Troubleshoot & FAQ on OfficeConnectPro

Fix COM Registration Errors

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

COM registration errors usually surface during a Workday OfficeConnect install or upgrade and point to a broken Microsoft Office add-in registration. Confirm your machine meets the system requirements before working through the fixes — multiple Office versions installed side by side is the most common root cause.

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:

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.

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:

Numbers Not Shifting After Inserting Rows

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

When you edit a report’s structure with native Excel commands, Workday OfficeConnect element bindings stay glued to the original row numbers — which is why a row insert can leave your data behind. The fix is to use OfficeConnect’s own insert/delete commands; see Cut, Copy & Move Elements for the equivalent move pattern.

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.

Suppress & Hide Zeros and Blanks

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

Hiding empty rows in a Workday OfficeConnect report 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. Review the full settings layout in Workbook & Worksheet Properties so you set the default in the right place.

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:

Remove Elements

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

When you clear cells in a Workday OfficeConnect report with Excel’s normal delete, the element metadata can linger and confuse later refreshes — so use OfficeConnect’s own clear command instead. For the related move and copy workflows, see Cut, Copy & Move Elements.

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:

Change Rounding Settings

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

Workday 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. The same dialog drives several other display defaults; see Workbook & Worksheet Properties for the full picture.

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.

Display Percentage Values Correctly

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

Percentages are a classic gotcha when Workday OfficeConnect’s default Thousands rounding interacts with Adaptive Planning values stored as decimals. Before changing settings, review where rounding is configured in Change Rounding Settings so you fix the right level.

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.

Create Fixed Date Columns

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

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.

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:

Re-Enabling a Disabled OfficeConnect COM Add-in

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

When Excel crashes or hangs while Workday OfficeConnect is running, Excel sometimes responds by disabling the add-in to prevent future crashes. The next time you open Excel, the OfficeConnect tab is gone — and reinstalling OfficeConnect doesn’t bring it back.

The fix is to re-enable it from Excel’s Disabled Items list. This article walks through it.

If your OfficeConnect tab is missing for a different reason (never installed, install corrupted, JavaScript add-in on Mac), see also Task Pane Not Displaying and Install for End Users.

Why Your Refresh Shows 'Contact Technical Support'

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

You click Refresh in Workday OfficeConnect. After 5-30 seconds, a dialog appears:

“Refresh failed. Please contact technical support.”

The dialog is famously unhelpful — it doesn’t say what went wrong. In practice, almost every instance of this error has one of five concrete causes. Work through them in order.

What you’ll see

Excel freezes briefly during refresh
A modal dialog appears: “Refresh failed. Please contact technical support.”
After dismissing, your OfficeConnect cells either show stale values or n/a
No error code is shown
The Excel status bar may briefly show an OfficeConnect error before the dialog appears

Root causes (in order of frequency)

1. Your session has timed out

By far the most common cause. After 60 minutes of inactivity (or your tenant’s configured timeout), OfficeConnect’s token expires. The next refresh fails with this generic dialog instead of a clear “session expired” message.

Fix OfficeConnect Not Refreshing

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

If Workday OfficeConnect won’t pull fresh data, the cause is almost always a session, formula, or connection problem rather than a corrupted workbook. Confirm your tenant connection on Sign In & Create a Tenant before working through the fixes below.

Symptom

You click Refresh in the OfficeConnect ribbon and one of the following happens:

Nothing happens — the button appears to do nothing
The progress indicator appears briefly then disappears with no data change
Some cells update but others remain stale
Excel shows a spinning cursor for a long time, then refresh completes with no data change

Causes

OfficeConnect is not connected to the Adaptive Planning or Financials data source (session expired or not signed in)
The workbook has no active OfficeConnect formulas (formulas were deleted or overwritten)
A network or firewall issue is blocking the connection to Workday servers
The OfficeConnect add-in has entered an error state and needs to be reloaded
Excel’s automatic calculation is disabled

Click the OfficeConnect tab in the ribbon.
If you see a Sign In button (instead of Refresh, Submit, and other tools), you are not signed in. Click Sign In and complete authentication through the Workday SSO browser window.
Once signed in, click Refresh. If the issue was an expired session, data should now load.

Fix 2: Verify OfficeConnect formulas are intact

Click any cell that should contain OfficeConnect data. Look at the formula bar — it should show an OfficeConnect formula (typically a long string starting with =OC. or similar). If the cell contains a plain number or is blank, the formula has been overwritten.
If formulas are missing, you’ll need to rebuild the report or restore from a backup. OfficeConnect does not cache formulas separately from Excel — if they’re overwritten, they’re gone.

