Account Reference Names

Analytics Edge takes account security very seriously. When you use the add-in or one of the connectors to access one of your accounts, the product will encrypt a security token and save it to your computer. You will be asked for an account reference name for this token. The account reference name is saved in your spreadsheet files and may be visible to spreadsheet users, but the security token is on your computer and not in the spreadsheet. This means you can share the workbook without worrying about giving away access to your account.

Some of the connectors will default to using an email address as your account reference name, but you can usually change them to protect your privacy if your workbooks will be distributed to others. The account reference name can be client names or generic descriptions (System Account).

When making queries on your computer, the accounts you have saved will be listed in the connector. If you want to share workbooks with others in your team, you will need to use the same account reference names so the queries will run. Note that the security token on each person’s computer is different, and the actual account logged in to can be different, but the reference name used to save it must be the same.

e.g. John can log into his account and save it as ‘System Account’. Mary can log into her account and also save it as ‘System Account’. John and Mary can share workbooks they each make using those accounts. When John refreshes a workbook, the add-in/connector will look on his computer and use the matching security token (from his account). When Mary refreshes the same workbook, the add-in/connector will look on her computer and use her security token (from her account). If either John or Mary leave the group, the workbooks can continue to be refreshed by the others.