PowerPoint board books on OfficeConnectPro

OfficeConnect for PowerPoint

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

Workday 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 Workday 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 Workday OfficeConnect is installed (see Install for End Users), 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. See Sign In & Create a Tenant if you haven’t set up the connection yet.

Create a named range in Excel

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

Designing a Board Pack Template in Workday OfficeConnect

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

The monthly board pack is the most visible artifact your FP&A team ships. Done well, the entire deck refreshes from the OfficeConnect Excel workbook in five minutes; done poorly, a junior analyst spends two days re-pasting tables. This article walks through a reusable template design that’s biased toward the five-minute version.

What you’ll build: A 14-slide PowerPoint board pack template with linked tables and charts pulling from one OfficeConnect Excel workbook. Refresh discipline is built in.

Refreshing All Slides Safely in a Workday OfficeConnect PowerPoint Deck

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

The single failure mode that destroys a board-pack workflow is shipping a deck where some slides have current numbers and others have last month’s. Recipients lose trust in every number on every page. This article documents the refresh discipline that prevents it.

If you’re still building your first linked deck, start with OfficeConnect for PowerPoint and Designing a Board Pack Template.

The refresh order rule

Always refresh in this order:

Excel — open the source workbook, click OfficeConnect → Refresh, wait for completion, save and close
PowerPoint — open the deck, click OfficeConnect → Refresh Links, wait for completion, save and close

Doing PowerPoint first pulls whatever is currently in the Excel file, which may be last month’s data if Excel wasn’t refreshed.

Recovering Broken Links in a Workday OfficeConnect PowerPoint Deck

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

A linked PowerPoint deck breaks the first time someone moves the source Excel workbook, renames a named range, or saves a copy under a new filename without updating the deck. This article documents how to recognize a broken link and the cheapest fix.

If you’re new to linked decks, start with OfficeConnect for PowerPoint.

How a broken link looks

When you open a deck whose source file can’t be found, PowerPoint shows one of these symptoms:

PowerPoint Charts That Update with the Period in Workday OfficeConnect

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

A static PowerPoint chart with the title “Revenue Trend: Jan 2026 - Mar 2026” is fine the first month. The next month, someone has to manually update the title to “Feb 2026 - Apr 2026” — and probably forgets the axis label. Multiply by every chart in a board pack, every month, and you’ve reinvented manual work.

This article walks through building period-aware PowerPoint charts: the axis range, title, and data all roll forward when you refresh.