Frontrow Technology
← Prompt library

Excel · 12 prompts

Microsoft 365 Copilot prompts for Excel — 12 prompts that actually save time

Excel is where Copilot pays for itself fastest and fails loudest. These prompts work when three conditions hold: the data is formatted as a proper table (select the range, Ctrl+T), the workbook lives in OneDrive or SharePoint with AutoSave on, and the account holds a paid Microsoft 365 Copilot licence. Most 'Copilot can't help with that' responses trace back to one of those three — fix them first, then substitute the placeholders below and iterate on the first draft.

Showing 12 of 12 prompts

  • First-pass data insights

    Excel

    Prompt

    Show me insights in this data. Focus on trends over time, concentrations and outliers, and suggest the two charts most worth adding to a management report.

    Expected outcome

    Suggested pivots and charts with a one-line finding attached to each.

    Substitute {placeholders}

  • GST columns

    Excel

    Prompt

    Add a formula column that calculates GST at 10% of the {Amount Column} column, and a second column for the GST-inclusive total. Round both to two decimal places.

    Expected outcome

    Two formula columns previewed before insertion, GST maths done once and consistently.

    Substitute {placeholders}

  • Australian FY quarters

    Excel

    Prompt

    Add a column that groups the dates in {Date Column} into Australian financial year quarters starting 1 July, labelled like FY26 Q1.

    Expected outcome

    FY-aligned quarter labels without the July fencepost error.

    Substitute {placeholders}

  • Overdue invoice flag

    Excel

    Prompt

    Add a column that flags any invoice more than {Days} days past the date in {Due Date Column} as OVERDUE, otherwise CURRENT.

    Expected outcome

    Status column ready to filter into a receivables chase list.

    Substitute {placeholders}

  • Cross-table lookup

    Excel

    Prompt

    Write a formula to pull {Field} for each row from the {Other Table Name} table, matching on {Key Column}. Use XLOOKUP and handle missing matches with the text 'Not found'.

    Expected outcome

    Working XLOOKUP column with graceful misses.

    Substitute {placeholders}

  • Explain an inherited formula

    Excel

    Prompt

    Explain what the formula in cell {Cell} does, step by step, in plain English. Flag anything fragile, such as hard-coded ranges or values.

    Expected outcome

    Plain-English breakdown of a formula whose author has left the business, with fragility flags.

    Substitute {placeholders}

  • Duplicate ABN check

    Excel

    Prompt

    Highlight duplicate values in the {ABN Column} column and list the rows involved so I can review them.

    Expected outcome

    Conditional formatting applied plus a review list — the fast supplier-master hygiene check.

    Substitute {placeholders}

  • Receivables ageing buckets

    Excel

    Prompt

    Group these receivables into ageing buckets of current, 30, 60 and 90+ days based on {Due Date Column}, and total the {Amount Column} for each bucket.

    Expected outcome

    Aged-receivables summary built from a raw invoice list.

    Substitute {placeholders}

  • Budget variance with exception flags

    Excel

    Prompt

    Add columns showing the variance between {Budget Column} and {Actual Column} in dollars and as a percentage, and flag any line beyond {Threshold}% either way.

    Expected outcome

    The skeleton of a month-end variance pack in one prompt.

    Substitute {placeholders}

  • Month-on-month movement analysis

    Excel

    Prompt

    Compare this month's figures with last month's in this table and list the five biggest movements by dollar value, with a one-line likely explanation for each that I can confirm.

    Expected outcome

    Ranked movement list with draft narratives for the analyst to verify, not sign.

    Substitute {placeholders}

  • Revenue pivot

    Excel

    Prompt

    Create a pivot table of {Value Column} by {Category Column} and month, on a new sheet, sorted by total descending.

    Expected outcome

    Ready-to-slice pivot without the dialog-box wrestling.

    Substitute {placeholders}

  • Board-ready summary

    Excel

    Prompt

    Summarise this table in three plain-English paragraphs a non-finance board member can follow. Lead with the overall position, then the biggest movements, then the risks worth watching. Australian English, no jargon.

    Expected outcome

    First-draft report commentary — numbers still get checked before they leave the finance team.

    Substitute {placeholders}

FAQ

How to actually use this library

Do these Excel Copilot prompts work in Microsoft 365 Copilot specifically, or also in Copilot Pro / free Copilot?

These prompts are designed for Microsoft 365 Copilot — the enterprise SKU that grounds responses in your tenant's SharePoint, OneDrive, Outlook, Teams and calendar. Some prompts also work in Copilot Chat (free with most M365 licences) but without the tenant grounding the output is generic. Copilot Pro is the wrong product for an organisation with M365 — these prompts won't ground in business data there.

Do I need any specific licence add-ons for these prompts to work?

Microsoft 365 Copilot itself, attached to an underlying M365 E3 / E5 / Business Standard / Business Premium licence. The prompts that reference SharePoint sites assume the user has access to those sites. The prompts that pull from email and Teams chats work natively. None of the prompts require Copilot Studio or any other add-on.

Why are some prompts targeted at specific Office apps?

Microsoft 365 Copilot has slightly different capabilities depending on the surface — Copilot in Word can rewrite and summarise long documents, Copilot in Excel can analyse data and write formulas, M365 Chat can search across your whole tenant, Copilot in Outlook can triage and draft mail. Each prompt below is tagged with the surface where it works best. Try it there first.

Are these 12 prompts the full library, or are there more?

This is the public library. Frontrow runs Copilot adoption sprints that produce role-specific prompt sets tuned to a customer's actual business — typically 40–80 prompts per role family, calibrated against the data and processes the team actually uses. The public prompts are the starting point.

Can I share or modify these prompts?

Yes. The library is free, no email gate, no licence terms. Copy, paste, modify, share inside your organisation. If you build something good on top, Frontrow would love to hear about it — email info@frontrow.email.

Other departments

Browse the full prompt library

Want Frontrow to build a custom prompt set for your excel team?

The public library is the starting point. A Frontrow Copilot adoption sprint produces a role-specific prompt set calibrated to your actual data, your actual workflows and your actual people. Typical engagement: four weeks, output is a deployed Copilot practice your team will keep using.

Talk to a senior consultantEmail Frontrow