Use built-in skills with Copilot in Excel

Copilot in Excel includes built-in skills for workbook formatting, financial modeling, investment analysis, and other common tasks. This article describes skills created and managed by Microsoft and other built-in skills.

Skills created by Microsoft

Microsoft created and manages the brandkit, chart-design, and theme-design skills. Use brandkit to follow brand guidelines, chart-design to create or edit charts, and theme-design to apply Excel themes.

brandkit

Use brandkit to carry your brand guidelines throughout a workbook. This skill applies styles such as color palettes, typography, and header appearance to charts, tables, and other elements in your workbooks. It can reference the brand kit created by your brand manager to apply guidelines and insert logos. To invoke this skill, use @brandkit in your prompt to Copilot. For more information about setting up a brand kit for Copilot, see Create and manage official Brand kits in the Microsoft Copilot app.

The brandkit skill is enabled by default in Copilot in Excel. It's located in the Formatting folder in the Manage skills dialog. To learn more about managing skills, see Manage skills.

chart-design

Use chart-design to create or edit charts. If you have raw data in Excel, use chart-design to create new charts with your data. If you have existing charts in Excel, chart-design can help improve them by adding chart and axis titles, legends, data labels, and other elements. This skill also recommends new chart types based on your data. To invoke this skill, use @chart-design in your prompt to Copilot.

The chart-design skill is disabled by default. It's located in the Visualization folder in the Manage skills dialog. To learn more about managing skills, see Manage skills.

theme-design

Use theme-design to apply an Excel theme throughout a workbook. theme-design implements best practices from the Excel design team. This skill reads your workbook structure and content to make theme decisions. It styles charts, tables, and cells, including borders, color hierarchy, and color contrast. To invoke this skill, use @theme-design in your prompt to Copilot.

The theme-design skill is automatically enabled in Copilot in Excel. It's located in the Formatting folder in the Manage skills dialog. To learn more about managing skills, see Manage skills.

Other built-in skills

Skill	Description
3-statements	Completes an existing three-statement financial model template with income statement, balance sheet, and cash flow data.
buyer-list	Creates and organizes a list of potential acquirers for a sell-side merger and acquisition process. Evaluates strategic buyers and financial sponsors based on strategic rationale, financial capacity, and merger and acquisition activity.
catalyst-calendar	Creates and maintains a calendar of market events, such as earnings, conferences, product launches, regulatory decisions, and macroeconomic events, that might affect covered positions.
check-model	Debugs and audits financial models for circular references, broken formulas, hardcoded overrides, balance sheet imbalances, cash flow mismatches, and logic gaps. Helps review models that don't balance, produce unexpected results, or need validation before distribution.
comps-analysis	Creates comparable-company analyses with operating metrics, valuation multiples, and statistical benchmarks for valuation, peer comparison, and other investment workflows.
datapack-builder	Converts financial information from confidential information memorandums, offering memorandums, and regulatory filings into standardized, formatted Excel data packs for due diligence and investment committee reviews.
dd-checklist	Creates due diligence checklists based on a target company's sector, deal type, complexity, and known concerns. Tracks major workstreams, requests, outstanding items, status, and potential risks.
dd-meeting-prep	Prepares targeted questions, relevant benchmarks, and potential risks for due diligence meetings, such as management presentations, expert calls, customer reference calls, and advisor sessions.
deal-sourcing	Identifies potential private equity investments based on criteria such as sector, company size, growth, geography, and ownership. Creates a target list, checks for existing relationships, and drafts personalized founder outreach.
deal-tracker	Tracks transactions, progress, milestones, and action items throughout an investment banking deal process.
idea-generation	Develops potential investment ideas from market, company, or thematic research and organizes them into a shortlist for further investigation.
lbo-model	Completes leveraged buyout model templates with operating, financing, and exit assumptions. Adds formulas, validates calculations, applies professional formatting, and evaluates potential investment returns.
merger-model	Creates accretion and dilution analyses for mergers and acquisitions, including pro forma earnings per share, synergy sensitivities, and purchase price allocation.
model-update	Updates financial models with new company results, management guidance, macroeconomic changes, or revised assumptions. Revises estimates, recalculates valuations, and identifies material changes.
portfolio-monitoring	Compares a private equity portfolio company's financial results and key performance indicators with its plan to identify variances and potential risks.
portfolio-rebalance	Analyzes portfolio allocation drift and recommends trades across accounts while considering tax implications, transaction costs, and wash-sale rules.
returns-analysis	Models private equity investment returns and creates sensitivity analyses for internal rate of return and multiple on invested capital across entry multiple, leverage, exit multiple, and growth assumptions.
tax-loss-harvesting	Identifies and prioritizes unrealized losses in taxable accounts, recommends replacement securities, and tracks wash-sale windows.
thesis-tracker	Tracks an investment thesis as new company results, market events, and research become available, and evaluates whether the latest evidence supports it.
unit-economics	Evaluates revenue quality and customer economics for private equity targets, especially software, subscription, and recurring-revenue businesses. Analyzes annual recurring revenue cohorts, customer lifetime value compared with acquisition cost, retention, payback periods, and margins.

Learn more

• Use skills with Copilot in Excel to complete repeatable tasks
• Personalize Copilot in Excel
• Create guidelines for a workbook with Copilot in Excel rules