Revolutionizing Finance Reporting and Communication with Generative AI

The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) in various business sectors has been a game-changer, with AI-based applications significantly transforming operations in today's workplaces. Generative AI is one such AI domain that holds immense potential in financial report creation and business communication. Generative AI can generate coherent, natural language text, providing innovative ways to improve workplace efficiency and communication effectiveness. Generative AI can be used in the workplace for creating financial reports and communicating with brokers, bankers, accountants, and people unfamiliar with a certain topic. Financial reports are important for investors, shareholders, creditors, execs, regulatory institutions (like the IRS), industry consumers, unions and employees; therefore, finding an efficient way to communicate financial information with all these parties is increasingly getting more crucial.

Utilizing Generative AI in Financial Report Writing

Financial reporting refers to the communication of financial information about a business entity to its stakeholders such as investors, creditors, and regulators. This process typically involves producing various documents and reports that present financial data, allowing stakeholders to understand the company's financial performance and make informed decisions. The primary documents in financial reporting include the balance sheet, income statement, cash flow statement, and statement of equity, which provide a detailed view of the company’s assets, liabilities, revenues, expenses, and cash flow. It is vital to create financial reports for one’s company because it can help others gain a meaningful understanding of the company’s financial performance.

In the complex world of business finance, generating financial reports is an integral but time-consuming process. Generative AI can be employed to automate the creation of key financial documents:

A balance sheet, a crucial component of financial reporting, provides a snapshot of a company's financial position at a specific point in time. It is composed of three main components: assets, liabilities, and shareholders' equity. Assets include both liquid assets such as cash, certificates of deposit, short-term securities, and treasury bills, but assets also refer to current assets such as accounts receivable, inventory, fixed assets, and prepaid expenses. Liabilities encompass both short-term and long-term debt, accounts payable, payable wages and dividends, tax expenses, and prepayments from clients. Shareholders' equity reflects the residual interest in the company's assets after deducting liabilities and includes items such as retained earnings, payable dividends, capital stock, and accumulated other comprehensive income. By reconciling these three components, a balance sheet provides valuable insights into a company's liquidity, financial flexibility, and capital structure.

Generative AI can revolutionize the way balance sheets are created and interpreted. By drawing from integrated databases and financial systems, AI can automate the process of gathering and reconciling data, producing balance sheets faster and with fewer errors. The generated balance sheet can offer a real-time view of the company's financial status, enabling prompt decision-making. Beyond just the creation, AI can also interpret balance sheets, identifying patterns and trends over time. It can provide insights on important financial metrics such as working capital, debt-to-equity ratio, and asset turnover ratio, which can be critical for management decisions. Moreover, AI can also provide predictive analysis, using historical data to project future financial positions. This can be crucial for planning and forecasting, making generative AI a powerful tool in financial reporting.

An income statement, also known as a profit and loss statement, provides a detailed account of a company's (both operating and non-operating) revenues, costs, and expenses over a specified period, resulting in a net profit or loss figure. After accounting for taxes, the statement arrives at the net income, representing the company's profitability during the given period. The income statement, therefore, provides a look into a company's ability to generate profit, its cost structure, and its operational efficiency.

Generative AI can streamline the creation and interpretation of income statements. By integrating with the company's accounting system, AI can automate the compilation of data, generating income statements with increased accuracy and speed. It can track and classify revenue and expenses over time, distinguishing between operating and non-operating activities, and primary and secondary expenses. The ability to calculate net income, gross profit margins, and operating profit margins can provide critical insight into a company's financial performance. Additionally, generative AI can analyze historical income statement data to identify trends, providing management with valuable insights into the company's profitability, cost efficiency, and financial stability over time. This analysis can also aid in forecasting future revenues and expenses, enabling proactive decision-making and strategic planning. Thus, generative AI serves as a transformative tool in financial reporting, enhancing efficiency and delivering valuable analytical insights.

A cash flow statement offers a comprehensive view of the cash inflows and outflows from a company's operating, investing, and financing activities over a specific period. A cash flow statement usually consists of operational activities and investment activities. Operational activities involve primary business operations, such as cash receipts from sales, payments to suppliers, wages, and income tax. Investment activities reflect the purchase and disposal of long-term assets and investment income, including the asset sales, loans issued, and payments from acquisitions or mergers. Secondary investment activities also involve fixed-asset purchases and property expenses. The net change in cash and cash equivalents over the period, after accounting for all these activities, gives an insight into the company's liquidity position and its ability to generate cash to fund its operations and investments.

Generative AI can be pivotal in the creation and interpretation of cash flow statements. By integrating with various financial systems, AI can automatically track and categorize cash inflows and outflows, quickly generating accurate cash flow statements. It can identify and separate cash flows from operating, investing, and financing activities, providing a detailed understanding of where the company's cash is coming from and how it's being used. AI can calculate key metrics such as free cash flow, operating cash flow margin, and cash conversion cycle, providing insights into a company's financial health. Moreover, by analyzing trends in historical cash flow data, generative AI can predict future cash flow scenarios, which can aid in financial planning and help the management take proactive measures to ensure sufficient liquidity.

The statement of shareholder equity provides a detailed account of the changes in a company's equity over a specified period. It essentially shows how net income and distribution of dividends affect the company's equity position. It includes common and preferred stock sales and repurchases, representing the owners' investments. The statement also includes the purchase and reissuance of treasury stock, which impacts the total outstanding shares. Retained earnings, which is the accumulated net income after subtracting dividends and losses, represent the company's reinvestment into its operations. Additionally, the statement of equity includes unrealized gains and losses from various sources like foreign currency translations and market investments. All in all, the statement of shareholder equity provides an overview of the company's financing through equity and its profit reinvestment policies.

For the statement of equity, generative AI can be instrumental in creating and interpreting the statement of shareholder equity. By integrating with financial systems, AI can automatically track changes in equity accounts, generating the statement accurately and efficiently. It can identify and categorize transactions related to stock issuance and repurchase, dividends, and other equity-related items, providing a clear picture of equity movements. The AI can also calculate key ratios such as return on equity. Moreover, by analyzing historical data, AI can identify trends in the company's equity financing and retained earnings policies.

Communication with Brokers, Bankers, Accountants, and People Outside of Your Expertise

Effective communication with various stakeholders is a crucial aspect of any business operation. When it comes to communicating with brokers, bankers, accountants, or individuals from different backgrounds, generative AI can act as an assistant, helping to bridge the gap between jargon-heavy language and layman's terms. Many generative AI models like ChatGPT are designed to understand and generate human-like text, making them ideal for this communication facilitation. For example, generative AI can be used to help with communication between two officials that have a language barrier working in an international organization. Try out this prompt to test out translating your professional email from English to Spanish. These models can be used to draft emails, create briefings, or generate responses, ensuring the appropriate use of financial terms and clear, concise communication.

They can also translate complex concepts into simpler, easily digestible information. For those needing to engage with stakeholders outside their area of expertise, generative AI can provide a summary or explanation of specific terminology or concepts. This functionality proves useful when communicating with professionals in other sectors, ensuring understanding and minimizing the risk of miscommunication.

Conclusion

Generative AI represents a paradigm shift in the way we approach workplace tasks, particularly in financial reporting and communication with various stakeholders. Its ability to generate human-like text, combined with its capacity to interpret and analyze large data sets, positions it as a powerful tool for businesses. It's a force multiplier that can enhance efficiency, improve accuracy, foster better understanding, and ultimately contribute to business success.