Troubleshoot: Excel Datalink is returning incorrect values

Issue

The Excel Datalink you've set up appears to be active but is drawing incorrect or 0 values. 

Causes

There are a few reasons why this is happening:

1. The Excel cells you've selected do not include your Actuals periods: Castaway's Datalink feature doesn't assign values to the months you're trying to link it to. The Datalink draws data based on the number of periods in your file.
   For example, if your forecast period begins from Jul 2023 and you have Actuals enabled in your Castaway file from Jul 22 to Jun 23, your data selection i.e. the cells you select will need to include an additional 12 columns to represent the 12 months between Jul 22 - Jun 23. 
2. The cells you selected contain an Excel formula that is unreadable by Castaway: Castaway uses a third-party software to translate the Excel data to the Castaway file. There are some Excel formulas that the third-party software is not able to read e.g. XLOOKUP or PIVOT tables. 

Solutions

1. If you've identified your cause to be that your selected cells do not include your Actuals periods, you'll need to add/insert the X number of columns in your Datalink spreadsheet and start your data selection from the first Actualised month. There doesn't need to be data in those months as they have been actualized. They just need to be selected.
2. If your datalink is returning zero or error values, please reach out to our Customer Success team to review if your Excel formula is the cause of this issue. If it is, you will need to alter the Excel formula to one that can be read.

If none of the above apply to you, please reach out to our Customer Success team for further guidance.