Microsoft Excel

Use Microsoft Excel as a Destination. You can browse published Data Marts, create a report, and refresh it inside the workbook.

You do not create this destination in the OWOX web app. Install the OWOX Data Marts add-in from the Office Add-ins store inside Excel, sign in, and build a report. The destination then appears in your Destinations list and stores no credentials. The add-in reads the report with your OWOX access and writes rows into a worksheet in your workbook.

Scheduled refresh is not available, and you cannot create Excel reports from the Destinations tab.

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Requirements

Requirement	Details
OWOX account	An account at app.owox.com with access to at least one published Data Mart. New to OWOX? Start with the Quick Start.
Matching email	The Microsoft account in Excel must use the same email as your OWOX profile. Microsoft must verify that email.
Excel version	Excel on the web, Microsoft 365 on Windows or Mac, or Excel 2019 or later on Mac. The add-in does not support perpetual Excel 2019 and 2021 on Windows.
Account type	A work or school account, or a personal Microsoft account.
Marketplace access	If your organization turned off Marketplace access for users, you cannot self-install. Admins control this with the setting that turns Microsoft Marketplace on or off for all apps except Outlook. An admin must then deploy the add-in centrally.
Admin deployment path	Microsoft 365 admin center → Settings → Integrated apps. This is the recommended route. The older Add-ins page under Integrated apps is the fallback. A global admin assigns the add-in to a user, a group, or the whole tenant.
Licensing for central deployment	Microsoft 365 Business (Basic, Standard, Premium), Office 365 Enterprise (E1, E3, E5, F3), or Microsoft 365 Enterprise (E3, E5, F3).
Identity and mailbox	Users sign in to Microsoft 365 with organizational credentials and have Exchange Online mailboxes. The subscription directory must live in, or federate to, Microsoft Entra ID. Central deployment does not work with on-premises Exchange.
Network	Your proxy or firewall must allow the OWOX-hosted add-in domain and Microsoft’s Marketplace and CDN endpoints. The listing declares that the app can read and change the document and send data over the internet. Flag this for security review.

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Install the add-in

From the Office Add-ins store

The store lives inside Excel. It is not the Windows Microsoft Store app.

1. Open any workbook.
2. On the Home tab, select Add-ins.
3. Select More Add-ins, then open the Store tab.
4. Search for OWOX Data Marts and select Add.
5. Review the license and privacy terms, then select Continue.

💡 Older desktop builds show the store under Insert → Get Add-ins instead.

The OWOX Data Marts tab appears on the ribbon. Select Launch sidebar to open the task pane. Excel may ask you to trust the add-in on first launch. That prompt is expected.

💡 You can also start from the Microsoft Marketplace listing. Select Get it now and follow the prompts to open Excel.

The add-in installs per Microsoft account. It follows you to every device where you sign in with the same account.

For your organization

Administrators can install the add-in for selected users, groups, or the whole tenant. Check the central deployment rows in Requirements first.

1. Open the Microsoft 365 admin center.
2. Go to Settings → Integrated apps → Get apps.
3. Search for OWOX Data Marts and select Get it now.
4. Choose the users or groups, review permissions, and select Finish deployment.

Deployed add-ins can take up to 24 hours to appear on the ribbon. Ask users to fully restart Excel after that.

Sign in

1. Select Launch sidebar on the OWOX Data Marts ribbon tab.
2. Select Sign in. The add-in uses the Microsoft account Excel already uses.
3. OWOX matches that account to your profile by verified email address.

Excel on the web signs you in silently for workbooks in OneDrive for Business or SharePoint Online. Other workbooks open a Microsoft sign-in window instead. Both are normal.

If Excel is not signed in, or uses the wrong account, sign in to Excel first. On desktop, go to File → Account. On the web, use the profile icon in the top-right corner. Then open the task pane again.

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Work with reports

Create a report

1. Choose where the data goes. Select Add report in the task pane to use the active worksheet. Select New report on the ribbon to add a worksheet first.
2. In the task pane, pick a published Data Mart.
3. Choose columns, filters, and sort order. See Report Output Controls for what each control does.
4. Select Create & Run.

The rows land in the sheet. Column names and descriptions come from the Data Mart, as your data team defined them. Each header carries a note with the description.

The add-in binds the report to that worksheet. Later refreshes write into the same sheet.

Refresh a report

Use the ribbon buttons on the OWOX Data Marts tab:

• Refresh current report reruns the report bound to the active worksheet.
• Refresh all reports reruns every report in the workbook.

You can also open All reports in the task pane and refresh a report from the list.

A refresh clears the whole bound sheet, then writes the rows again. Anything you typed on that sheet disappears, including formulas and formatting. Keep your own formulas on another sheet and reference the report sheet from there.

Share the workbook

Anyone who opens the workbook sees the values from the last refresh. The cells hold plain data, so no add-in is needed to read them.

