Workday officially transitioned its add-on for Google Sheets to the production version on September 19, 2026, and according to its own announcement, it is directly linked to planning data from Adaptive Planning. Finance teams will evaluate key figures in the future through text input, without having to manually export tables from a separate system. Google has been describing the integration in its own Workspace blog since September 21, 2026.
Sidebar connects Google Sheets with Workday planning data
The add-on Workday for Google Sheets integrates a sidebar into Google Sheets and Google Slides, allowing users to retrieve numbers from Adaptive Planning, Workday’s cloud tool for corporate planning. Users can select accounts and dimensions from a hierarchy via drag-and-drop, and Workday automatically builds a table in the open sheet. According to Workday documentation, changes can also be written back: if a user adjusts a cell, they can directly send the new number to Adaptive Planning, with a log keeping track of the change.
So far, finance teams often had to manually export planning figures as a CSV file and input them into their own tables. This intermediate step is eliminated with the direct connection, as Google states in the Workspace blog. The add-on had been in preview since November 21, 2025, before it went into regular production version nearly ten months later – a comparatively long testing period for Workday. Similarly, Copilot in Excel already links external financial data services with spreadsheets, but without a write-back function to a planning system. For installation, Google Workspace administrators must grant the add-on permissions in advance, such as access to Google Slides, Google Sheets, and external web content within Google applications.
AI function Ask Workday answers questions about key figures
The core of the integration is Ask Workday for Adaptive Planning, an AI function that relieves users from building their own formulas. Instead of writing a spreadsheet function, they can formulate questions in natural language, such as asking about the deviation between planned and actual figures in a specific cost center. The system automatically compares plan versions with actual values and breaks down drivers behind larger deviations by time period and dimension, such as by department or product line.
Additionally, an anomaly function independently detects unusual spikes in account hierarchies, such as a sudden cost increase in a department, and directs attention specifically to notable values, rather than analysts having to go through each line individually. Results can be inserted as a chart or table directly into a sheet and exported to Google Slides with a click, allowing a report to transition into a presentation without format changes. Similarly, Gemini in Google Sheets already works with voice commands, but without integration into an external planning system like Adaptive Planning. A controller can ask Ask Workday, for example, why marketing costs deviate from the plan in the third quarter and receive an answer along with a chart within seconds instead of after a manual evaluation.
Access remains tied to existing Workday license
The add-on itself is available for free in the Google Workspace Marketplace, where it has reportedly been installed more than 49,000 times, and according to Google, it runs in all Workspace editions, on Workspace Individual accounts, and on personal Google accounts. However, a valid license for Workday Adaptive Planning is required; without it, the add-on can be installed but not populated with data. Administrators must also individually enable access to both the add-on and Ask Workday in the Adaptive Planning permissions before individual employees can access it.
Neither Workday nor Google publicly comment on specific additional costs for Ask Workday; it is not independently verified whether the AI function is included in the basic package of Adaptive Planning or billed separately. Google does not mention any restrictions to specific countries or separate EU availability; the rollout is reportedly starting worldwide in both Rapid Release and Scheduled Release domains.
It will be crucial whether Workday expands the approach to other spreadsheet programs or whether Google, conversely, integrates its own planning functions more deeply into Sheets – both companies are increasingly competing for the same target audience of finance and controlling teams, who previously had to switch between multiple systems.