Fix 3: Test network connectivity

Open a browser and navigate to your Workday tenant URL. If Workday loads in the browser, basic connectivity is fine. If it doesn’t load, contact your IT team — the issue is network-level.
If you’re on a VPN, try disconnecting briefly (if policy allows) and refreshing. Some VPN configurations block or slow traffic to Workday’s cloud servers.
If you’re on a corporate network with a proxy, confirm with IT that the OfficeConnect add-in is allowed to make outbound HTTPS connections to Workday’s domains.

Fix 4: Reload the OfficeConnect add-in

Close the OfficeConnect task pane: click the X on the Reporting pane panel.
In the Excel ribbon, click the OfficeConnect tab → Show Pane (or equivalent button to re-open the pane). This reloads the add-in’s JavaScript runtime.
Sign in again if prompted, then click Refresh.

If reloading the pane doesn’t help, close Excel entirely, reopen it, and open the workbook again. Full Excel restart clears add-in state more completely than closing the pane.

Fix Authentication and Token Errors in OfficeConnect

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

Token and sign-in errors usually mean the SSO session has lapsed or the tenant configuration has drifted. Confirm Workday OfficeConnect is pointed at a valid tenant on Sign In & Create a Tenant, and review your Workday SSO configuration if multiple users hit the same error.

Symptom

One or more of the following:

OfficeConnect shows an error message containing words like “Authentication failed”, “Token expired”, “Unauthorized”, or “401”
The sign-in browser window opens but returns an error after you authenticate
OfficeConnect repeatedly asks you to sign in even after a successful authentication
Refresh fails immediately with an authentication-related error rather than a network error

Causes

The Workday SSO session has expired and the access token needs to be refreshed
The OfficeConnect client ID or tenant configuration is incorrect or has changed
A browser cookie or cached token is corrupted, preventing new authentication from completing
The Workday tenant’s OAuth application for OfficeConnect has been disabled or its credentials rotated
Multi-factor authentication (MFA) requirements have changed and OfficeConnect’s browser flow isn’t handling the new MFA step

Fix 1: Sign out and sign back in

The fastest fix for most token errors is a clean sign-out and re-authentication.

Fix Slow Performance in Large Reports

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

Large Workday OfficeConnect workbooks can grind to a halt if formula counts, dimension scope, or network paths aren’t tuned. Before tearing the report apart, review the workbook-level techniques in Optimize OfficeConnect Performance.

Symptom

One or more of the following:

OfficeConnect refresh takes more than 30 seconds to complete
Excel freezes or becomes unresponsive during refresh
Refresh completes but only for part of the workbook — some cells remain stale
Performance was acceptable in the past but has degraded recently

Causes

Too many OfficeConnect formulas in the workbook — each formula is a separate server round-trip
Leaf-level accounts used instead of rollup accounts — pulling detail that isn’t needed
Broad dimension scope — formulas pulling data across all cost centers or all levels when only a subset is needed
Workday tenant performance issues during peak usage hours
Network latency (VPN, proxy, slow connection)
Excel calculation mode interfering with OfficeConnect’s refresh sequence

Fix 1: Count and reduce formulas

The number of OfficeConnect formulas is the primary driver of refresh time.

Fix Data Discrepancies Between OfficeConnect and Workday

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

Symptom

One or more of the following:

An account balance in OfficeConnect doesn’t match the same account in a Workday financial report
Figures match at the rollup level but differ at individual account or cost center level
Prior-period figures differ between OfficeConnect and Workday Report Writer after a restatement or adjustment
Totals agree but the breakdown by worktag or dimension differs

Causes

Period definition mismatch — OfficeConnect and Workday Report Writer using different period boundaries (fiscal vs. calendar, month-end vs. period-end)
Account scope mismatch — different account hierarchies or groupings used in each tool
Company or ledger filter mismatch — OfficeConnect showing all companies while Report Writer is scoped to one, or vice versa
Effective date vs. posting date difference — OfficeConnect set to effective-date view while Report Writer uses posting dates
Currency conversion mismatch — different exchange rate types or conversion dates
Journal source exclusions — Workday report configured to exclude certain journal sources that OfficeConnect includes
Retroactive adjustments — a prior period was restated in Workday after OfficeConnect data was last refreshed

Fix 1: Align the period definition

This is the most common cause. Confirm both tools are using the exact same period.

Workday OfficeConnect + think-cell: Resolving the Conflict

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

If your finance team uses both Workday OfficeConnect and think-cell (the PowerPoint chart add-in), you’ve probably hit a conflict: Excel crashes during OfficeConnect refresh, think-cell charts won’t update, or one of the two add-ins quietly disables the other. This article documents the conflict and the workaround.

