How to configure the Smart Excel property?

This feature will be released on October 19th, 2026

The Smart Excel property connects an Excel workbook to the other properties of an element. You upload an Excel template once, in the property configuration, and link individual cells of that template to properties — a budget, a launch date, a project owner. From then on, every element of that element type carries its own copy of the workbook, and ITONICS keeps the linked cells and the linked properties in sync.

This lets you keep the calculations your team already maintains in Excel — business cases, growth rates, scoring models — while the results appear as regular properties that you can see, sort and report on in ITONICS, without copying numbers by hand.

A link between a cell and a property is called a binding. Each binding has a direction: the cell fills the property, the property fills the cell, or both. You configure the template and the bindings once; users only ever upload and download the workbook of their element.

In this article:

Overview

A Smart Excel property is made of two parts:

Template — an Excel workbook (.xlsx) that defines the structure: its sheets, its cells and any formulas it contains. Every new element of the element type starts with a copy of this template.
Bindings — the list of cells that are linked to properties of the element. A binding names a sheet, a cell (for example B2), a direction and a property.

On an element, the Smart Excel property shows the element's current workbook. When a user uploads a new version of the workbook, ITONICS reads the bound cells and updates the linked properties. When a user changes a linked property in ITONICS, ITONICS writes the new value into the bound cell of the workbook. Every uploaded version is kept in a version history.

Properties that are filled by a Smart Excel property are marked with a Smart Excel badge. Hover over the badge to see which Smart Excel property — and which cell — the value comes from.

Create a Smart Excel property

Smart Excel properties are created in the element configuration, like any other property. You need to be able to configure element types in the workspace.

Go to Workspace settings > Element types, open the element type and click Configure.
Click Add block > Property > Create property > Smart Excel.
Enter a name for the property.
Upload your Excel template. Drag and drop the file or choose it from your computer. Once the upload is complete, ITONICS lists the sheets of the workbook.
Under Bindings, configure at least one binding: select the property, the direction, the sheet and the cell. Click Add binding for each additional cell.
Click Create property, then Save changes.

Only .xlsx files are supported. The older .xls format is rejected at upload — open the file in Excel and save it as .xlsx first. The template can be up to 100 MB.

The properties you want to bind must exist on the element type. Create them first — for example a Number property for a budget, a Date property for a launch date or a User property for an owner — and then bind them in the Smart Excel property. To change the template or the bindings later, open the Smart Excel block and click Settings > Edit property.

A Smart Excel property can be added to more than one element type. A binding only applies to element types that also have the bound property; on element types without it, that binding is simply skipped.

Bindings and sync directions

Each binding has one of three directions:

Direction	What happens	Typical use
Read from	The property takes its value from the cell. When a new version of the workbook is uploaded, the property is updated.	Results that are maintained or calculated in Excel, such as an NPV or a total cost.
Write into	The cell takes its value from the property. When the property changes in ITONICS, the workbook is updated.	Information maintained in ITONICS that the workbook needs, such as the element title, the owner or the budget.
Sync	Both directions. The latest change wins — an upload updates the property, and a change of the property updates the workbook.	Values that people edit in either place.

Read-only properties, such as a Formula property, cannot be filled from a workbook. They can only be used with Write into.

One source per property. A property should be filled by only one Smart Excel property. If two Smart Excel properties on the same element type both read into the same property (with Read from or Sync), the property shows a warning: "Conflicting imports from these Smart Excel properties". Remove one of the bindings to resolve it.

Calculating values in Excel

Because the workbook keeps its formulas, you can combine the two directions to let Excel calculate a value from ITONICS data and send the result back. For example:

The template contains the formula =B2*1.1 in cell C2 of the sheet "Data".
A Number property Budget is bound to cell B2 with Write into.
A Number property Budget incl. reserve is bound to cell C2 with Read from.

When a user sets Budget to 100, ITONICS writes 100 into B2, Excel's formula is recalculated and Budget incl. reserve shows 110. The update can take a few seconds.

For calculations that only use properties of the element, the Formula property is often simpler. Use Smart Excel when the calculation already lives in a workbook, spans many cells, or when people need to work with the workbook itself.

Working with the file on an element

On the element detail page and in the table view, the Smart Excel property shows the current file with its name and size. Click it to open the file panel, which shows:

the file name, who uploaded it, its size and when it was uploaded,
Download — downloads the current workbook, including the latest values written from ITONICS,
Upload new version — uploads an updated workbook,
the version history — every earlier version with its uploader, date and size. Each version can be downloaded.

A new element starts with a copy of the template. Cells bound with Read from or Sync fill the linked properties with the values the template contains, so you can use the template to set default values.

The typical workflow is: download the workbook, edit it in Excel, and upload it again with Upload new version. ITONICS then updates every property bound with Read from or Sync. Users who watch the element are notified by email when a new file is uploaded.

Keep the structure of the template when you edit the workbook. If a bound sheet or cell is missing in an uploaded version — for example because a sheet was renamed — the upload still succeeds, but the affected properties are not updated and show an out-of-sync warning.

What a cell needs to contain

When ITONICS reads a cell into a property, the cell value has to be valid for that property:

Property	The cell must contain
Text	Any text.
Number	A number. Normal Excel number formatting (thousands separators, currency formats) is fine. The value must lie within the minimum and maximum of the property.
Date	A date, in any Excel date format.
User	The email address of a user of the workspace. Upper and lower case do not matter.
Hyperlink	A valid web address.

When ITONICS writes a property into a cell, it writes the readable value — a label, a name, a date or a number — never an internal identifier.

When a value is out of sync

If a cell value cannot be used — for example a number above the maximum of the property, text in a Number cell, or an email address that does not belong to a user of the workspace — ITONICS does not overwrite the property. It keeps its previous value, and its Smart Excel badge shows a warning such as "Out of sync with these Smart Excel properties: Business Case (B5)". Correct the cell in the workbook and upload a new version; the warning disappears once the value could be synchronized.

A problem with one binding never blocks the others. All other bound properties are still updated, and the Smart Excel property itself can always be uploaded and downloaded.

Current limitations

Workbooks cannot be previewed inside ITONICS yet. Use Download to open the workbook in Excel. An in-app preview is planned.
Smart Excel properties cannot be used in workflow forms or in forms on Sites yet.
A Smart Excel property cannot be used to filter, group or build charts.

For an overview of all property types, see Discover the Property Types and Their Use Cases.