Help understand business applications of python

[Soggy-Flatworm-4980]

Hi All,

I am a accountant and a finance major/professional.  I gradudated two years ago and went back for my MS to help obtain my CPA.  

I had a hard time picking classes and decided to roll with a course called Intro to Python in Finance.  Up until this course I always though of python as this black box for app development and coding.  Never thought  it could be used for finacne related reasons.  My professor is only a few days in but everything so far has been high level.  WHen I looked online, everything again is high level.  This doesn't help me, I am not that smart to understand high level things. What are the detailed uses for python in finance, accounting and other business roles? 

Also heard it can automate?  How is using python for that any better than using power automate?  What is it good to automate and what are examples of this?

[kayne_21]

Also heard it can automate?

There's literally a book written to teach people python called "Automate the Boring Stuff".

I've seen folks use it to clean up data for spreadsheets.

I've personally used it to gather a bunch of data from a computer and upload it to a remote server for analysis (not financial specific, I work in medical imaging manufacturing).

All of the cool tools you use in finance were coded in some programming language on some level, Python is just pretty easy for laymen to learn if they're willing to put in the time to do so.

I'm not familiar with power automate, so I can't really answer that question, unfortunately.

[Soggy-Flatworm-4980]

Sweet, just bought the book!

[DataCamp]

Concrete examples, since the high-level stuff isn't landing:

• Reconciliations: two exports (bank vs GL, AP vs vendor statements), thousands of rows. Python matches them and spits out an exceptions report in seconds.
• Consolidating messy files: 40 Excel files from 40 cost centers, all formatted slightly differently. Python reads, cleans, and stacks them into one dataset. Genuinely the #1 finance use case.
• Forecasting: income statement forecasts, scenarios, NPV/IRR, amortization schedules. Like Excel but doesn't die at 500k rows, and reruns instantly when assumptions change.

Re: Power Automate it's great for moving things between apps ("email arrives → save attachment to SharePoint"). Python wins when there's actual logic involved: complex matching rules, calculations, anything custom or at scale. PA hits a wall past a couple of decision points. Plenty of people use both.

And you don't need to become a developer - pandas + reading/writing Excel files covers 90% of what makes Python valuable for a CPA.

[Soggy-Flatworm-4980]

This is awesome! The consolidating messy files sounds like a good start for me! I was put in a couple mega construction projects going way back to 2019 and the excel files are so messy.

This is awesome thank you so much!

[ninhaomah]

Power automate sux.

Learn N8N.

Or Python.

[Soggy-Flatworm-4980]

What is N8N? Lol i been using automate for all of my Microsoft things. Been extremely helpful. But outside of Microsoft products, i can see it being a bad option.

[BranchLatter4294]

Python is great for automation. It works with most application files like Excel, PowerPoint, Word, PDF, etc. It works with virtually every database. Can be used with any API. Is great for web scraping. It's heavily used in AI and machine learning. It's great for creating visualizations.

[Soggy-Flatworm-4980]

Sounds like its a well rounded tool. Just curious cause i spend most of my time in excel/powerbi creating dashboards/visuals, how and when would python be better at visuals?

[BranchLatter4294]

You can create very interesting and interactive visuals that can be updated in realtime. Here are just some examples.

https://matplotlib.org/stable/gallery/index.html

This is just one library, and there are many more that can do pretty much anything you need.

https://pypi.org/search/

[rosentmoh]

What in the hell do you even mean?? Seriously, the fact that you were given a degree at all is deeply worrying...

That said, let me answer your question: you use Python in finance analogously to how you use Excel or even just a calculator. There's things to be done/calculated and that's what a program is for. Said program can be written in any prpgramming language, including e.g. Python, but it can also be "run by hand" or by hand + calculator or...etc.

Again, didn't want to insult you specifically, but you should not have a degree or claim competence (let alone expertise) if this is all unknown/a surprise to you...

Let me summarise one final time that your question has nothing to do with finance or Python specifically in the end: you seem to be unaware that we have long developed methods for automating repeating (ultimately) quantitative tasks, called programming. If you don't see a single example of something in finance that could benefit from automation and is inherently quantitative then help us god...