As event professionals, we're frequently tasked with detailed budgeting, forecasting, and complex financial reporting — often without a dedicated CFO. Together with DenkProducties, we integrated Generative AI into their financial workflows, streamlining budget comparisons and enhancing forecasting accuracy. Now, financial reporting before and after events is faster, clearer, and significantly less stressful.
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Leverage Generative AI to make financial reporting before and after events easier.
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Use-Cases Discovered
Inspired Event Professionals
/ The challenge.
Event professionals frequently find themselves managing complex financial responsibilities — creating detailed budgets, performing analyses, and executing financial reporting that, in larger organizations, are typically overseen by a CFO. DenkProducties faced precisely this challenge, especially when reconciling event budgets with their official financial records.
For events such as "MBA in één dag," the team used custom-designed Google Spreadsheet templates to meticulously track income (tickets) and expenses (suppliers), often processing over a thousand transactions per event. However, months after the event concluded, discrepancies would occasionally surface. The accountant would flag differences between DenkProducties’ internal budget sheets and official accounting data in AFAS, raising questions such as:
“Your accounting in AFAS doesn't exactly match the reported costs in your budget—where is this discrepancy coming from?"
Additionally, DenkProducties aimed to provide stakeholders with reliable quarterly financial forecasts, yet faced challenges ensuring sensitive financial data remained accessible only to appropriate individuals.
/ The solution.
DenkProducties turned to Generative AI, specifically leveraging ChatGPT’s advanced o1-model, designed to thoroughly reason through complex problems rather than offering quick but incomplete solutions. The result? More accurate, CFO-level analyses delivered rapidly, enabling the DenkProducties team to pinpoint and resolve financial discrepancies quickly and precisely.
Use-case 1: Comparing Event Budgets
By integrating ChatGPT into their workflow, DenkProducties could effortlessly identify discrepancies between budget sheets and official accounting records. The o1-model analyzed screenshots of different budget versions, accurately pinpointing differences in as little as 14 seconds, despite not yet supporting direct file analysis. This significantly accelerated the reconciliation process and freed up valuable time previously spent on manual reviews.
Use-case 2: Building a Forecasting Dashboard
To proactively address financial forecasting, DenkProducties aimed to build an accessible yet secure financial forecasting dashboard. However, they encountered two key challenges:
- Accessibility: The dashboard needed to be easily shareable with internal and external stakeholders.
- Data Security: Sensitive financial details within the underlying spreadsheets had to remain protected from general viewing.
Using ChatGPT’s o1-model, DenkProducties quickly identified and implemented a practical solution using Google Spreadsheets' IMPORTRANGE function. ChatGPT didn't just offer generic advice — it generated an exact, custom-tailored formula ready for immediate use, enabling DenkProducties to securely share forecast data without exposing confidential details. Furthermore, when preparing the dashboard for subsequent years, ChatGPT provided additional tips, such as using the "Search + Replace" feature to update formulas in bulk, turning what would typically be hours of tedious manual work into mere minutes.
Key Takeaway
DenkProducties' journey illustrates that Generative AI offers far more than marketing value — it significantly enhances financial reporting and management capabilities. By clearly defining challenges and leveraging AI strategically, event professionals can elevate their financial oversight to CFO-level efficiency and accuracy, transforming cumbersome financial tasks into streamlined, manageable workflows.
With Generative AI now an integral part of their operations, EventCo has positioned itself as a leader in the event management industry. Their team is no longer bogged down by repetitive tasks and can focus on delivering innovative, high-quality experiences.
