Use Excel Copilot to Build Premium Contribution Formulas
What This Does
Excel Copilot lets you describe what you want in plain English and generates the formula for you. For benefits administrators, the most valuable application is building premium contribution tables — calculating what employees pay across all plan tiers (Employee Only, Employee + Spouse, Employee + Children, Family) without spending an afternoon building formulas from scratch.
Before You Start
- You have Microsoft 365 (Excel) — Copilot requires Microsoft 365 Personal, Family, or Business plan
- Your Excel file has your plan year premium data entered (total premiums per tier per plan)
- You know the employer contribution percentages or dollar amounts for each tier
- Time needed: 15 minutes to build; reusable every plan year
- Cost: Included with Microsoft 365 ($7–$22/month depending on plan)
Steps
1. Find the AI feature
Open Excel with your benefits data file. Click the Copilot button in the Home tab ribbon — it looks like a small sparkle icon in the top right area of the ribbon. A Copilot panel opens on the right side of the screen.
What you should see: A chat-style sidebar with a text input box and suggested prompts. If you don't see the Copilot button, check that your Microsoft 365 subscription includes Copilot (available on Personal, Family, and Business plans).
Troubleshooting: If Copilot isn't showing, go to File → Account → Update Options to make sure Excel is up to date.
2. Set up your data structure first
Before using Copilot, enter your plan data in a simple table:
- Column A: Plan Name (e.g., "Cigna PPO", "Cigna HDHP")
- Column B: Coverage Tier (Employee Only, Employee + Spouse, Employee + Children, Family)
- Column C: Total Monthly Premium
- Column D: Employer Contribution % (or dollar amount)
- Leave Column E blank for "Employee Monthly Cost"
3. Describe your formula to Copilot
In the Copilot sidebar, type: "In column E, calculate the employee monthly cost by subtracting the employer contribution (column D as a percentage) from the total premium (column C). If column D is a percentage, multiply column C by (1 minus column D)."
What you should see: Copilot suggests a formula like =C2*(1-D2) and offers to insert it. Click Insert or Apply.
4. Add annual cost calculations
Ask Copilot to extend your table: "Add a column F that calculates the annual employee cost (column E times 12). Add a column G that calculates the bi-weekly payroll deduction (column E times 12, divided by 26)."
5. Build a comparison summary
"Create a summary table below my data showing the minimum and maximum employee monthly costs across all plans and tiers."
What you should see: Copilot builds a MIN/MAX summary showing the range of employee costs — useful for your open enrollment materials and for checking that no tier exceeds your contribution policy.
Real Example
Scenario: You have 3 health plans each with 4 coverage tiers (12 rows of data). You need to calculate employee costs for your open enrollment comparison sheet.
What you type: "Column C has total monthly premiums. Column D has the employer contribution percentage. Calculate employee monthly cost in column E, annual cost in column F, and bi-weekly payroll deduction in column G for all 12 rows."
What you get: All three cost columns calculated and formatted as currency. Your open enrollment comparison sheet is now one copy-paste away from your Word or PowerPoint template.
Tips
- Ask Copilot to "format columns E, F, and G as currency with 2 decimal places" to make the output presentation-ready
- Once built, lock your formula cells (Review → Protect Sheet) so the formulas don't get overwritten accidentally
- Save this file as your "Premium Contribution Template" — update the total premium column each renewal year and all formulas recalculate automatically
Tool interfaces change — if a button has moved, look for similar AI/magic/smart options in the same menu area.