OfficeConnect Pro on OfficeConnectPro

Build Your First OfficeConnect Report

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

This tutorial walks through building a basic departmental expense report from an empty workbook to a live, refreshable OfficeConnect report. By the end you will have a working report that pulls real data from Adaptive Planning with one click.

What you’ll need:

OfficeConnect installed and connected to your Workday tenant (Get Started)
An Adaptive Planning instance with at least one version of data loaded
A blank Excel workbook

Step 1 — Open the Reporting pane

Open Excel and activate OfficeConnect Open Excel. On the OfficeConnect ribbon tab, click Open Pane. The Reporting pane appears on the right side of the screen.

Sign in if prompted If the pane shows a sign-in prompt, click Sign In and complete the Workday authentication flow. See Sign In and Create a Tenant if you need help.

Step 2 — Add your first element

Click a cell in your workbook Click cell B2 — this is where the first data value will land.

Add an Account element In the Reporting pane, expand Accounts and locate the account you want (for example, Total Expenses). Double-click it or drag it to cell B2. OfficeConnect inserts a formula referencing that account.

Add a Time element Click cell B1 (the header row). In the Reporting pane, expand Time and drag the time period you want (for example, Jan 2025) into B1. Repeat for as many months as you need across columns C1, D1, and so on.

Add a Version element Click cell A2. Expand Versions in the pane and drag your target version (for example, Working Forecast) into A2.

For more detail on each element type, see Add Elements to a Report.

Fix COM Registration Errors

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

Symptom: You receive an error like the following when trying to install or update OfficeConnect:

System.InvalidCastException: Unable to cast COM object of type 'System.__ComObject'
to interface type 'Microsoft.Office.Core.IRibbonUI'.

Why this happens

OfficeConnect is an Excel COM add-in that relies on Excel objects registered correctly by your Microsoft Office installation. This error occurs when:

Excel’s COM objects aren’t registered correctly
You have multiple versions of Microsoft Office installed (e.g., Project 2016 and Excel 2013), leading to conflicting versions of the MS-VSTO library

Fix option 1: Repair Microsoft Office

Many users resolve this by repairing the Office installation:

Interface Tour: The Reporting Pane

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

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:

Share Reports via Teams, SharePoint & OneDrive

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

You can save OfficeConnect reports to shared locations in Microsoft Teams, SharePoint, or OneDrive so multiple colleagues can access them.

Limitation: OfficeConnect does not support multiple users editing the same file simultaneously. There’s always a risk of data loss if two people work on the same file at the same time.

Finish building and refreshing your report Make sure the report is complete and you’ve clicked Refresh to load the latest data.

Save to a shared location Use Excel’s standard File → Save As to save the workbook to a Teams channel folder, SharePoint document library, or OneDrive shared folder.

Share the link Use the Teams or SharePoint sharing feature to send a link to colleagues. They can open the workbook and refresh it themselves if they have OfficeConnect installed and appropriate Adaptive Planning permissions.

What recipients need

For a colleague to open and refresh a shared OfficeConnect report, they need:

Sign In & Create Your First Tenant

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

A tenant in OfficeConnect is a saved connection to a Workday instance. You create it once, and OfficeConnect remembers it for future sessions.

What you’ll need

Before you start, gather these details from your Workday administrator:

Detail	Where to find it
Client ID	Workday OfficeConnect API client
API Endpoint URL	Workday OfficeConnect API client
Authorization Endpoint URL	Workday OfficeConnect API client

Steps

Open Excel and click the OfficeConnect tab After installation, the OfficeConnect tab appears in the Excel ribbon.

Click Log In The Workday Adaptive Planning sign-in page opens in a browser panel.

Click 'Log in with Workday' This takes you to the tenant configuration screen.

Enter your tenant details

Fill in the tenant form:

What is OfficeConnect?

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

OfficeConnect is a Microsoft Office add-in that streams live data from Workday Adaptive Planning directly into Excel, Word, and PowerPoint. Instead of exporting static spreadsheets, your reports stay connected to your planning instance and refresh on demand.

