Recipe on OfficeConnectPro

Report on Actuals by Cost Center

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

OfficeConnect’s Financials data source supports Workday worktags — including Cost Center — as dimension filters. Adding a cost center to your report scopes all data to that organizational unit.

Steps

Open your OfficeConnect workbook and click the OfficeConnect tab.
Set up your report with company, version, time, and ledger account rows as usual. If you need to start from scratch, see Build an Actuals Trend Report.
Click an empty row or column header where you want to add the cost center filter. A common layout puts the cost center in the same header area as the company, stacked in adjacent cells.

Report on Intercompany Eliminations in OfficeConnect

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

Intercompany eliminations remove transactions between entities in a consolidated group — preventing double-counting of intercompany revenue and expenses. OfficeConnect’s Financials data source surfaces these as data you can include or exclude in your reports.

How eliminations appear in OfficeConnect

When you report against a parent company (consolidated entity) in OfficeConnect, the data you see depends on your Workday Financial Management configuration:

If elimination journals are posted in Workday, they are included in consolidated totals automatically
The Exclude Elimination option (available in Financials data source reports) lets you toggle whether elimination entries are included in your totals

Note: The Exclude Elimination option is a Financials-only feature — it is not available in Adaptive Planning reports. See Adaptive Planning vs. Financials Data Source.

Create Repeating Reports

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

The Repeating Reports feature in Workday OfficeConnect 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. Start from a polished single-sheet template, such as the one built in Build a Department P&L Report.

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.

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:

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.

Variance Analysis by Journal Source in OfficeConnect

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

When a GL account balance moves unexpectedly, the first question is: what kind of journal entry caused it? Workday Financial Management categorizes journal entries by Journal Source (Manual Journal, Accounts Payable, Payroll, etc.). OfficeConnect can filter by journal source, letting you isolate the impact of each source on any account balance.

What you’ll need:

OfficeConnect connected to the Financials data source
A report showing a balance or variance you want to investigate

Find journal source elements in the Reporting pane Open the OfficeConnect Reporting pane. Expand Filters (or Journal Sources, depending on your OfficeConnect version). You should see a list of journal sources configured in your Workday tenant — typically including: Manual Journal, Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, Payroll, Fixed Assets, Intercompany, and System. If you don’t see a journal source filter, confirm with your OfficeConnect admin that the Financials data source is configured to expose journal source dimensions.

Build a journal source comparison report

Set up a basic account report:

Build a Year-over-Year Trend Report

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

A year-over-year trend report shows how each month compares to the same month last year — useful for spotting seasonal patterns and measuring real growth. OfficeConnect’s time elements let you pin both years in the same report.

What you’ll build: A report with 12 months of current-year actuals alongside 12 months of prior-year actuals, plus a YoY variance row.

What you’ll need:

OfficeConnect connected to an Adaptive Planning tenant with at least two full years of actuals
Familiarity with adding elements (Add Elements) and time contexts (Time and Contexts)

Step 1 — Set up current-year monthly columns

Open Excel and activate OfficeConnect Open Excel and click the OfficeConnect tab. Sign in if prompted.

Add your Actuals version Click B1. In the Reporting pane, expand Versions and drag your Actuals version into B1. This version applies to all columns that share row 1.

Add current-year monthly time elements Click B2. In the Reporting pane, expand Time → Months and find January of the current year (e.g., Jan 2026). Drag it into B2. Continue across row 2 — C2 through M2 — adding Feb 2026 through Dec 2026. You should have 12 monthly time elements across row 2.

Step 2 — Set up prior-year monthly columns

Add prior-year Actuals version Click N1. Drag your Actuals version into N1. (It’s the same version — the time elements in row 2 control which year’s data loads.)

Add prior-year monthly time elements Click N2. Drag Jan 2025 into N2. Continue across — O2 through Y2 — adding Feb 2025 through Dec 2025.

Step 3 — Add account rows

Add your primary account Click A3. In the Reporting pane, expand Accounts and drag your key account (e.g., Revenue) into A3.

Populate the data row Click B3. OfficeConnect formulas reference the version in row 1 and the time in row 2, so B3 returns Jan 2026 Actuals for Revenue. Copy B3 across to Y3 — each cell picks up the correct month and year from its column.

Add remaining account rows Copy row 3 down for each additional account. Add more accounts to column A as needed.

Step 4 — Add YoY variance

Add a variance section header In column Z row 1, type YoY Variance. Leave Z2 empty.

Add monthly variance formulas

In B4 (one row below your last account row, or in a dedicated variance row), enter:

Add Headcount Data to a Financial Report

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

OfficeConnect doesn’t separate financial and workforce accounts — they’re all elements in your Adaptive Planning model. You can add headcount rows to any financial report by dragging the right accounts from the Reporting pane.

Steps

Open your financial report in Excel and click the OfficeConnect tab.
Click an empty row below your financial accounts — for example, A10 if your P&L ends at row 9.
In the Reporting pane, expand Accounts and look for your workforce accounts. Common names include:

Set Up Scenario Comparison in OfficeConnect

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

Scenarios in Adaptive Planning are planning alternatives within a version — for example, a Base Case, Upside, and Downside within your annual Budget version. OfficeConnect can display multiple scenarios in the same report, making it easy to show a range of outcomes.

