A Step by Step Guide to Using Collections in Excel

Collections in Excel is a Microsoft Excel add-in for submitting and updating Collections forms directly from a spreadsheet. This guide assumes the add-in has already been added to Excel and covers the full workflow from signing in through submitting forms.

📝 Note on naming: The button in the Excel ribbon is literally labeled Collections. Throughout this guide the add-in is referred to as Collections in Excel to distinguish it from the Collections web app. Once the add-in is open in the task pane, this guide refers to it simply as "the add-in" or "the task pane."

1. Open the Collections Add-In in Excel

Open Microsoft Excel and open or create a workbook. In the Excel ribbon, locate the Collections button and click it to open the add-in. A task pane will slide in from the right side of the Excel window.

💡 Tip: The add-in opens in a side task pane, not as a separate window. You can continue to interact with the workbook while the task pane is open.

If you do not see a Collections button in your ribbon, the add-in is not yet available in your copy of Excel. Coverage for adding the add-in to Excel will be published once distribution becomes generally available.

When the task pane opens for the first time (or after signing out), it displays a Sign In card. You can authenticate with your Carta credentials or with an API token.

This is the default sign-in option.

i. Enter your Carta username in the Username field. ii. Enter your password in the Password field. iii. Click the Sign in button.

If your credentials are correct, the task pane transitions to the main view. If not, the sign-in card shows an error message such as Login failed and you can re-enter your credentials.

⚠️ MFA is not supported in this sign-in flow. If your Carta account requires multi-factor authentication, the add-in will reject the username/password attempt. Use the API token mode described in step 2b instead.

Use this mode when MFA is required on your account, or when you prefer not to enter your password into the add-in.

i. On the Sign In card, click the Use API Token link/button to switch the card into token mode. ii. Paste your API token into the API Token text area. iii. Click the Sign in with token button.

If the token is valid, the task pane transitions to the main view. If the token is invalid or has expired, the card displays the message Invalid or expired token. and you can paste a different token.

To switch back to username/password sign-in, click the Sign in with password instead link below the token field.

3. Select a Project

After signing in, the task pane shows a Project dropdown near the top. This dropdown is populated automatically from the projects your signed-in account can access. The first project is selected by default.

Click the Project dropdown and choose the project you want to submit data into.

4. Select a Schema

Once a project is selected, the Schema dropdown below it populates with the schemas available in that project. The first schema is selected by default.

Click the Schema dropdown and choose the schema you want to fill out.

5. Generate the Template

With both a project and a schema selected, the Generate Template button becomes enabled. Click it to create a templated worksheet for your selected schema.

The add-in creates a new worksheet in the active workbook named after your selection (for example, <project> - <schema>). The new worksheet contains:

Header rows describing each column. These rows are protected and cannot be edited.
Dropdowns on columns whose schema field type is an enumeration (a fixed list of choices).
Dropdowns on columns that link to another form (foreign-key columns) — selections appear as labels but are stored internally as identifiers.
Color-coded columns: array-typed columns are tinted light purple/indigo, and conditional columns (those whose required-ness depends on another field's value) are tinted amber.
A hidden formId column at column A. This column is unhidden the first time you successfully submit rows, and it stores the identifier of each submitted form so it can be updated later.
Default values from the schema are written into the first data row to help you get started.

💡 Tip: Field types of fileUpload and calculation are not included in the Excel template. To submit forms containing those fields, use the Collections web app instead.

6. Fill In Your Rows

With the template generated, fill in one row per form you want to submit. The header rows are protected; data goes in the rows below the headers.

a. Standard fields

For text, number, and date fields, click into the cell and type the value directly. Standard Excel formatting and editing applies.

For enumerated fields and foreign-key fields, click into the cell to reveal a dropdown arrow on the right of the cell, then choose a value from the list. Foreign-key dropdowns show human-readable labels, but the add-in resolves them to the underlying identifiers when you submit.

c. Array fields — using "Edit Array Cell"

Some schema fields accept a list of values (for example, multiple measurements of the same property). Array columns are tinted light purple/indigo.

i. Select a cell in an array column. ii. Click the Edit Array Cell button at the top of the task pane. iii. A modal opens with one row per array item and one column per property in the array. Inputs are type-aware — enumerations render as dropdowns, numbers as number inputs, and text as text inputs. iv. Add, edit, or remove items in the modal. v. Click Save to write the array back into the cell as a single serialized value.

d. Conditional fields

Some fields are required only when another field has a particular value. These columns are tinted amber. You can leave a conditional field empty if its condition is not met; client-side validation enforces conditional requirements when you run a Dry Run in step 7.

e. Row limit

⚠️ Row limit: Each generated template supports up to 50 rows. If you need to submit more than 50 forms, generate a new template after submitting your first batch.

7. Run a Dry Run

Before submitting, validate your rows by clicking the Dry Run button.

A Dry Run does the following for each row:

i. Overlays your row's values onto the schema's blank form. ii. Strips out any fileUpload and calculation fields, since the Excel template does not cover those. iii. Resolves foreign-key dropdown selections into their underlying identifiers. iv. Validates conditional requirements on the client side. v. Sends the resulting form to the server-side validation endpoint.

After the Dry Run completes, the Issues panel lists any errors found, grouped by row. Fix the listed issues in your worksheet and run another Dry Run.

The Status indicator shows one of three states:

Ready (grey) — the template has been generated but no validation has been run yet.
Passed (green) — the most recent Dry Run completed with no issues.
Needs Attention (red) — the most recent Dry Run found issues to resolve.

The Submit button becomes enabled only when the issues count is zero.

8. Submit Forms

Once the Status indicator shows Passed, click the Submit button to send your rows to Collections.

For each row, the add-in does one of the following:

If the row's formId column is empty, the add-in creates a new form and writes the returned identifier into Column A for that row.
If the row's formId column already contains an identifier, the add-in updates the existing form with the new values.

On the first successful create, the hidden Column A is unhidden so you can see the assigned form identifiers. After that, the button label switches from Submit to Update Forms — this signals that subsequent clicks will re-submit edited rows rather than create new ones.

The Submit Results panel shows the per-row outcome of the operation (success or failure) so you can confirm which rows were processed.

💡 Tip: To create new forms after some rows already have form identifiers, generate a fresh template (step 5) and fill it from scratch, or leave Column A blank on any new rows you add to the existing template.

9. Sign Out

When you are finished, click the Logout button in the top-right corner of the task pane. This clears the stored credentials from the session and returns the task pane to the Sign In view.

See Collections Overview for a general introduction to Collections.