What OfficeConnect does

In Excel: Build financial reports by dragging and dropping accounts, time periods, versions, and organizational levels into your spreadsheet. Data refreshes from Adaptive Planning with one click.
In PowerPoint: Link tables and charts from your OfficeConnect Excel workbook into presentation slides. Update a presentation for a new period by refreshing the links.
In Word: Link named ranges from Excel into board reports and narratives. Qualitative text (like “increased” or “favorable”) can update automatically.

Who it’s for

Audience	How they use it
End users (FP&A, finance teams)	Build and refresh Excel reports, share via Teams/SharePoint, publish to PowerPoint and Word
IT admins	Install the add-in across the organization, configure tenants, manage SSO and registry deployment

How it works

OfficeConnect appears as an extra tab in the Excel, Word, and PowerPoint ribbons after installation. In Excel, a Reporting pane docks to the side of your worksheet — it contains 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:

OfficeConnect for PowerPoint

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

OfficeConnect for PowerPoint lets you link tables and charts from your Excel workbook directly into PowerPoint slides. When the underlying Excel data refreshes, you can update the presentation with one click — no copy-pasting.

How it works

You define named ranges in your OfficeConnect Excel workbook (a named range is a labeled group of cells)
In PowerPoint, you link those named ranges into slides as tables or charts
When you’re ready to update the presentation (e.g., for a new reporting period), refresh the links

Start OfficeConnect for PowerPoint

Open PowerPoint After OfficeConnect is installed, an OfficeConnect tab appears in PowerPoint’s ribbon.

Click Log In Enter your Adaptive Planning credentials, or click Log in with Workday. If you’re already signed in to OfficeConnect for Excel, PowerPoint logs you in automatically.

Create a named range in Excel

Before linking to PowerPoint, you need to name the range in Excel:

Work with Multiple Instances

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

If your user ID has access to more than one Workday instance — a sandbox, a linked multi-instance hierarchy, or simply multiple tenants — OfficeConnect handles them through an Instance drop-down in the Reporting pane.

Types of multiple instances

Type	Description
Sandbox	A clone of your production instance. Use it for testing reports and what-if scenarios without affecting live data.
Multi-instances	Linked instances in a hierarchical relationship that share data through account and dimension mapping.

Switching instances

When your user ID has access to multiple instances, an Instance drop-down appears in the Reporting pane.

Create a Rolling 12-Month Report

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

A rolling 12-month report always shows the current month plus the 11 preceding months — no matter when you open it. This tutorial shows how to build one using OfficeConnect’s relative time contexts so the columns update automatically on each refresh.

What you’ll need:

An existing OfficeConnect workbook or a blank one (Build Your First Report)
Your Adaptive Planning instance populated with at least 12 months of actuals or forecast data

How rolling time works in OfficeConnect

OfficeConnect supports relative time contexts — time elements that are defined as offsets from the current period rather than as fixed calendar months. When you use Current Month, Current Month -1, Current Month -2, etc., OfficeConnect resolves each offset at refresh time against the current date.

System Requirements

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Verify your machine meets these requirements before installing OfficeConnect.

Required software

All of the following must be installed before running the OfficeConnect installer:

Software	Notes
WebView2 Runtime	Required for the OfficeConnect sign-in UI
Microsoft .NET Framework 4.8	Download from Microsoft
VSTO 2010	Visual Studio Tools for Office runtime
Workday Event Log Components	Installed by the OfficeConnect setup wizard if you have admin rights

Tip: If you have administrator rights on your machine, the per-user installer handles prerequisites automatically. If you don’t, ask your IT team to install these before you run OfficeConnect setup.

Resolve OfficeConnect Update Errors

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

Symptom: When updating OfficeConnect, you see:

An error occurred while downloading the update. Details: The underlying connection
was closed: An unexpected error occurred on a send.