To refresh, a colleague needs the add-in and an OWOX account with access to the Data Mart. The report bindings travel with the workbook, so they refresh the same sheets.

Column header notes

Each header note holds the column description from the Data Mart. On Windows and Mac, the add-in sizes the note to fit its text. Excel on the web cannot resize notes, so drag the note’s edge to read the rest.

Copy or delete a sheet

• Copying a worksheet copies its report binding. The add-in refreshes the copy you are viewing. When neither copy is active, it picks one of them. Delete the copy you do not need.
• Deleting a bound sheet removes the binding. The report stays in All reports, but a refresh reports that it lost the sheet.

Limits

• No scheduled refresh. Refresh runs only while the workbook is open in Excel.
• One report per worksheet.
• Excel holds about 1,048,576 rows per sheet. Narrow large Data Marts with filters before you run them.
• Reports read what your OWOX access allows. Ask a Data Mart owner to publish a Data Mart you cannot see.

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Update the add-in

Store installs update automatically. You never reinstall to get a new version.

Remove the add-in

• Store install: go to Home → Add-ins → More Add-ins → My Add-ins. Select ⋯ next to OWOX Data Marts, then Remove.
• Admin deployment: the administrator removes it under Integrated apps.

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Troubleshooting

Find the symptom you see and follow the fix.

I cannot find the add-in in the store

Your tenant blocks store add-ins. Some organizations turn off the Office Add-ins store. Ask your Microsoft 365 administrator to deploy the add-in centrally.

Excel disables the Add button, or says your admin turned off the store. Same cause, same fix.

You searched the Windows Microsoft Store app. The add-in lives in the store inside Excel. See Install the add-in.

My admin deployed it, but it is not on my ribbon

Central deployment can take up to 24 hours to reach every user. After that:

1. Quit Excel completely, not just the workbook.
2. Reopen Excel and check the Home tab.
3. Ask the administrator to confirm you belong to an assigned user or group.

The task pane opens blank

Excel cached an old page. Try these in order:

1. Close every Office app, then reopen Excel.
2. Web: hard-refresh the browser tab, or open the workbook in a private window.
3. Windows: delete the contents of %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Wef\, then restart Excel. Ask IT if the folder is locked.
4. Mac: delete the contents of ~/Library/Containers/com.microsoft.Excel/Data/Library/Caches/, then restart Excel.

Still blank on the web? Press F12, open the Console tab, and run:

owoxHostDiagnostics();

The output lists the Office platform, the Excel API version, and available capabilities. Include it when you contact support. On Windows or Mac, skip this step and contact support directly.

Sign-in does not complete

A window opens and closes without signing you in. Close the task pane, open it again, and press Sign in yourself. Browsers only allow a sign-in window that a button press opens.

Nothing happens on the web. Excel on the web signs you in silently only for workbooks in SharePoint Online or OneDrive for Business. Other workbooks open a sign-in window. That is the normal path.

“Need admin approval” appears. Your organization requires admin consent before an add-in can sign users in. Ask your Microsoft 365 administrator to grant consent for OWOX Data Marts under Microsoft Entra ID → Enterprise applications. Sign in again after they approve.

“This copy of Excel cannot sign you in.” Your Excel build is too old. See Requirements.

“OWOX does not recognise this account”

Microsoft signed you in, but OWOX declined the account. OWOX matches accounts by verified email address.

• Different email. Open the ⋯ menu in the task pane to see the signed-in account. Compare it with your OWOX profile email. They must match.
• Unverified email. Personal Microsoft accounts often carry an unverified address. Verify it with Microsoft, or sign in with your work account.
• No OWOX account. The add-in cannot create one. Sign up at app.owox.com, then sign in again.

A report run fails or returns no rows

The task pane shows the error from OWOX. Common causes:

• The Data Mart is unpublished, or you lost access. Ask the Data Mart owner in OWOX.
• The storage connection or query failed. Your data team fixes it in OWOX. Run the report again after the Data Mart runs there.
• The filters exclude every row. Edit the report and loosen the filters.
• The result is too large for Excel. Narrow the report with filters.

Header notes look cut off

Excel on the web cannot resize notes. The full text is there. Drag the note’s edge to reveal it.

A refresh reports nothing, or the wrong sheet changed

The report lost its worksheet. Someone deleted the bound sheet, or the report belongs to another workbook. The add-in stops instead of guessing, because a refresh starts by clearing the sheet.

Two sheets share one report. Copying a worksheet copies its binding. Delete the copy you do not need.

Still stuck

Contact us at bi@owox.com or open a thread in GitHub Discussions. Include:

• what you did and what you saw, with exact error text;
• the output of owoxHostDiagnostics() if you are on the web;
• your platform: web, Windows, or Mac;
• where the workbook lives: OneDrive, SharePoint, or a local disk.