payers sorted by total 90+ day balance, plus Copilot may offer to create a bar chart. You can paste this directly into your meeting notes.

Tips

• Be specific about column names — if your column is called "Days Outstanding" say that, not "days"
• Ask one question at a time for clearest results
• If Copilot's formula looks wrong, ask it to explain the formula before inserting it
• Use it for the same analysis every week — ask the same question each time to build a routine

Tool interfaces change — if Copilot has moved, look for the sparkle icon in the Home ribbon or check the View menu.