MICROSOFT 365 ADD-INS

Planir in Excel, Word and PowerPoint

Q: Can I write numbers back to Planir from Excel?

Yes. A cell holding a PLANIR.RW formula reads one value out of the cube. Type a number over it and the add-in writes that value back to the cube, then restores the formula in the cell, so the sheet is live again immediately rather than left holding a static number. The write is governed the same way any other input to Planir is: it carries who entered it and when, it respects period locks, and it respects the permissions that user already has. That is the part nobody expects from a spreadsheet add-in, and it is what lets a budget round run in the interface your team is fluent in while the numbers live somewhere they can be reviewed, approved and closed. Flex reports bind their rows to a saved set, so a rebuild adds and removes rows as the model changes rather than needing a range widened by hand.

The cube your group reports from, inside the files your board pack is already built in. Live formulas in Excel that you can type over, and native tables and charts in Word and PowerPoint that a refresh rewrites without touching your formatting.

Book a working session Talk to Sales

Trusted by CFOs and finance teams at multi-entity groups across APAC

One add-in, three Office applications

Planir installs once and appears in Excel, Word and PowerPoint. What it puts into the document differs by application: Excel receives live formulas that recalculate and can be written back to the cube, and Word and PowerPoint receive native tables and charts that a refresh rewrites in place. That split is the whole design. A spreadsheet is a place people work, so it gets formulas they can type over, with the write governed the same way any other input to Planir is. A board pack is a finished artefact, so it gets objects the server formats and a refresh rewrites without touching position, size, styling or z-order. One is an interface for doing the work, the other is a container for presenting it, and treating them the same is what makes most reporting add-ins frustrating to live with.

Excel gets live formulas you can type over. Word and PowerPoint get finished artefacts that a refresh rewrites in place.

Excel

Reports built from live formulas, with governed write-back. The interface your finance team already knows, reading from the same cube the group reports from.

PowerPoint

Tables and charts on your slides, refreshed in place. The numbers move, the deck does not.

Word

Native tables and charts inside a content control, so a refresh rewrites the figures and leaves the document you laid out alone.

Application	What lands in the document	How the numbers behave
Excel	Live Planir formulas on a worksheet	Formulas Excel recalculates. Type over a cell and the value goes back to the cube.
PowerPoint	A native table or chart shape on a slide	Formatted by the server and frozen at the last refresh. Read-only in the deck.
Word	A native table or chart inside a content control	Formatted by the server and frozen at the last refresh. Read-only in the document.

A value typed over a live cell, written back to the cube, with the formula restored behind it.

EXCEL

Type over the number and it saves to the cube

PLANIR.RW reads one value out of the cube. Type a number over that cell and the add-in writes it back, then puts the formula back. That is the part nobody expects from a spreadsheet add-in, and it is the reason a budget round can run in Excel without the spreadsheet becoming the record.

✦Flex reports bind their rows to a saved set, so Rebuild adds and removes rows as the model changes
✦Freeform reports write the rows out once and leave them fixed, for a layout you want to stay put
✦Click a row label twice to collapse it. The first click only selects, so a report never rearranges itself when somebody clicks a label to read it
✦Empty rows and columns are suppressed on the server, so they never reach the sheet at all
✦Dropdown filter rows built with PLANIR.PICK feed straight into a report coordinate

A refresh rewriting the figures in a table already on the slide. Rows are added, every number changes, and the table keeps its position, size and styling.

POWERPOINT

The numbers move, the deck doesn't

A refresh writes into the tables and charts already on the slide. Same shape, same position, same size, same styling, same z-order. It never deletes and re-adds a shape, even when the grid changes its dimensions, so a refresh the night before a board meeting cannot undo the work somebody did on the deck that afternoon.

✦A refresh updates a chart, it never rebuilds it
✦PowerPoint's own tools own the chart's appearance from the moment it lands
✦Edit Data works, because the figures are written into a real embedded workbook as well as into the chart
✦Duplicate a slide and each copy refreshes independently

WORD

Native tables and charts, inside a content control

A Planir table or chart lands in Word inside a content control, which is what lets a refresh rewrite the figures in place and leave the document you laid out alone. The same promise as PowerPoint, in the application your written commentary already lives in.

