Google Bard — Your Finance and FP&A Ultimate Guide
As many of you know, I started to do this AI Tools for Finance Guide.
And today, I will review Google Bard for Finance.
Just a reminder first, how does this guide work?
In the coming weeks, I’ll be posting a series of guides, each dedicated to a specific tool, and I’ll also include an extra bonus guide that you won’t want to miss.
But that’s not all!
I’ll go a step further and demonstrate seven finance use cases for each of these tools.
By the end of this journey, you’ll have access to a PDF guide where I summarize the pros and cons of each tool and rate their performance in each of the tasks.
AI Tools We Will Explore:
- Bard
- Claude
- Chat GPT
- Chat GPT+
- Perplexity
- Microsoft Copilot
So let’s start with Google Bard.
How to use Google Bard for Finance?
Finance and FP&A professionals can use Bard to automate many of the tasks involved in their jobs, such as:
- Generating financial reports: Bard can generate a variety of financial reports, such as profit and loss statements, balance sheets, and cash flow statements. This can free up FP&A professionals to focus on more complex tasks, such as analyzing financial data and making recommendations to improve financial performance.
- Creating budgets: Bard can help FP&A professionals create budgets by providing historical data, analyzing trends, and making recommendations for future spending.
- Forecasting future financial performance: Bard can use historical data, current trends, and economic forecasts to forecast future financial performance. This can help FP&A professionals make informed decisions about resource allocation and investment.
- Identifying risks and opportunities: Bard can help FP&A professionals identify risks and opportunities by analyzing financial data and identifying trends. This can help FP&A professionals develop strategies to mitigate risks and capitalize on opportunities.
Ok, this sounds cool, but let’s rewind.
What is Google Bard?
Bard is a large language model (LLM) created by Google AI. LLMs are a type of artificial intelligence that are trained on massive amounts of text data. This training allows them to generate text, translate languages, write different kinds of creative content, and answer your questions in an informative way.
I asked Bard to introduce itself for us!
You can access Bard here: https://bard.google.com/
What are Google Bard’s key capabilities for Finance?
Again, we asked the AI tool for this.
This was the answer:
“1. Answering your questions in a comprehensive and informative way: I can access and process information from a variety of sources, including Google Search, Wikipedia, and other websites. I can then use this information to answer your questions in a comprehensive and informative way, even if they are open ended, challenging, or strange.
2. Generating different creative text formats: I can generate different creative text formats, such as poems, code, scripts, musical pieces, email, letters, etc. I will try my best to fulfill all your requirements.
3. Following your instructions and completing your requests thoughtfully: I will try my best to follow your instructions and complete your requests thoughtfully. I will use my knowledge to answer your questions in a comprehensive and informative way, even if they are open ended, challenging, or strange.
4. Translating languages: I can translate between over 26 languages. This means that I can help you communicate with people from all over the world.
5. Writing different kinds of creative content: I can write different kinds of creative content, such as blog posts, short stories, and poems. I can also help you with creative writing tasks, such as brainstorming ideas and coming up with new content.
6. Summarizing factual topics: I can summarize factual topics in a concise and informative way. This can help you quickly understand a topic without having to read a lot of text.
7. Answering your questions in a way that is consistent with search results: I will try my best to answer your questions in a way that is consistent with search results. This means that I will provide you with the most accurate and up-to-date information that I can find.”
Now, how to start using Bard for Finance.
25 Google Bard Prompts for Finance
General prompts:
- Summarize the key financial performance metrics for [company name] in the past year.
- Analyse the financial trends for [industry] over the past five years.
- Identify the key risks and opportunities facing [company name] in the current market environment.
- Develop a financial forecast for [company name] for the next three years.
- Evaluate the effectiveness of [company name]’s current capital structure.
- Prepare a presentation on the financial implications of [new business initiative] for [company name].
- Develop a budget for [new department] at [company name].
- Negotiate a new loan deal for [company name].
- Prepare a report on the financial performance of [company name]’s subsidiaries.
- Analyse the impact of [new accounting standard] on [company name]’s financial statements.
Prompts for specific tasks:
- Generate a profit and loss statement for [company name] for the past year.
- Create a balance sheet for [company name] as of [date].
- Prepare a cash flow statement for [company name] for the past quarter.
- Develop a variance analysis for [company name]’s expenses for the past year.
- Calculate the debt-to-equity ratio for [company name].
- Analyse the working capital of [company name].
- Evaluate the return on investment of [new capital project].
- Develop a sensitivity analysis for [new business initiative].
- Prepare a financial model for [company name].
- Consolidate the financial statements of [company name]’s subsidiaries.
Prompts for research and learning:
- Research the latest trends in financial reporting.
- I want to learn about the different methods of financial analysis. Teach me using Socratic method
- Summarise the financial statements of [company name]’s competitors and teach me key insights.
- Show me 5 articles about the current economic environment.
- Recommend me an online course on Python programming for financial analysis.
Now, I have tried these 7 Finance task with Bard ( and other AI tools for Finance).
Here is my review.
Can Google Bard Create a Discounted Cash Flow Model (DCF)?
Google Bard is indeed capable of creating a Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) model. One of its notable features is the ability to export the DCF model to Google Sheets, making it accessible and editable in a familiar spreadsheet format.
However, there are some important considerations when working with Google Bard for DCF modeling:
- Export to Google Sheets: You can export the DCF model to Google Sheets. This is advantageous because Google Sheets provides a user-friendly interface for data manipulation and further analysis.
