Work in Excel With PlaidXL

~20 minutes · install the add-in, sign in, pull a table, write a live formula

If your day already runs on spreadsheets, you don’t have to leave Excel to work with PlaidCloud. PlaidXL is the PlaidCloud add-in for Excel: it pulls project tables into worksheets, refreshes them on demand, and adds formulas that calculate rolled-up values straight from PlaidCloud data. By the end of this tutorial your inputs come from authoritative project tables instead of a copy-paste that goes stale the moment someone reruns a workflow.

What You’ll Do

1. Install the PlaidXL add-in.
2. Sign in and choose a project.
3. Retrieve a table into a worksheet, then refresh it.
4. Write formulas that list the project’s tables and calculate a total.

Prerequisites

• Excel for Microsoft 365, or Excel 2021 or later, on Windows or Mac.
• A PlaidCloud account. If you use single sign-on for PlaidCloud, keep using it here — PlaidXL signs in through the same identity.
• A project you can open with at least one table that has data and a numeric column. Any project you already have access to works. If you don’t have one yet, From CSV to Answer gets a table into PlaidCloud.

Note

PlaidXL reads with your permissions. You see the projects and tables your account can already see in PlaidCloud — nothing more — and PlaidXL never changes them.

Step 1: Install the Add-in

1. In Excel, open Insert → Add-ins. (In older Mac versions, Insert → Store.)
2. Type PlaidCloud in the search box.
3. Select the PlaidCloud add-in and click Add.

A PlaidCloud tab appears on the ribbon. You install it once per computer, not per workbook.

Tip

Don’t see the PlaidCloud tab? Close every Excel window and reopen Excel. If your organization manages add-ins, your Microsoft 365 administrator may need to deploy it for you. See Install PlaidXL.

Step 2: Sign In and Choose a Project

1. Open a new workbook and click PlaidCloud → Show Taskpane.
2. Enter the email address you use for PlaidCloud and click Sign In.
3. If you belong to more than one workspace, pick one from Select a tenant and click Sign In.
4. Allow the pop-up when Excel asks, and sign in the way you normally do — password and two-factor code, or single sign-on.

The task pane shows Connected to your workspace ID as your username, with your projects below. Click your project. Its tables appear on the Tables tab.

Step 3: Retrieve a Table

1. On the Tables tab, click a table. Rows and Columns show its size.
2. Under Column, clear any columns you don’t need. Fewer columns load faster.
3. Leave Matching Worksheet selected and click Retrieve Table.

The table lands on a new worksheet named after it, ready to work with: a bold header row that stays visible as you scroll, filters on every column, and a named range over the data. A table named Sample data lands on the sheet Sample_data with the named range _Sample_data, so formulas that use the range follow the data as it grows.

Build formulas, pivot tables and charts against it the way you would on any sheet.

Step 4: Refresh It

When the table changes in PlaidCloud — a workflow reruns, new data is loaded — click Refresh All Tables in the task pane or on the ribbon. The sheet tab turns yellow while it refreshes and green when it’s current. Every table you’ve retrieved into the workbook refreshes, with the columns and filter you chose.

Step 5: Write a Live Formula

The task pane copies tables in. PlaidXL formulas go further: they calculate from PlaidCloud data in any cell.

1. On a new sheet, list the project’s tables in A1:

   =PLAIDXL.TABLE.TBL_LIST()

   The names spill down column A.

2. List the columns of your table in C1, replacing Sample data with your table’s name:

   =PLAIDXL.TABLE.GET_COLUMNS("Sample data")

3. Pick a numeric column from that list, and a text column with a value you know is in it. Total the numeric column for that value, replacing the names with yours:

   E1  =PLAIDXL.REPR.TABLE_REPR("Sample data")
   E2  =PLAIDXL.REPR.MEASURE("amount")
   E3  =PLAIDXL.REPR.DIMENSION_REPR("Region", "EMEA")
   E4  =PLAIDXL.CELL(E1, E2, E3)

E4 shows the total of amount for the rows where Region is EMEA — calculated in PlaidCloud, live in your sheet. Change the value in E3 and the total follows.

When the column is linked to a dimension, the value can be any node in it, and the total rolls up everything beneath that node. That’s how a PlaidXL report totals a region, a department or a year from the detail rows.

Where to Go Next

• Build a Report With Custom Functions — turn that one value into a full grid, with a hierarchy down the side and periods across the top.
• PlaidXL Custom Functions — every function and argument.
• Work With Tables and Dimensions — filter rows before you retrieve, and pull dimension hierarchies.
• Design a Dimension Hierarchy — build the dimensions your reports roll up through.