Tables and charts are native Word objects, not pasted images
A refresh rewrites the figures in place and leaves your styling, position and size as they were
Column widths put the figures first, so a wide table still reads on a portrait page
The commentary you write around the table is never touched by a refresh
Runs on Word for Windows desktop

What happens when you send the file on?

Nothing breaks. The link back to Planir is stored inside the document, so what you send is an ordinary Office file. A recipient without the add-in opens it normally and sees the numbers exactly as they stood at your last refresh.

The question every finance team asks first, answered before you have to ask it.

It is a normal Office file

The link is held in the document's own settings rather than in a separate file or a server-side registry. What lands in somebody's inbox is a plain .xlsx, .pptx or .docx that opens for anyone.

A recipient without the add-in sees your last refresh

No prompts, no broken references, no missing add-in warning blocking the file. The figures stay as they were when you last refreshed, which is normally exactly what you intended to send.

Snapshot when you want them frozen for good

Snapshot converts the live formulas in a workbook to static values, so a file going to a lender, an auditor or a buyer carries the numbers and no route back to your cube.

SIGN-IN AND GOVERNANCE

Signing in is the same control it is everywhere else

The add-in picks its server from a fixed list, so nobody can point it at an arbitrary URL. Sign-in supports email and password, Sign in with Xero and Sign in with Intuit, with two-factor authentication and a tenant picker for accounts spanning more than one tenant.

The server is chosen from a fixed list, never typed in as a free URL
Email and password, or Sign in with Xero, or Sign in with Intuit
Two-factor authentication by authenticator app or emailed code
A tenant picker for accounts that span more than one tenant
The token lives in the document's own settings, so reloading the task pane does not sign you out
Every permission a user has in Planir applies unchanged in the add-in

Which versions of Office do I need?

Microsoft 365 for all three applications. Excel needs a 2020 or later build for click-to-drill and a 2023 or later build to publish and open workbooks, PowerPoint needs Microsoft 365 Apps 2508 on Windows or 16.100 on Mac, and Word needs Microsoft 365 or Office 2021 or later on Windows desktop.

What each application needs, in one place.

Application	What you need	Worth knowing
Excel	Microsoft 365	Click-to-drill needs a 2020 or later build. Publishing and opening workbooks needs a 2023 or later build.
PowerPoint	Microsoft 365 Apps 2508 on Windows, 16.100 on Mac	Inserting and refreshing PowerPoint objects needs a Microsoft 365 licence.
Word	Microsoft 365, or Office 2021 or later	Runs on Word for Windows desktop.

We confirm the Office builds your team is on during a working session before rollout, so the minimums are settled before anybody installs anything.

How you get it

How do I install the Planir add-in?

From the Office store, inside the application. Open Excel, Word or PowerPoint, go to the Insert tab, choose Get Add-ins, search for Planir and add it. It stays in your ribbon from then on, and it installs once for all three applications.

Four steps, no download, no administrator ticket for a single user.

Insert tab

Open Excel, Word or PowerPoint and go to the Insert tab on the ribbon.

Get Add-ins

Choose Get Add-ins. That opens the Office store inside the application, so nothing is downloaded from a website.

Search for Planir

Search the store for Planir and add it. The Planir tab appears in your ribbon and stays there.

Pick your server, sign in, choose your tenant if you have more than one. You are ready to insert a report.

Rolling it out to a whole finance team at once is a Microsoft 365 admin deployment rather than four steps in the ribbon. We set that up with your IT during implementation.

Where the add-ins fit

The add-in is one way into Planir. These are the pages that explain what sits behind it.

Comparison

Planir vs Excel

Why the add-in is not a contradiction. Keep the interface your team knows and stop the spreadsheet being the database.

Read Planir vs Excel

Connected stack

Integrations

NetSuite, SAP, Dynamics 365, Sage Intacct, Xero and QuickBooks. Where the numbers the add-in reads actually come from.

See integrations

Board governance

Board pack generation

The Word and PowerPoint side of the add-in, in the context of the pack it is there to produce.

See board pack generation

Budgeting

Budgeting and planning

Where write-back earns its place. A budget round collected in Excel, held in a governed model.

See budgeting and planning

Common questions

Do I have to stop using Excel?

