Finance and reporting
Can AI cut the time it takes to build a monthly board package?
The short answer
Yes, for the assembly: pulling the numbers, building the tables and formatting the pages. Build that once on the files your team already exports, check it line by line against past packages, and keep your people on the commentary and the judgment. One recurring report we rebuilt went from two days to five minutes.
By Bruno Guberinich and Peter Davis III, founders of Summit Client Services. Updated .
Where the week goes
Most of the time in a board package is not analysis. It is assembly: exporting from each system, pasting into spreadsheets, reconciling the totals, rebuilding the same tables and charts, and fixing the formatting. That part repeats every month and follows rules, which makes it work for a tool.
The analysis, the story behind the numbers and the decisions stay with your people.
What changed on a recurring report
A recurring report took two days of pulling, pasting and formatting each time it came due. We rebuilt it from the same source files. It now takes five minutes and comes out ready for a person to read.
See all three results in the proof on our homepage.
How it works
AI operates, code calculates, people approve.
- Code assembles the numbers. It pulls from the exports, joins them, does the math and builds the tables, the same way every month.
- Every run checks itself. It checks its inputs and its totals. If a file is missing or a total does not match, it stops and says why.
- AI drafts, people edit. Where words help, AI drafts a first pass of the commentary from the finished numbers, for a person to edit.
- A person signs off before the package goes to the board.
When only one person knows how the reports work
Plenty of month-end reports live in one person's spreadsheet and one person's head. When that person is out, the report is late or wrong. Building the tool fixes this along the way: mapping the work writes down every source, step and exception, and the result is documented so your team, or anyone else, can run and maintain it.
What it takes from your team
- About an hour with the person who builds the package today.
- The exports and spreadsheets they already use. No IT project and no new system to learn.
- Past packages to check against.
- A person to sign off each month.
When this is not the answer
- The package changes shape every month. Settle the format first.
- The numbers are wrong at the source. Fix the source; a faster report of wrong numbers helps nobody.
- Your reporting software already produces it. Use it.
Questions people ask next
Can it work with Excel?
Yes. Our report tools run on the client's own spreadsheets and exports, so your team keeps working in the files they know.
How do we know the numbers are right?
The AI never does the math; ordinary code does. Every run checks its inputs and results, stops before it guesses, and a person signs off. Before it replaces the old way, it is checked against past reports line by line.
Do we need a BI tool or a data warehouse first?
No. It is built on the files your team already exports. No IT project and no new system to learn.
What happens when a source file changes?
The run checks its inputs. If a file changes shape, it stops and says what changed instead of passing a bad number along. We fix the cause and check again.
How long until it is running?
First tools are typically live within a month, and each process after that goes faster.
More answers
- How do companies automate a monthly commission run? Rules in code, every result matched to past payouts, a person approving. Four days became about two hours.
- Can AI automate reporting if our ERP has no usable API? Yes. If your team can export a report, a tool can be built on those exports, with no admin access.
- How long does it take to get an AI tool into daily use? Weeks, not quarters, for one well-chosen process. First tools are typically live within a month.
- All answers Every question we have answered so far, in one place.
In the field guide
Your next step
You have the answer. Now ask about your business.
Thirty minutes. You bring one process, and we tell you plainly whether AI is worth doing there and where we would start.
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About Summit Client Services. Summit Client Services is your outsourced AI department: we set the strategy, build the tools into how you already run, train your people and keep it all working, month to month. Founded in 2026 by Bruno Guberinich and Peter Davis III. Not affiliated with any other company named Summit Client Services.