What challenges did EY face before AI implementation?

Finance processes were labor-intensive and semi-manual, with long processing times and inconsistent workflows across regions. EY needed to improve general ledger posting speed, increase payment clearing and matching accuracy, and automate reconciliation and confirmations.

What was the impact of the AI solution?

General ledger lead times were reduced by 95%. Automatically matched and cleared payments increased from 30% to 80%, while only 5% of payments still required manual processing. Operational costs were reduced by over 37%, and rebookings were reduced by 85%. PowerPost was used by more than 2,000 EY employees, and PowerSync was deployed globally in 2.5 months to 500 users.

Source

MicrosoftProductionEvidence: Medium65/100

EY Global Finance: AI-driven agents in Copilot Studio with Power Platform for SAP-powered journal posting and payment clearing

Use case typeIntelligent document processingUpdated Jun 13, 2026

EY Global Finance modernized labor-intensive finance workflows across journal posting, payment clearing, and account reconciliation. The implementation used Microsoft Power Platform, Dataverse, AI Builder, and Copilot Studio to integrate directly with EY's SAP ERP environment and automate semi-manual processes across regions.

Organization: EY
Industry: Professional Services
Location: United Kingdom
Published: May 2026

Reported outcomes

Time: −95%

Time & speed

Payment clearing annual hours saved: Approximately 120,000 hours saved annuallyAutomatically matched and cleared payments: 30% to 80%Cost: More than 37% lowerRebookings: More than 85% lower

Catalog median for time & speed deployments: −50% across 295 reported metrics. Compare benchmarks →

Planned next steps

The source says the organization aims to achieve Payment clearing annual hours projected: Approximately 230,000 hours projected annually.

Why do we believe this?Outcome claims, sources, and evidence checks

Normalized claim

Time: 95% decrease

Microsoft Customer StoriesMay 11, 2026Customer storyInferred claimMedium evidence strength

General ledger lead times were reduced by 95%.

Normalized claim

Payment clearing annual hours saved: 120,000 hours saved annually decrease

Microsoft Customer StoriesMay 11, 2026Customer storyExplicit claimMedium evidence strength

EY saved 120,000 hours per annum on payment clearing processes, with expected savings of about 230,000 hours per annum after global rollout.

Correction recorded Jul 26, 2026 · Previously: 120 hours decrease · Restored the thousands separator and represented the reported annual saving.

Normalized claim

Payment clearing annual hours projected: 230,000 hours projected annually decrease

Microsoft Customer StoriesMay 11, 2026Customer storyExplicit claimMedium evidence strength

EY saved 120,000 hours per annum on payment clearing processes, with expected savings of about 230,000 hours per annum after global rollout.

Correction recorded Jul 26, 2026 · Previously: 230 hours decrease · Restored the projected annual 230,000-hour saving and marked it as projected.

Normalized claim

Automatically matched and cleared payments: 30-80% increase

Microsoft Customer StoriesMay 11, 2026Customer storyExplicit claimMedium evidence strength

Automatically matched and cleared payments increased from 30% to 80%, while only 5% of payments still required manual processing.

Correction recorded Jul 26, 2026 · Previously: % increase · Stored the 30% to 80% rate transition as a 50 percentage-point increase.

Normalized claim

Cost: 37% decrease

Microsoft Customer StoriesMay 11, 2026Customer storyInferred claimMedium evidence strength

Operational costs were reduced by over 37%, and rebookings were reduced by 85%.

Normalized claim

Rebookings: 85% decrease

Microsoft Customer StoriesMay 11, 2026Customer storyExplicit claimMedium evidence strength

Operational costs were reduced by over 37%, and rebookings were reduced by 85%.

Correction recorded Jul 26, 2026 · Previously: 85% decrease · Moved the 85% reduction from cost to rebookings.

Why do we believe this deployment?Customer identity, provider attribution, maturity, and source checks

Customer: EY
Provider: Microsoft
Maturity: Production
Linked source: Microsoft Customer Stories

Operational costs were reduced by over 37%, and rebookings were reduced by 85%

Customer identity supportedSource describes one deploymentMaturity supported

Primary read

Use case focus

Showing 3 of 5

1Intelligent process automation
2Document and payment information extraction
3Accounts receivable automation

EY built PowerPost with Power Apps for journal posting into SAP, supported by Power Automate flows and Dataverse for approvals and document handling.
The team added an AI-driven agent in Copilot Studio to guide users through posting and to simplify bulk uploads.
EY created PowerMatch to match and clear incoming payments using Power Automate and AI Builder to extract information from payment notifications and remittance advices.
EY also built PowerSync to automate account reconciliation and confirmation, including importing open AR and AP from SAP, enabling chat-based collaboration, and sending confirmations to auditors.

Technologies

Microsoft Power Platform Power Apps Power Automate Dataverse Copilot Studio AI Builder SAP Microsoft 365 Copilot

General ledger lead times were reduced by 95%.
Automatically matched and cleared payments increased from 30% to 80%, while only 5% of payments still required manual processing.
Operational costs were reduced by over 37%, and rebookings were reduced by 85%.
PowerPost was used by more than 2,000 EY employees, and PowerSync was deployed globally in 2.5 months to 500 users.

Architecture

PowerPost, PowerMatch, and PowerSync were built on Microsoft Power Platform and integrated with EY's on-premises SAP ERP using pre-built SAP connectors. The solutions used Power Apps, Power Automate, Dataverse, Copilot Studio, and AI Builder to support journal posting, payment clearing, reconciliation, approvals, chat, and automated confirmations.

Sources & evidence1

Evidence: Medium65/100Evidence strength