No. The add-in exists so you do not have to. Excel stays the interface for anyone who wants it, reading from the same governed cube the rest of the group reports from, and a budget round can be collected there without the spreadsheet becoming the record. What changes is that the file stops being the system of record, which is the part that causes the trouble: the workbook only one person can safely have open, the consolidation tab rebuilt when the group structure moves, the figure nobody can trace back to a journal. None of that is a fault in Excel, it is what happens when a file is asked to be a database. Planir vs Excel sets out where that boundary sits and why the add-in is the proof of the position rather than an exception to it. Most teams keep using Excel daily after go-live, which is the intended outcome rather than a transitional stage.

Can I write numbers back to Planir from Excel?

Yes. A cell holding a PLANIR.RW formula reads one value out of the cube. Type a number over it and the add-in writes that value back to the cube, then restores the formula in the cell, so the sheet is live again immediately rather than left holding a static number. The write is governed the same way any other input to Planir is: it carries who entered it and when, it respects period locks, and it respects the permissions that user already has. That is the part nobody expects from a spreadsheet add-in, and it is what lets a budget round run in the interface your team is fluent in while the numbers live somewhere they can be reviewed, approved and closed. Flex reports bind their rows to a saved set, so a rebuild adds and removes rows as the model changes rather than needing a range widened by hand.

What happens when I email the file to someone who does not have the add-in?

It opens normally. The link back to Planir lives in the document’s own settings rather than in a separate file or a server-side registry, so what lands in somebody’s inbox is an ordinary .xlsx, .pptx or .docx. A recipient without the add-in sees the numbers as they stood at your last refresh, with no prompts, no broken references and no missing add-in warning blocking the file. That is normally exactly what you intended to send. If you want the numbers frozen permanently, Snapshot converts the live formulas in a workbook to static values first, which is the right choice for a file going to a lender, an auditor or a buyer, because it carries the figures and no route back to your cube. Everything else stays a normal file that opens for anyone, on any machine, with nothing installed.

Will a refresh change my formatting?

No, and that is a deliberate design decision rather than a side effect. In PowerPoint and Word a refresh writes into the table and chart objects already in the document. It never deletes a shape and re-adds it, even when the grid changes its dimensions, so position, size, styling and z-order all survive. A chart is updated and never rebuilt, which means PowerPoint’s own formatting tools own its appearance from the moment it lands, and Edit Data still works because the figures are written into a real embedded workbook as well as into the chart. The practical consequence is the one that matters: a refresh the night before a board meeting cannot undo the work somebody did on the deck that afternoon. Duplicate a slide and each copy refreshes independently, so a variant deck does not have to be rebuilt either.

Which versions of Office do I need?

Microsoft 365 for all three applications. Excel needs a 2020 or later build for click-to-drill and a 2023 or later build to publish and open workbooks. PowerPoint needs Microsoft 365 Apps 2508 on Windows or 16.100 on Mac, and inserting or refreshing PowerPoint objects needs a Microsoft 365 licence. Word needs Microsoft 365 or Office 2021 or later on Windows desktop. Signing in, browsing the cube and refreshing Excel and Word work across those builds. These are the same minimums Microsoft publishes for modern Office add-ins, so a finance team already current on Microsoft 365 usually meets them without changing anything. We confirm the builds your team is on during a working session before rollout, so the minimums are settled before anybody installs anything, and IT gets the version list in writing rather than discovering it mid-deployment.

Does it work on Mac?

Yes. PowerPoint runs on 16.100 or later, and Excel runs on Mac builds that meet the same minimums as Windows, so click-to-drill needs a 2020 or later build and publishing workbooks needs a 2023 or later build. Once those minimums are met, PowerPoint and Excel on Mac behave exactly as they do on Windows: the same live formulas, the same governed write-back from a cell, and the same refresh that rewrites figures in place and leaves your formatting alone. A Mac user and a Windows user can work on the same deck and the same workbook without either of them noticing which machine the other is on. Word runs on Windows desktop. If Word on Mac is part of how your team works, tell us in a working session so we can take it into account.

See your own numbers in your own workbook

Bring a board pack or a budget template you already use. Leave with it reading from Planir.

Book a working session Talk to Sales