Symptom

Any of the following with both add-ins installed:

Excel crashes during OfficeConnect Refresh
think-cell PowerPoint charts won’t refresh from the Excel source
One ribbon tab disappears after a crash (more often OfficeConnect — see Re-enabling a Disabled COM Add-in)
“OfficeConnect has encountered an error” dialog with no error code
Sluggish Excel performance with both add-ins loaded

Root cause

Both OfficeConnect and think-cell are COM add-ins that hook deeply into Excel through subclassing — they intercept Excel’s internal Windows messages to extend behavior. When two add-ins subclass the same Excel window in incompatible ways, the second one to load can break the first, or both can corrupt Excel’s message handling.

Use OfficeConnect on Mac

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

Workday OfficeConnect runs on Excel for Mac (Microsoft 365 subscription required). The core reporting experience — building reports, refreshing data, and navigating the Reporting pane — works the same as Windows. A few things are different, and a handful of Windows-only features are unavailable. This guide covers what you need to know.

What you’ll need:

A Mac running macOS 12 (Monterey) or later
Microsoft 365 with Excel for Mac (version 16.54 or later)
Workday OfficeConnect deployed by your IT admin, or access to install it from the Microsoft AppSource

1. Install OfficeConnect on Mac

Open Excel for Mac and sign in with your Microsoft 365 account.
Click the Insert tab in the menu bar, then click Add-ins (or Get Add-ins depending on your Excel version).
In the Office Add-ins dialog, search for OfficeConnect in the Store tab. If your IT admin deployed it centrally, look in the Admin Managed tab instead.
Click Add. After a moment, an OfficeConnect tab appears in the Excel ribbon.

Note: If your organization deploys Workday OfficeConnect via a custom manifest URL, ask your IT admin for the manifest URL and install it via Insert → Add-ins → Upload My Add-in (or the equivalent in your version of Excel for Mac).

Workday OfficeConnect on Mac: The VDI Workflow

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

The native Mac version of Workday OfficeConnect (Excel for Mac JavaScript add-in) supports most reporting workflows, but a few power-user features remain Windows-only — most notably Power Automate Desktop integration, configurable refresh shortcuts, and the broadest set of add-in interop. For Mac users who need parity with their Windows colleagues, a VDI (virtual desktop infrastructure) is the established workaround.

This article compares the three realistic options and walks through the simplest setup.

Troubleshoot & FAQ on OfficeConnectPro

Fix COM Registration Errors

Why this happens

Resolve OfficeConnect Update Errors

Common causes and fixes

Cause 1: Network or proxy blocking the update

Task Pane Not Displaying Correctly

Symptom: Reporting pane is invisible or blank

Symptom: Floating pane has disappeared

Numbers Not Shifting After Inserting Rows

Suppress & Hide Zeros and Blanks

How it works

Enable zero suppression

Per-row overrides

Remove Elements

Steps

What gets cleared

Remove elements from multiple locations

Change Rounding Settings

Rounding levels (highest to lowest precedence)

Change rounding in User Settings (affects new workbooks)

Change rounding for the current workbook

Change rounding for a specific row, column, or cell

Rounding and percentage values

Display Percentage Values Correctly

Create Fixed Date Columns

Why relative dates roll

Create a Trailing 12-Month Report

How to build it

Link to External Excel Files

Yes — use Excel’s standard external link

Create an Excel copy without OfficeConnect links

Run the Troubleshooting Tool

When to use it

Steps

Re-Enabling a Disabled OfficeConnect COM Add-in

Why Your Refresh Shows 'Contact Technical Support'

What you’ll see

Root causes (in order of frequency)

1. Your session has timed out

Fix OfficeConnect Not Refreshing

Symptom

Causes

Fix 1: Check your sign-in status

Fix 2: Verify OfficeConnect formulas are intact

Fix 3: Test network connectivity

Fix 4: Reload the OfficeConnect add-in

Fix Authentication and Token Errors in OfficeConnect

Symptom

Causes

Fix 1: Sign out and sign back in

Fix Slow Performance in Large Reports

Symptom

Causes

Fix 1: Count and reduce formulas

Fix Data Discrepancies Between OfficeConnect and Workday

Symptom

Causes

Fix 1: Align the period definition

Workday OfficeConnect + think-cell: Resolving the Conflict

Symptom

Root cause

Use OfficeConnect on Mac

1. Install OfficeConnect on Mac

Workday OfficeConnect on Mac: The VDI Workflow