- Limited Visibility of Calculations: When you view the DCF model in Google Sheets, you may not see the intricate calculations themselves. Instead, you’ll typically encounter static, hardcoded data. This means that while the model’s results are visible, the step-by-step calculations behind those results might not be readily apparent.
- Follow-up Questions: Despite the lack of visibility into calculations, Google Bard allows you to ask follow-up questions and seek clarification on the model. This can be invaluable for understanding how the model arrived at its results or for making adjustments.
- Explaining the Model: Google Bard can also explain the DCF model to you, helping you comprehend the underlying assumptions, methodologies, and variables used in the calculation. This explanation can facilitate a deeper understanding of the model’s insights.
- Drafts and Options: Another advantage of using Google Bard is the ability to explore different options and scenarios as drafts. This feature enables you to assess various scenarios and sensitivities, helping you make informed decisions.
Can Google Bard help you gain Finance Skills?
Google Bard can be a valuable tool to help you gain finance skills, but the extent to which it can assist you depends on the specificity of your queries and the quality of the prompts you provide.
Here are some key points to consider:
- Specificity of Queries: To make the most of Google Bard for acquiring finance skills, it’s beneficial to frame your queries with as much detail as possible. For example, you can ask specific questions about financial concepts, investment strategies, or market analysis. The more precise your questions, the more tailored and relevant the responses will be.
- YouTube Data Integration: One of the notable advantages of Google Bard is its integration with YouTube data. You can leverage this feature to request summaries of finance-related videos. This can be particularly useful for learning from educational content, expert opinions, or tutorials available on YouTube.
Remember, finance is a vast field that is constantly evolving.
You can use Google Bard to stay up-to-date with the latest trends, news, and insights in finance by asking for information on recent developments and emerging topics.
Can Google Bard Analyze an Excel with Sales data of 5 departments in 5 tabs?
- You cannot directly upload an Excel file to be analyzed.
- It is possible to copy-paste data but it wouldn’t work with 5 tabs directly and also it won’t work with large datasets
Can Google Bard Help you build a Power BI dashboard?
Remarks
- Again, you cannot directly upload a dataset in csv or xlsx but if you continue with the exercise of the previous page, Bard can suggest you data visualizations (bad news is that your full dataset won’t be available for analysis so visuals might be too simple)
- Similar to other AI tools, it gives you Python code to create dashboards / data visualizations
Can Google Bard Summarize a business book?
Remarks
- Bard can handle this task really well!
- You can ask follow up questions and start to be very specific
Can Google Bard Forecast Costs of a SaaS company?
Google Bard faces limitations when it comes to handling this particular task, primarily due to its inability to directly accept and process datasets in common formats like CSV or XLSX.
Nevertheless, there are alternative methods you can employ to accomplish your goals effectively.
One viable approach is to leverage the platform’s capability to accept data uploads, similar to how you’ve done with previous tasks.
While it may not be as straightforward as uploading CSV or XLSX files, you can still provide your data to Google Bard through different means, such as copying and pasting the data directly into the interface, or perhaps utilizing a data import feature designed specifically for this purpose.
Another option at your disposal is to seek assistance in the form of Python code. This approach allows you to work with your real data seamlessly.
By writing custom Python scripts or utilizing pre-existing libraries and frameworks, you can effectively transform your CSV or XLSX data into a format compatible with Google Bard. This not only circumvents the platform’s limitations but also grants you more control over the data preparation process, making it tailored to your specific needs.
Can Google Bard Create a net present value model (NPV)?
Google Bard can assist you in creating a Net Present Value (NPV) model.
Here’s a step-by-step approach to effectively utilize Google Bard for NPV modeling:
- Ask for Required Inputs: Begin by asking Google Bard which inputs it needs for an NPV calculation. This step is crucial as it helps you gather all the necessary information for your specific project or investment. Inputs typically include initial investment, expected cash flows, discount rate, and the time horizon.
- Provide Inputs: Once you have a clear understanding of the required inputs, proceed to provide these values to Google Bard. Input the initial investment amount, the expected cash flows over time, the discount rate (or rate of return), and the time period for which you want to calculate the NPV. Ensure that you input accurate and relevant data to get meaningful results.
- Ask Additional Questions: After inputting the necessary data, you can ask Google Bard additional questions to fine-tune your NPV analysis. For instance, you can inquire about the interpretation of the NPV result, sensitivity analysis, or scenarios with different cash flow projections or discount rates.
- Export to Google Sheets: Google Bard offers the capability to export your NPV analysis to Google Sheets. This is advantageous as it allows you to work with the data in a spreadsheet environment, enabling further customization, visualization, and sharing with others.
- Customize Visualizations: To enhance your NPV analysis, you can customize visualizations within Google Sheets. Create charts, graphs, or tables to represent your NPV results visually, making it easier to communicate your findings and insights.
Google Bard Review, done!
Now, just a reminder.
This was just this tool’s guide but I am creating a full guide of 7 ai tools for finance.
In the next few weeks, I will post guides for each of these tools and I’ll attempt the 7 finance use cases on each of them.
By the end, you will have a full guide where i summarise pros and cons of each tool and rate them in each of the tasks!
So come back tomorrow for the next AI tool or click on my profile to subscribe to my stories!
And finally…
How to Learn More about Google Bard for Finance?
Here I leave you with 3 more articles.
Hope you like them!
How to use Google Bard for Finance? | by Christian Martinez Founder of The Financial Fox | Medium