Common causes and fixes

Cause 1: Network or proxy blocking the update

Your corporate network or proxy may be blocking the update download.

Fix: Work with your IT team to allowlist the Workday update servers. Alternatively, download the latest installer manually from Product Downloads in Workday and install it directly — bypassing the auto-update.

OfficeConnect for Word

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

OfficeConnect for Word lets you embed live tables and single-cell values from your OfficeConnect Excel workbook into Word documents. Board reports, investor letters, and executive narratives can update automatically when the underlying data changes.

What you can link

Tables — complete tables from named ranges in Excel, formatted exactly as they appear in Excel
Single cells — individual values (e.g., a total revenue figure or a percentage)
Qualitative text — words like “increased” or “decreased” that update based on cell values

Start OfficeConnect for Word

Open Word After OfficeConnect is installed, an OfficeConnect tab appears in Word’s ribbon. An OfficeConnect links pane docks to the left side.

Click Log In Enter your Adaptive Planning credentials, or click Log in with Workday. If you’re already signed in to OfficeConnect for Excel, Word logs you in automatically.

Connect to an Excel workbook

In the OfficeConnect tab, click Link to Workbook Browse to and open your OfficeConnect Excel workbook. The workbook’s named ranges appear in the OfficeConnect links pane under Table Links (multi-cell ranges) and Single Links (single cells).

Link a table into Word

Place your cursor in the document Click where you want the table to appear.

In the links pane, find the table link Right-click the named range under Table Links and select Apply to Selection.

The table appears formatted exactly as it looks in Excel. No reformatting required (unless the table is wider than the Word document margins, in which case OfficeConnect proportionally scales it down).

Install as an End User

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

Follow these steps to install OfficeConnect on your own Windows machine. You’ll need administrator rights, or IT must pre-install the prerequisites.

Prerequisites

All system requirements are met
You have your Workday Adaptive Planning login credentials

Steps

Download the installer Go to Product Downloads in your Workday Adaptive Planning instance (ask your admin for the link if you don’t have it). Download OfficeConnectSetup.exe — always use the latest version.

Run the installer

Double-click OfficeConnectSetup.exe. If you have administrator rights on your machine, Windows will prompt you to allow the installation to run elevated — click Yes.

Publish a Report to PowerPoint

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

This tutorial covers linking an OfficeConnect Excel report into a PowerPoint presentation. Once linked, refreshing OfficeConnect in Excel automatically updates the numbers in your slides — no copy-pasting needed.

What you’ll need:

A finished OfficeConnect Excel report with data populated (Build Your First Report)
PowerPoint (Microsoft 365 or Office 2019+)
OfficeConnect installed on the same machine

How Excel-to-PowerPoint linking works

OfficeConnect for PowerPoint creates links between named ranges or tables in your Excel workbook and shapes in your PowerPoint slides. When you click Refresh in PowerPoint, OfficeConnect re-reads the current Excel values and updates the slide content — even if you are not looking at the Excel file at the time.

Task Pane Not Displaying Correctly

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

Symptom: Reporting pane is invisible or blank

If the OfficeConnect Reporting pane disappears or shows as blank, it’s usually a display rendering issue in Excel.

Fix:

Open Excel Options Go to File → Options → General.

Change the rendering setting Find the option “Optimize for best appearance” and change it to “Optimize for compatibility”.

Close and reopen Excel The Reporting pane should now display correctly.

Symptom: Floating pane has disappeared

If you undocked the Reporting pane and lost it:

Work with Time & Contexts

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

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.

Set Up Workday SSO

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🔧 IT Admin This page requires Workday Security Administrator access. End users don’t need to do anything — SSO is configured at the tenant level by admins.

What Workday SSO does for OfficeConnect

With SSO enabled, users sign in to OfficeConnect using their existing Workday credentials through your identity provider. They don’t need a separate Adaptive Planning username and password.

