FP&A
The AI-first platform for modern finance. Automate budgeting, forecast with confidence, and connect people to profits in one unified system.
Unit4 Financial Planning & Analysis
AI, Built Into Unit4 FP&A. Not Bolted On.
Ava gives your finance team instant, conversational support in Microsoft Teams. AI-powered data storytelling turns planning data into decisions your whole organization can act on.
Trusted by finance teams who need AI they can defend in the boardroom
Two Ways AI Works Inside Unit4 FP&A Today
Unit4 FP&A doesn't treat AI as a separate add-on or a chatbot bolted onto the login screen. It's embedded directly into the tools finance teams already use: Microsoft Teams for support and collaboration, and the reporting layer for how performance gets explained.
Two capabilities show what that looks like: Ava for FP&A, a Teams-native AI assistant, available now; and AI-powered data visualization and storytelling, which turns raw planning data and user commentary into clear, decision-ready narrative.
AI that meets finance where it already works
Get answers in plain language
Stop digging through documentation. Your team asks Ava questions in natural language and gets accurate, relevant guidance pulled directly from Unit4 FP&A help resources. Ava understands context, so answers are specific to what the user is working on right now, whether that's a budget workflow, a variance report, or a planning model. No support ticket, no waiting.
Key Features:
- Conversational AI purpose-built for FP&A, not a generic chatbot
- Answers drawn from Unit4 FP&A's domain-specific knowledge base
- Context-sensitive responses tailored to the current task
- Instant guidance without support tickets or documentation searches
Work without switching apps
Ava is embedded natively in Microsoft Teams, where your finance team already spends its day. There's no new application to learn and no separate portal to log into. Coordinate on workflows, share context, and move approvals forward without leaving the conversation. For existing Unit4 customers, there's no additional configuration or implementation effort required.
Key Features:
- Native Microsoft Teams integration, no context switching
- Collaboration around tasks and approvals in the flow of work
- No new application, portal, or training programme
- Zero additional configuration for existing Unit4 customers
Let Ava surface what matters
Ava doesn't only respond to questions. It proactively surfaces recommendations and personalized insights, helping your team spot trends and flag anomalies before they become month-end surprises. Repetitive administrative work gets handled intelligently, which frees analyst capacity for the strategic FP&A work the function actually exists to deliver.
Key Features:
- Proactive recommendations and personalized insights
- Trend identification and anomaly flagging
- Intelligent automation of repetitive administrative tasks
- Analyst time redirected from production to decision support
Turn comments into narratives
Unit4's AI Data Storytelling capability aggregates comments, assumptions, and planned actions from FP&A users, then summarizes them into a formatted narrative report in as little as ten seconds. Non-technical stakeholders spot trends immediately without sifting through data from multiple locations. Available today through Unit4 Professional Services configuration, with roadmap delivery planned.
Key Features:
- Automated collection and aggregation of user comments and assumptions
- GenAI summarization into a polished, formatted narrative report
- Answers what over- or under-performed, why, and what's projected next
- Available via Unit4 Professional Services configuration, on the product roadmap
Purpose-Built for Finance
Not a generic chatbot. Ava draws on Unit4 FP&A's domain-specific knowledge base to answer finance questions.
Live in Minutes
Search "Unit4 Ava" in the Teams App Store, add the app, log in. No implementation project required.
Faster Onboarding
Context-sensitive guidance accelerates time-to-competence for new FP&A users, reducing ramp-up time.
30% Less Time on Task
Unit4's AI targets over 30% reduction in time-on-task, more than 50% fewer errors, and 60% faster resolution.
Governed by Design
GDPR and EU AI Act aligned, with human oversight throughout. Customer data never trains third-party models.
Continuously Evolving
Regular planned updates deliver new AI capabilities automatically, with no additional implementation effort.
The Unit4 platform advantage
Purpose-Built for Finance
ERPx and FP&A on a single architecture. AI accesses data across the entire platform and understands detailed transactional and behavioural patterns. Intelligence flows across the full planning lifecycle.
People-Centric
Designed for service-centric, people-intensive organisations. Planning is inherently contextual, shaped by each organisation’s structure, strategy, and operating model. AI does not remove this variability; it amplifies it.
AI Embedded, Not Bolted On
AI is not something that sits alongside FP&A software. It is embedded across the platform: from data capture through modelling and forecasting to guided decision-making. Users shift from operating the system to working with it.
Seamlessly connects with your tech ecosystem
Frequently asked questions
What is Unit4 Ava for FP&A?
Ava is Unit4's AI-powered virtual assistant, embedded natively in Microsoft Teams. For FP&A teams it delivers real-time, context-sensitive help drawn from Unit4 FP&A's knowledge base, alongside task support, collaboration around approvals, and proactive recommendations.
Users ask questions in plain language and receive accurate, relevant answers immediately, without documentation searches or support tickets.
How is Ava different from a general-purpose AI chatbot?
Ava is purpose-built for finance, drawing on Unit4 FP&A's domain-specific knowledge base rather than the open internet. It understands the context of what a user is working on, so guidance is specific to that budget workflow, variance report, or planning model.
It's also embedded where finance already works. General-purpose tools require context switching and have no understanding of your FP&A environment.
How long does it take to get started?
For existing Unit4 customers, no additional configuration or implementation effort is required. Search "Unit4 Ava" in the Microsoft Teams App Store, add the app, log in, and start working.
There's no new application to learn and no separate portal, which is why adoption typically happens in days rather than through a change programme.
How does Unit4 handle AI governance and data privacy?
Unit4 adheres to GDPR and the EU AI Act, maintains human oversight so outputs can be monitored, evaluated, and overridden, and documents model logic and data sources for transparency.
Unit4 uses telemetry data to improve system performance but does not use customer data to train third-party models, and never enters confidential or personal data into publicly searchable AI tools.
What is AI Data Storytelling and is it available today?
AI Data Storytelling aggregates comments, assumptions, and planned actions from FP&A users, then uses GenAI to summarize them into a formatted narrative report in as little as ten seconds. It answers which areas over- or under-performed, what drove those results, and what's projected for the rest of the year.
This is not currently a standard out-of-the-box feature. It is on the development roadmap and can be configured today through Unit4 Professional Services.
Enterprise-grade security built for financial data
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People
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Ready to give your finance team an AI colleague?
See how Ava brings contextual guidance, task support, and proactive insight into Microsoft Teams. Book a demo and we'll show you AI built for finance.