What is Salesforce Excel Connector?

The Excel Add-in provides bi-directional access to the Force.com API via the Toolkit for Office, and is useful for analyzing data in tables as well as cleaning and mass-updating salesforce.com-based data from within a spreadsheet.   It works best when analyzing/manipulating data in a single table.  To get started you will need to have Microsoft Excel installed on your workstation and to download and install the Microsoft Office Extension and Excel Connector Add In files.

• Link to Download the Microsoft Office Extension
• Link to Download the Excel Connector Add In
• Link to Install Instructions

 

Obtaining your security token.

When ever you access Salesforce outside of the normal login, you will need to use a security token specific to your login.  You will need to know your security token and reference it in your password in order to connect.  Your token can be reset by going to Setup > Personal Setup > My Personal Information > Reset My Security Token

You will receive an email containing your security token, you can then use it to log into Salesforce from Excel.   This remains your token until you reset it again.
 

Using Excel Connector

Once you have successfully installed the extension and add in, you should  see sforce Connector as an option in the Add-Ins tab.

 

To get started, click on the sForce Connector drop-down menu and choose sForce Table Query Wizard.

If you have not logged into your Salesforce instance before you will be prompted to log in.  You will use the login and token information specific to the Salesforce instance you wish to query.  You will need your token that you obtained earlier.

Logging into the Excel Connector using your security token.

1. Enter the user name that you use to log into Salesforce in the User Name field.
   
2. Enter the password you use to log into Salesforce immediately followed by the token in the Password field (e.g. passwordqFaa5BQB4j4Knv8K0bvwH8p4G - where password is the password and the rest is the security token you received in your email).
3. The Server URL should default properly for you.
4. Click Login to log into your instance of Saleforce
   

 

Querying Saleforce Data

Once logged in the Wizard will walk you through the remaining steps needed to pull in data from your Salesforce instance.

Step 1:  Indicate where in the Spreadsheet you want to put the data returned from the query.  Click Next.

Step 2a: Choose the Table that holds the data you wish to analyze.  Click Next.

  

 Step 2b: Choose the Fields that hold the data you wish to analyze.  Click Next.

 

Step 3: Add any conditions by which you want to filter the data before it is returned to Excel.  When done, click Run Query.

For example if you only wanted to see Opportunities that were closed this year. 

1. Select the Close Date from the Select a Field drop-down
2. Select greater than from the Set Operator drop-down
3. Enter the last day of the previous year in the Enter Value(s) box.
4. Click Add to Query
   

  

The Data is queried from Salesforce and pulled into Excel.  Depending upon the amount of data, this may take several minutes.

 

 Once the data is returned you can use it as you would other Excel data to analyze, make pivot tables, charts, etc.

 

This was a brief introduction to Excel Connector.  Excel connector is a powerful tool that can also be used to update data in your Salesforce instance.  To find out more about all the features of Excel Connector, review the Salesforce training and documentation located at the link provided below.

 

Salesforce Training and Documentation

Salesforce provides an excellent posting containing more details on the use of Excel Connector along with a training video showing how you use Excel connector to update information in Salesforce.  The posting can be found at http://www.salesforce.com/community/crm-best-practices/administrators/data-management/data-tools/excel-connector.jsp .