Finance Lab Session 10 - Power BI, Fabric planning and AI

Hosted by Lance Rubin and Khaled Chowdry

Fri, May 15, 2026

12:00 AM UTC (1 hour)

Virtual (Zoom)

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AI-Powered Accountant
Lance Rubin, Andrew Siah, and Iris Meng
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What you'll learn

Leverage Excel, it’s not dying by any means!

Understand how Microsoft Fabric Planning removes the biggest pain points of traditional spreadsheet-based planning.

Deeper look at Fabric

Design governed, scalable planning models in Fabric that support budgeting, forecasting, and scenario analysis

Why trust matters.

Build integrated Power BI + Fabric solutions that deliver trustworthy insights for finance, FP&A, and business leaders.

Why this topic matters

In a world where Excel has powered finance and planning for decades, many teams are still drowning in version control issues, manual consolidations, and disconnected data. Microsoft Fabric Planning is changing that — not by replacing Excel, but by supercharging it with enterprise-grade governance, real-time intelligence, and seamless integration with Power BI. AI helps in this journey too!

You'll learn from

Lance Rubin

Leading financial modelling expert, Founder & CEO of Model Citizn & Chief Excel Office of EXL Cloud

20+ years in finance across PwC, KPMG, Investec Bank, NAB, and multiple fintech CFO roles. Built models for property, banking, infrastructure, and private equity.

Co-authored the CA ANZ study guide on financial modelling. Certified trainer of the Financial Modeling Institute. Judge at the world's first Financial Modeling Innovation Awards and Power BI Global Summit presenter.

Founded the Future of Finance Lab, a community helping accountants cut through AI hype and build real skills. "Everyone's doing AI first and forgetting the foundations. That's a big problem."

Becoming AI-Powered doesn't mean forgetting Excel, & data skills; in fact, those skills are even more important.

Those who stand to gain the most from AI already have strong foundations upon which they augment & enhance with AI.

Khaled Chowdry

Helps CXOs build data clarity in the age of AI. From chaos to clarity

Making sense of your data is hard. Running it across 11 ERPs? Even harder.


I've been in the middle of chaos, spreadsheets that don't match, and dashboards that look good but don't help anyone decide.


That's why I started Data Crafters.


We work with CXOs and data leaders who are tired of "modern tools" that never actually solve the problem.


No fluff. No hype. Just real infrastructure built on Microsoft Fabric, Power BI, and trust.


Some highlights:

• Helped a client reduce their Financial Reporting from 2 weeks to 2 days with multiple disconnected ERPs 

• Consolidated data platforms and reduced cost by 70%

• Empowered businesses to self-service while IT provides a safe place for innovation


I'm not a tool evangelist. I care about clarity.


If your team still doesn't trust the numbers, it's not too late.

See all products from Lance

Previously at

Data Crafters

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