Prerequisites

Workday Security Administrator role

Steps

Enable OfficeConnect in Workday In Workday, run the Enable Features After User Sync task and enable the OfficeConnect feature for your tenant.

Generate the OfficeConnect API client

In Workday, create an API client specifically for OfficeConnect. This produces:

Deploy Tenants via Registry

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

🔧 IT Admin This is an IT Admin task. It requires access to Windows group policy, deployment scripts, or software distribution tools (e.g., SCCM, Intune).

Instead of having each user manually enter tenant details, you can deploy tenant configuration directly to the Windows registry. This is the recommended approach for organizations with many users.

Registry locations

Choose one:

Location	Scope
`HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Adaptive Insights`	All users on the machine (preferred)
`HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Adaptive Insights`	The current user only

Configuration file format

Create an XML configuration file with your tenant details:

Filter Your Data

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

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.

Install as an IT Admin

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

🔧 IT Admin This page is for IT administrators deploying OfficeConnect to multiple users or machines. End users installing on their own machine should see Install as an End User.

Two installation modes

Mode	When to use
Per-user	Each user installs on their own workstation. Users can install future updates without admin permissions.
Per-machine	Installed once on a shared machine for all users on that computer. Requires admin permissions for all updates.

Per-user installation is generally preferred — it lets users self-update and reduces IT overhead.

Numbers Not Shifting After Inserting Rows

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

Symptom: You insert rows into your Excel worksheet, but OfficeConnect data in rows below the insertion point doesn’t shift down — the elements stay in their original positions.

Why this happens

OfficeConnect element metadata is attached to specific cells. When you use standard Excel Insert Rows, Excel moves the cell values but the OfficeConnect element assignments don’t follow — they remain anchored to the original row numbers.

Fix: Use OfficeConnect’s Insert/Delete functions

Instead of Excel’s native Insert Rows/Delete Rows, always use OfficeConnect’s equivalent:

Check & Update Your Version

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

Keeping OfficeConnect up to date is important — users on different versions may not be able to share workbooks. Check your version regularly and update with your team.

Check your current version

Open Excel and click the OfficeConnect tab The OfficeConnect tab appears in the Excel ribbon after installation.

Open the Help menu In the OfficeConnect tab, click the Help drop-down.

Click About The About dialog shows your current version number (e.g., 2026.104.3019.3004).

Understand the version number

OfficeConnect version numbers follow the pattern YYYY.release.weekday.build, where weekday encodes the week and day of the build.

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.

Suppress & Hide Zeros and Blanks

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

Zero suppression in OfficeConnect is a two-part system: Workbook Properties controls the default state, and the Hide Zeros & Blanks ribbon button is a toggle on top of that default.

How it works

Workbook property	Effect
Hide rows with all zeroes is checked	Zero suppression is enabled by default. The Hide Zeros & Blanks button on the ribbon toggles it on/off.
Hide rows with all zeroes is unchecked	Zero suppression is disabled. The Hide Zeros & Blanks button will not work after refresh.

Enable zero suppression

Open Workbook Properties In the OfficeConnect ribbon, click Workbook Properties.

Check 'Hide rows with all zeroes' In the Row Display section, check the Hide rows with all zeroes option.

Click Refresh After refreshing, click Hide Zeros & Blanks in the OfficeConnect ribbon to activate suppression.

Per-row overrides

With the workbook default set, you can configure individual rows to behave differently:

Secure OfficeConnect Workbooks

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Automatic timeout

OfficeConnect uses a session timeout to keep your reports secure. If you haven’t refreshed your report in 60 minutes (or your configured timeout period), OfficeConnect prompts you to re-authenticate the next time you try to refresh.

The timeout duration is set by your Adaptive Planning administrator.

Data clearing on save

By default, OfficeConnect clears all data when you save a workbook. Connected cells display a placeholder (default: n/a) until the next refresh. This means:

Remove Elements

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

Question: How do I remove OfficeConnect elements from a range of cells?

