Resolving Issues with Exporting to Excel

  Castaway can export many types of information to Excel, including:

• Reports (Reporting > Publish >Export to Excel or Export all Open to Excel) 
• Opening/Actuals Data (Forecast > External Sources > Upload Opening & Actuals Data> Build Import Template)
• Forecast Data (Forecast > External Sources > Upload Forecast Data > Build Forecast Data template)
• Excel Integration (Forecast > External Sources > Excel Launch > Build Excel Template)

When you select one of these options, the system will switch to Excel (or launch Excel if it is not already open) and then display the data you are exporting.

If you are having trouble exporting from Castaway to Excel, we recommend checking these 4 options:

Is Excel in edit mode?

• If Excel is already open but waiting for input on any worksheet, the export from Castaway will be delayed until the input is completed
• The telltale sign for this issue is the Enter and Cancel icons being enabled in the Formula Bar of an Excel worksheet
• If so, Enter or Cancel the input in Excel. The data exported from Castaway should then display as expected

Is the default Export location valid and accessible?

In Castaway, go to settings on the top right corner of the main screen
The settings show the default locations for items including Export Forecast Data and Export Reports. Confirm that:

• these locations are valid
• these locations are currently accessible (especially if connecting across a network)
• you have appropriate permissions for these locations (read/write access is required)

If you are not sure whether a default location is causing the exporting issue, temporarily change the location to a folder you regularly save to (eg Desktop) and retry the export from Castaway

Is there are a problem with your report names?

Castaway uses your report names (which can be customised) as the tab names in Excel. However, Microsoft has a range of restrictions and limits on the content and length of workbook tab names. Issues we have seen in testing include:

• the report title in Castaway includes characters that excel does not allow in a worksheet title including [ ] * / : ? or \
• Sheet names in excel may not start or end with a single quote (') character
• Excel is limited to 31 characters in a sheet name. If your Castaway report title exceeds this limit, Excel will use only the first 31 characters. This is not usually a problem. however, when you export multiple reports that have the same first 31 characters in the report title, the export will fail as Excel does not allow worksheets with the same name. To fix this, change any of the first 31 characters in each duplicated report title

Is Excel installed and properly licenced on your machine?

Although it is unusual, our Customer Success team have found this problem in a few cases, especially where a user has recently moved to a new computer.

Still not working?

When Castaway is unable to export your report to excel you will likely receive this message below.

If you receive this error message, please Send the Report and also email our team to let us know you are experiencing an issue ([e-mail])