Introducing the Databricks Excel Add-in for Business Users

Spreadsheets remain the backbone of day-to-day business analysis. Finance teams model forecasts in Excel. Operations teams track performance. Leaders rely on spreadsheets to answer questions quickly.

Yet, the most trusted and complete business data increasingly lives in a lakehouse. For many organizations, connecting that data to Excel today is complex, fragile, and inaccessible to business users. Manual ODBC configuration, multi-step setup guides, and ongoing IT support create friction that slows performance and adoption. Data duplication and multiple semantics layers introduce risks and limit who can actually use governed data.

The result: outdated extracts, duplicated datasets, and business users working around the data platform instead of with it, often relying on legacy BI tools or downstream systems.

The solution: Simple, governed access to Databricks data in Excel

The Databricks Excel Add-in is designed to close this gap. Now in public preview, the add-in lets business users import and analyze Databricks data directly from Excel — without writing SQL or configuring ODBC drivers.

Built on Databricks SQL and Unity Catalog, the add-in brings live, governed lakehouse data and curated business semantics into the Excel experience users already know. Setup is reduced from dozens of manual steps to just a few clicks, making it dramatically easier for business teams to get started.

Critically, the Excel Add-in supports Unity Catalog metric views, letting data teams define business semantics once and make them available consistently across Excel and other analytics workflows.

With the Excel Add-in, users can:

• Select and filter Databricks tables and metric views using a point-and-click UI — no SQL required
• Create native Excel pivot tables backed by governed lakehouse data
• Refresh data to keep spreadsheets up to date
• Access Databricks Workspace queries across workbooks for consistent definitions
• Optionally write and save SQL queries for reuse

This allows data teams to maintain strong governance while enabling business users to work independently in Excel.

The Excel Add-in helps us streamline our workflows without compromising governance. Teams can explore, process, and import Databricks data directly in Excel, while Unity Catalog ensures permissions and definitions stay consistent. It's a big step forward from CSV downloads and manual refreshes. —Spenser Marshall, CIO, M Science

Why this matters: Business semantics + Excel changes the equation

For business users, the value is immediate: faster access to trusted data in the tool they already use every day, without waiting on IT or learning new interfaces.

For data leaders, the Excel Add-in helps:

• Democratize data among business stakeholders
• Ensure business teams always work from trusted, up-to-date business semantics through Unity Catalog metric views
• Enforce Unity Catalog permissions, lineage, and governance
• Eliminate metric drift caused by duplicated logic in spreadsheets and dashboards
• Reduce strain on data practitioners to perform one-off analyses that take time away from their focus

Together, this makes Databricks a more natural part of everyday business workflows.

“The Databricks Excel Add-in turned our gold tables into a business ready product. It is fast, it keeps Excel workflows intact, and it lets one governed asset serve everyone from advanced analytics to business users.” —Paritosh Mehta, Solution Architect, Baytex Energy Corp.

How this looks in practice

1. Data teams define data assets, like Unity Catalog metric views
   Data teams create governed metric views in Unity Catalog to standardize KPIs and business definitions — once — directly on Databricks data.
2. Governance and access are managed centrally
   Permissions and controls are managed and provisioned through Unity Catalog, ensuring the right users see the right metrics with full compliance.
3. Business users analyze data directly in Excel
   Business users access these metrics in Excel via the Databricks Add-in, build pivot tables, and explore data without rewriting logic or exporting extracts.

Outcome: Faster, more reliable decision-making powered by a single source of truth for business semantics and seamless access in Excel. This is a key step toward democratizing the lakehouse, bringing governed analytics to the tools business teams already rely on. 

What’s available today and what’s coming next

The public preview already supports core workflows business users rely on:

• Selecting Unity Catalog tables and metric views
• Executing custom functions with parameters
• Manually refreshing query results
• Creating Excel pivot tables and filtering data
• Selecting and reusing existing Databricks Workspace queries
• Changing workspaces 

Upcoming enhancements include scheduled refresh, AI integrations, and additional usability improvements to further streamline the experience.

How to get started

The Databricks Excel Add-in is available in public preview and can be installed via the Microsoft Office Marketplace or manually downloaded from Databricks documentation. Administrators can deploy it centrally through the Microsoft 365 admin center, while individual users can install it directly in Excel for the web, Windows, or macOS (with the appropriate permissions). After a quick setup, business users can connect to their Databricks workspace and start working with governed lakehouse data right away.