Troubleshoot & FAQ on OfficeConnectPro

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:

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

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:

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:

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:

Change Rounding Settings

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

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.

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 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: