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Interface Tour: The Reporting Pane

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OfficeConnect adds two things to Excel: a ribbon tab and a Reporting pane that docks to the side of your worksheet.

The OfficeConnect ribbon tab

The OfficeConnect tab appears between your standard Excel tabs. Key buttons include:

Button	What it does
Log In / Log Out	Connect to or disconnect from your Workday tenant
Refresh	Pull the latest data from Adaptive Planning into all connected cells
Show Reporting Pane	Toggle the Reporting pane open or closed
Workbook Properties	Set rounding, data clearing, and filter defaults for the workbook
User Settings	Set your personal defaults (rounding, default instance, etc.)
Find / Replace	Find and replace elements across sheets
Labels	Add dynamic text labels (report date, level name, etc.)
Help	Access version info, documentation, and the troubleshooting tool

The Reporting pane

The Reporting pane docks to the right side of your worksheet by default. It has three tabs:

Add Elements to Rows, Columns & Cells

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Elements are the building blocks of an OfficeConnect report. You add them to rows, columns, or cells in your worksheet to define what data appears at each intersection.

Best practice: Add elements to entire rows and columns rather than individual cells. When applied to a row or column, a bolded (parent) element also expands its children — each child gets its own row or column automatically.

Basic steps

Select your target in the grid Click to select the cells, rows, or columns where you want data to appear. To select an entire row or column, click the row number or column letter.

Open the Elements tab in the Reporting pane Click Show Reporting Pane if the pane is hidden, then click the Elements tab.

Browse to the element you want

Expand the element tree to find what you need:

Work with Time & Contexts

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Time elements define which periods display in your report. Contexts add a calculation lens to those periods — like showing the year-to-date total instead of a single month’s value.

Time element types

Type	Description	Example
Absolute time	A fixed, named period	`FY 2025`, `Q1 2025`, `Jan 2025`
Relative time	A period relative to today’s date	`Current Month`, `Prior Year`
Components	Year/quarter/month components that combine at their intersection	Apply `FY 2025` to a row and `Q3` to a column → resolves to Q3 of FY 2025

Add a time element

Select a column (or row) Time is most commonly applied to columns so each column shows a different period.

In the Elements tab, expand Time Expand the calendar hierarchy to find the period you want: Year → Quarter → Month.

Drag the time element to your selection Drop it onto the selected column. Click Refresh.

Add a context

Contexts layer a calculation on top of a time element. You apply a context in the same location as the time element, or as a worksheet/workbook filter.

Filter Your Data

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Filters let you restrict report data by accounts, levels, versions, currencies, attributes, or custom dimensions — without adding those elements to rows or columns.

Worksheet vs workbook filters

Filter type	Scope	Precedence
Worksheet filter	Applies to one sheet only	Overrides workbook filters
Workbook filter	Applies to all sheets in the workbook	Lower precedence than worksheet filters

Apply a worksheet filter

Open the Filters tab in the Reporting pane In the Reporting pane, click the Filters tab.

Click Worksheet Filters The Worksheet Filters dialog opens. It shows any previously selected filters.

Search or browse for elements to filter by Example: To filter by two specific levels, expand the Level hierarchy and select Company A and Company B.

Click OK Your selected elements appear in the Filters tab as a subset.

Enable the filters In the Filters tab, click Enable Filters, then check the specific elements you want active.

Refresh The report now shows data only for the filtered elements.

Turn filters off without losing selections

In the Filters tab, uncheck Enable Filters. Your filter selections are remembered — they’re just inactive. Re-check Enable Filters to reapply them later.

Cut, Copy & Move Elements

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OfficeConnect provides its own cut, copy, and paste commands that move elements together with their metadata.

Important: Always use OfficeConnect’s own cut/copy/paste commands — not Excel’s standard Ctrl+C/Ctrl+V. Excel’s clipboard doesn’t carry the OfficeConnect element metadata; only OfficeConnect commands do.

Three ways to cut, copy, and paste

Ribbon buttons: Use the functions in the OfficeConnect tab, not the Home tab.

Right-click menu: Right-click the cell, row, or column → OfficeConnect → Cut Elements or Copy Elements, then Paste Elements.