Steps

Select the row, column, or cell Select the area where the element is applied. For best results, select the entire row or column (not just individual cells within it).

Right-click and choose Clear Design Elements From the right-click context menu, select OfficeConnect → Clear Design Elements.

What gets cleared

The OfficeConnect element metadata is removed from the selection
The cells become plain Excel cells — no longer linked to Adaptive Planning
Labels you added remain in place (they’re plain text, not elements)
The visual contents of the cells remain until you delete them manually or the next refresh would have populated them

Remove elements from multiple locations

To remove elements from several rows or columns at once:

Review & Verify Applied Elements

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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.

Change Rounding Settings

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OfficeConnect defaults to Thousands rounding for Adaptive Planning data sources — so 100,000 displays as 100 and 1,000 displays as 1. You can change this at three levels.

Rounding levels (highest to lowest precedence)

Selection Properties — for a specific row, column, or cell
Workbook Properties — for the current workbook
User Settings — your personal default for all new workbooks

Change rounding in User Settings (affects new workbooks)

Click User Settings in the OfficeConnect ribbon

In the Round to drop-down, select the rounding level Options: Hundreds, Thousands (default), Ten Thousands, Hundred Thousands, Millions, Ten Millions, Hundred Millions, Billions, No Rounding.

Click OK This applies to all new workbooks. The current open workbook is not affected.

Change rounding for the current workbook

Click Workbook Properties in the OfficeConnect ribbon

On the Format tab, change the Round to setting

Click OK, then Refresh → All Sheets The new rounding applies to the entire workbook across all worksheets.

Change rounding for a specific row, column, or cell

Select the row, column, or cell

Right-click → OfficeConnect → Row/Column/Cell Properties

Change the Round to setting and click OK This overrides the workbook setting for this specific selection only.

Rounding and percentage values

If your report includes percentages, rounding to Thousands will distort them — 25.25% becomes 0.0002525. See Display Percentage Values for the fix.

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.

Display Percentage Values Correctly

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

Problem: Percentage values from Adaptive Planning appear as tiny decimals in OfficeConnect. For example, 25.25% shows as 0.0002525 when workbook rounding is set to Thousands.

This happens because OfficeConnect stores percentages as decimals (0.2525) and then applies the workbook’s rounding setting on top — Thousands rounding divides by 1,000, making it 0.0002525.

Fix option 1: Set rounding to No Rounding (whole workbook)

Open Workbook Properties In the OfficeConnect ribbon, click Workbook Properties.

On the Format tab, set Round to No Rounding

Format the percentage cells in Excel Select the cells and use Excel’s Format Cells → Percentage to display them correctly.

Refresh

Trade-off: This removes rounding from the entire workbook. All other numbers will display without rounding too.

Create Repeating Reports

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

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.

Create Fixed Date Columns

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Problem: You’ve set up a report with relative time elements (like “Current Month,” “Prior Month”) so it always shows recent data. But you want certain columns to stay fixed at a specific historical date — not roll forward with time.

Why relative dates roll

When you create a report using relative time elements, OfficeConnect automatically advances them when you refresh — “Current Month” always shows the current month. This is great for rolling reports but not for fixed comparisons.

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.

Create a Trailing 12-Month Report

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

A trailing 12-month (T12M) report shows the 12 most recent calendar months and advances automatically each month. This is a common layout for rolling actuals analysis.

How to build it

The key is using relative time elements for each of the 12 columns — each column is defined as “N months ago” relative to today.

Set up your rows with account elements Apply your account elements (e.g., Revenue, COGS, Gross Profit) to rows as usual.

For the first column, apply 'Current Month - 11' In the Elements tab, expand Time → Relative. Find the relative time element for 11 months prior (the oldest month in your T12M window) and apply it to column C.

For each subsequent column, apply the next relative month

Continue applying relative months across columns:

Link to External Excel Files

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

Question: Can I create a link from my OfficeConnect workbook to a regular (non-OfficeConnect) Excel file?