Before you begin

Scenarios must be configured in your Adaptive Planning model before they appear in OfficeConnect. If you don’t see scenarios in the Reporting pane, ask your Adaptive Planning administrator to confirm they are enabled and that you have read access.

Build a Quarterly Board Pack

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

A board pack is the quarterly artifact every finance team produces and the one most prone to last-minute spreadsheet panic. This tutorial walks through building a structured, multi-sheet Workday OfficeConnect workbook that acts as the single source for your quarterly board deck — P&L summary, KPI page, variance commentary, and cash snapshot — with each tab designed to link directly into PowerPoint.

What you’ll build: A four-tab Excel workbook (P&L, KPIs, Variance, Cash) with consistent formatting, refreshable from Adaptive Planning, and ready to link to slides.

Build a KPI Dashboard

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

A KPI dashboard is the one page an executive will actually read. This tutorial walks through building a single-sheet Workday OfficeConnect dashboard with six to eight large-format tiles — Revenue, OpEx, Headcount, EBITDA margin, and so on — each refreshable from your Adaptive Planning model and each showing how the current period compares to the prior one.

What you’ll build: A formatted Excel sheet with KPI tiles, each containing a current-period value, a prior-period value, and a delta — all driven by single OfficeConnect cells.

Build an Operating Expense Waterfall

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

A waterfall walk is how finance teams explain why a number moved. Instead of just showing OpEx went from $4.2M to $4.6M, a waterfall breaks the $400K change into its components — new hires, marketing program, software renewal, T&E reduction. This tutorial walks through building one in Workday OfficeConnect using a native Excel waterfall chart with live Adaptive Planning data.

What you’ll build: A two-column table of OpEx changes by account category, paired with an Excel waterfall chart that shows prior month, the adds and reductions in between, and the current month total.

Build a Forecast Accuracy Report

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

Every FP&A team is asked the same question eventually: how accurate is the forecast? A forecast accuracy report answers that question with math, not anecdote. This tutorial walks through building one in Workday OfficeConnect — comparing a prior forecast version (for example, the forecast made three months ago) against actuals, then calculating absolute error and MAPE (Mean Absolute Percentage Error) by account and period.

What you’ll build: A table with Forecast, Actual, Absolute Error, and Error % columns by account and month, plus a MAPE summary row.

Build a Workforce Plan with Attrition

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

Workforce planning is where most operating expense lives, and getting it right means modeling both sides of the headcount equation — the hires you plan to add and the people who’ll leave naturally. This tutorial walks through building a Workday OfficeConnect workforce plan with attrition baked in, broken out by organizational Level, with fully-loaded cost per FTE calculated alongside.

What you’ll build: A report that shows beginning headcount, attrition losses, planned hires, ending headcount, and fully-loaded cost — by Level, by month, for the next 12 months.

Build a Sales Pipeline-to-Revenue Forecast

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

Pipeline-to-revenue forecasting bridges the gap between the CRM and the financial model. Instead of treating bookings as a single top-down number, this approach builds the forecast bottom-up from deal stages and probabilities. This tutorial walks through assembling a probability-weighted revenue forecast in Workday OfficeConnect, assuming your pipeline data is already loaded into Adaptive Planning through a custom dimension.

What you’ll build: A report that lists pipeline by stage, applies a stage-weighted probability, and projects expected revenue by month for the next two quarters.

Build a Multi-Entity Consolidations Report

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

Multi-entity consolidation is one of the harder reporting problems in finance — you need to roll up several legal entities, eliminate intercompany activity, and produce a view that ties to the consolidated P&L. This tutorial walks through building a consolidations report in Workday OfficeConnect that lays out each entity in its own column, calls out intercompany eliminations explicitly, and totals to a consolidated view.

What you’ll build: A P&L report with one column per legal entity, a dedicated Eliminations column, and a Consolidated total column — all refreshable from Adaptive Planning.

Build a Cohort Revenue Retention Report

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

For SaaS and subscription businesses, cohort retention is the most important diagnostic in the model — it answers whether customers are staying and expanding. This tutorial walks through building a Workday OfficeConnect cohort revenue retention report with one row per signup cohort, retained revenue across each subsequent month, and a net revenue retention (NRR) percentage at the right edge.

What you’ll build: A triangular cohort matrix showing each signup cohort’s starting revenue across its starting month and every subsequent month, with NRR computed at the 12-month mark.

Build a Capital Expenditure Tracker

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

Capital expenditure usually starts the year as a tidy plan and ends it as a sprawling list of in-flight projects and reforecasts. A good CapEx tracker keeps the picture coherent — project by project, plan vs. actual, with a clear view of remaining spend. This tutorial walks through building one in Workday OfficeConnect using a Project Code custom dimension in Adaptive Planning.

What you’ll build: A project-level tracker with Planned, Actual YTD, Forecast Remaining, Total Forecast, and Variance to Plan columns — refreshable from Adaptive Planning.

Build a 13-Week Cash Forecast

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

The 13-week cash forecast is the treasury team’s most-used artifact. It projects weekly cash inflows and outflows over a rolling window so leadership can see liquidity coming weeks before it arrives — or fails to. This tutorial walks through building one in Workday OfficeConnect against a model with weekly cash forecasting enabled.

What you’ll build: A treasury-format report with 13 weekly columns showing Beginning Balance, Receipts (by category), Disbursements (by category), Net Cash Flow, and Ending Balance — refreshable from Adaptive Planning.