Review & Verify Applied Elements

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

The Review tab in the Reporting pane shows you a complete picture of what’s driving data in your report. Use it to verify elements are applied correctly before sharing or distributing a report.

What the Review tab shows

Select a cell, row, or column, then click the Review tab. The sections you see depend on your selection:

Section	Shown when	What it displays
Net	Cell selected	All elements actively affecting that cell’s data — the combined result of all applied elements
Rows	Cell or row selected	All elements applied to that row
Columns	Cell or column selected	All elements applied to that column
Worksheet	Cell selected	Active worksheet filters
Workbook	Cell selected	Active workbook filters
User Defaults	Cell selected	Default elements from your User Settings

Note: The Net section only appears for single-cell selections. It’s the most useful for diagnosing unexpected data — it shows what’s actually driving the number.

Workbook & Worksheet Properties

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OfficeConnect has three levels of settings that control report behavior, each overriding the one above it:

User Settings — your personal defaults for all new workbooks
Workbook Properties — settings for the current workbook (overrides User Settings)
Selection Properties — settings for a specific row, column, or cell (overrides Workbook Properties)

User Settings

Access via OfficeConnect ribbon → User Settings.

Setting	Default	Description
Round to	Thousands	How to round numbers. Options: Hundreds, Thousands, Ten Thousands, …, Billions, No Rounding
Show zero in cells with no data	On	Shows `0` instead of blank for empty cells
Security block result text	`n/a`	The placeholder text shown in linked cells after data is cleared on save
Show refresh errors	On	Shows a list of cell errors after refresh
Show refresh warnings	On	Shows a list of warnings after refresh

User Settings apply to all new workbooks you create. They don’t change existing open workbooks.

Create Repeating Reports

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The Repeating Reports feature copies a finished report worksheet once for each element you choose — for example, one sheet per cost center or one sheet per region. Each copy is automatically filtered to show data for its element.

What it does

When you create repeating reports, OfficeConnect:

Copies the worksheet for each selected element
Applies one element as a filter to each copy
Optionally refreshes each copy automatically
Names each worksheet based on your naming convention
Preserves all Excel formatting, formulas, and OfficeConnect metadata

Once created, each repeating report is independent — it’s not linked to the original. To update them with new report formatting, delete and recreate them.

Financials vs. Adaptive Planning Data Sources

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

OfficeConnect supports two data sources. Most organizations use Adaptive Planning (budget and forecast data). Organizations using Workday Financial Management also have access to the Financials data source (general ledger actuals).

The data source is set when you configure your tenant. Some OfficeConnect features behave differently depending on which source is active.

Feature comparison

Feature	Adaptive Planning	Financials
Elements hierarchy	Accounts, Level, Custom Dimensions	Ledger Accounts, Company, Dimensions
Minimum valid intersection	Version + Level + Time + Account	Version + Company + Time + Ledger Account
Default rounding	Thousands	No Rounding
Make new time elements relative	On by default	Off by default
Always clear data upon save	On by default	Off by default
Element groups	Available	Not available
Cell Details	Explore Cell (drill into cell data)	Show Details (contributing journal lines; drill through to Workday)
Default version	Depends on your model	Actuals
Exclude elimination on expand	Not available	Available (in user settings and Expand dialog)

Which data source am I using?

Check your tenant configuration: in the OfficeConnect sign-in drop-down, each tenant shows its data source type.

Cell Explorer & Drill-Down

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When a number in your report looks unexpected, Explore Cell lets you drill into the contributing details to find the source.

What Explore Cell shows

For any cell with data, Explore Cell reveals:

Detail	Description
Contributing rows	The specific data intersections driving the value
Account details	Rollup values and links to child accounts
Level details	Rollup values and links to child levels
Time details	Breakdown by time period
Audit trail	Change history (if Audit Trail is enabled in Adaptive Planning)
Other sheets	Links to other sheets that show the same value
Source drills	Drill into Transactions, Workday objects, or NetSuite (if configured)

Note: Explore Cell applies to the Adaptive Planning data source. For the Financials data source, use Show Details instead, which shows contributing journal line and plan line details.