Yes — use Excel’s standard external link

OfficeConnect workbooks are Excel files. You can use Excel’s standard external reference syntax to pull data from any other Excel file:

=[OtherWorkbook.xlsx]Sheet1!$A$1

This creates a standard Excel external link — it’s not an OfficeConnect-managed link, so it works just like any other Excel cross-workbook reference.

Create an Excel copy without OfficeConnect links

If you need to send a colleague a version of your OfficeConnect report that doesn’t contain any live OfficeConnect connections (e.g., they don’t have OfficeConnect installed and you want them to see the data, not n/a placeholders):

Run the Troubleshooting Tool

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

When standard troubleshooting steps don’t resolve your issue, the OCSystemChecker tool gathers detailed diagnostic information from your machine to help Workday Support investigate.

When to use it

You’re getting an error during installation or startup that other fixes haven’t resolved
Workday Support asks you to run the tool as part of a support case
You want a diagnostic log before reaching out to Support

Steps

Download OCSystemChecker.zip Download the OCSystemChecker.zip file from the Workday Community or ask your Workday Support contact for the link. Save it to your Desktop.

Extract the zip file Right-click OCSystemChecker.zip → Extract All. Open the extracted folder.

Launch OCSystemChecker.exe Double-click OCSystemChecker.exe. Windows may prompt you to allow it to run — click Yes.

Select the application with the error Choose OfficeConnect for Excel (or the appropriate application) and click Next.

Select the type of issue Choose the closest match (installation error, refresh error, startup error, etc.). If it’s file-specific, attach the problematic file when prompted. Click Next.

Reproduce the error on the 'Re-create Issue' page

Important: While the Re-create Issue page is open, perform the action that causes the error. For example:

OfficeConnect Pro on OfficeConnectPro

Build Your First OfficeConnect Report

Step 1 — Open the Reporting pane

Step 2 — Add your first element

Fix COM Registration Errors

Why this happens

Fix option 1: Repair Microsoft Office

Interface Tour: The Reporting Pane

The OfficeConnect ribbon tab

The Reporting pane

Share Reports via Teams, SharePoint & OneDrive

How to share a report

What recipients need

Sign In & Create Your First Tenant

What you’ll need

Steps

What is OfficeConnect?

What OfficeConnect does

Who it’s for

How it works

Add Elements to Rows, Columns & Cells

Basic steps

OfficeConnect for PowerPoint

How it works

Start OfficeConnect for PowerPoint

Create a named range in Excel

Work with Multiple Instances

Types of multiple instances

Switching instances

Create a Rolling 12-Month Report

How rolling time works in OfficeConnect

System Requirements

Required software

Resolve OfficeConnect Update Errors

Common causes and fixes

Cause 1: Network or proxy blocking the update

OfficeConnect for Word

What you can link

Start OfficeConnect for Word

Connect to an Excel workbook

Link a table into Word

Install as an End User

Prerequisites

Steps

Publish a Report to PowerPoint

How Excel-to-PowerPoint linking works

Task Pane Not Displaying Correctly

Symptom: Reporting pane is invisible or blank

Symptom: Floating pane has disappeared

Work with Time & Contexts

Time element types

Add a time element

Add a context

Set Up Workday SSO

What Workday SSO does for OfficeConnect

Prerequisites

Steps

Deploy Tenants via Registry

Registry locations

Configuration file format

Filter Your Data

Worksheet vs workbook filters

Apply a worksheet filter

Turn filters off without losing selections

Install as an IT Admin

Two installation modes

Numbers Not Shifting After Inserting Rows

Why this happens

Fix: Use OfficeConnect’s Insert/Delete functions

Check & Update Your Version

Check your current version

Understand the version number

Cut, Copy & Move Elements

Three ways to cut, copy, and paste

Suppress & Hide Zeros and Blanks

How it works

Enable zero suppression

Per-row overrides

Secure OfficeConnect Workbooks

Automatic timeout