How many annoying info requests from other departments did your team get last week?

Questions that you have answered like 24 times already. The same questions, 2 or 3 times a month.

“How are we running against budget?”

"What happens if we add two more headcount in Q2?"

“When are those big clients due to pay? How’s cashflow?”

I remember doing meetings with CEOs and heads of other departments and always having to answer these questions. Always having to go back with my team and change Excel files. And by the time we got the answer back, they had three more questions waiting.

This is the problem. You've accidentally trained your business partners that finance is a service desk. They come to you for every calculation, not because they cannot find the info. But, because it’s easier to come to you.

But what if they could answer their own questions?

Today I'm going to show you how to build self-service scenario tools in about 5 minutes.

This means, your business partners get instant answers - and - your team gets their time back.

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The Request Queue Trap

Every scenario request follows the same pattern.

Your business partner asks a question. Then, finance adds it to the queue. Your analyst updates the model. The results go back, but then a follow-up question arrives. And you do the whole thing again.

This is calculator work, not strategic finance work.

And the hidden cost goes beyond the time spent on requests.

Because, while your team is running scenarios for routine questions, they're missing the work that requires real financial expertise.

Plus, the delays frustrate your business partners. They start making decisions without finance input because "finance takes too long to get back to me."

And this is the biggest problem. You lose influence while being overwhelmed with requests at the same time!

So, what is the alternative?

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The Self-Service Model

Not long ago, Christian Martinez (one of our AI Finance Club Experts) showed me something that changed how I think about this problem.

Today it's easier than ever to use applications such as ChatGPT or Gemini to code your own apps.

This means finance teams don't need to go into the market and find another tool.

They can code themselves a customized version of those apps in 5 minutes.

Let me explain what this means for you.

Canvas (available in both ChatGPT and Gemini) lets you build self-service scenario tools in minutes. This means, your business partners get interactive apps where they adjust inputs themselves and see results instantly, without needing to message finance at all.

It's a huge timesaver but also a very good tool for business partners because they can adjust the financial model fast (either in a meeting or when sending to a client).

They can play around with the inputs and see the impact live.

So instead of running scenarios for people, you give them the tools to run scenarios themselves.

This changes the finance and business partner relationship. You become an enabler instead of a bottleneck.

Your team's capacity expands because one self-service tool eliminates dozens of monthly requests.

Now let me show you exactly how to build one.

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How to Build Your First Self-Service Scenario Tool

Here are the exact steps you can use right now to create something like this:

Step 1: Identify Your Top Requests

Review the last month of scenario requests from business partners. What questions come up repeatedly? Pricing scenarios? Headcount planning? Marketing ROI?

Pick the most frequent request type to build first.

But, make sure it’s simple (you can add complexity later).

Step 2: Open Canvas

In ChatGPT (Business or Enterprise), go to the plus sign and then go to Canvas. You will see that the option appears for you.

In Gemini, you can also have the Canvas feature enabled. Go to Tools and then click on Canvas.

Both work well. Pick whichever tool you already use (providing it's secure).

Step 3: Describe What You Want

Here's the kind of prompt that works well.

Christian showed me an example for a toys manufacturing company. He told ChatGPT to build a mini web application for scenario analysis with context about the company.

In addition to the prompt, you can specify how it should visualize the UI with:

Lastly, make sure that you provide the end goal of this mini app:

The process takes at least 5 minutes based on the complexity.

But once it’s done, you can hit the preview to show the app.

Then share with your colleagues by clicking the link.

Christian’s scenario had inputs on the left where teams can add different numbers for production cost, selling price, and sales volumes. On the right side it displays a dashboard with the financial summary.

Plus, if you have certain particularities in your company or industry, you just need to tell ChatGPT or Gemini and it will create according to your specifications.

Step 4: Validate and Customize

One of the benefits of this approach is that everything is code, so you can go in and modify or audit every calculation that is happening.

If you find a formula you don't agree with, you can just tell it to modify the code to the formula that you need.

And if you want to customize the look, you can ask it to change the color to adapt it to your company, or add your company logo.

Some teams might say this is too complex for them. But they just need to copy the code into a new ChatGPT window and tell it to explain the code in normal words. With that they can learn what's happening behind the scenes and modify it as well.

Step 5: Roll Out to Your Business Partners

Share the tool with one or two power users first, and walk them through it once.

Get their feedback and refine the tool if needed. Then deploy to the full stakeholder group.

You can send a quick Loom video showing how to use it, and make yourself available for questions the first week.

The tool is fully customizable and fully auditable.

Plus, you can control which variables business partners can adjust and which calculations remain locked. They can't accidentally break the model because they can only adjust the inputs you've allowed them to access.

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Beyond Scenario Analysis

Once you get comfortable with this, there's more you can do.

You can create infographics from your financials.

Let's say you have a data set with all of your financial data and you want to turn that into an infographic or visual analysis of your P&L information. You can add the data set in Excel format, activate Canvas, and tell it to analyze your data.

It creates a mini dashboard for a CFO where everything is customizable. You can save it as a PDF and send this analysis every month to your managing directors, CFOs, or sales teams.

Gemini also just released the ability to turn these into Google Slides.

Christian created a presentation explaining CAPEx and OpEx for non-finance professionals with just a simple prompt. Gemini generated 13 slides that you can download as a PDF or export to Google Slides and customize from there.

This is why I do what I do.

I always get super excited seeing real life use cases you can start to use right now.

Here’s an example from my AI Finance Club:

Is there anything stopping you doing this right now?

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The One Thing to Remember

Every scenario request that lands in your inbox is a choice.

You can add it to the queue, update the model, send it back, and wait for the follow-up (24 times).

Or, you can build a tool that answers the question forever.

One self-service app takes five minutes to build and can eliminate dozens of requests every month.

Your business partners will get faster answers, your team will get their time back, and you will get to focus on work that moves the business forward.

Stop being the calculator. Start being the strategist.

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Best,

Your AI Finance Expert,

Nicolas

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P.S - Will you build one of these tools for your team? Hit reply and tell me how it went. I read every reply.

P.P.S - I recorded a full walkthrough with Christian showing exactly how to build these tools step by step. If you want to check it out or get started with vibe coding, watch my full video here.

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