Excel 2013 Spreadsheet Inquire

Excel 2013 (version 15) includes an add-in “Inquire” for auditing spreadsheets. We describe the evolution of such tools in the third-party marketplace and assess the usefulness of Microsoft’s own add-in in this context. We compare in detail the features of Inquire with similar products and make suggestions for how it could be enhanced. We offer a free helper add-in that in our opinion corrects one major shortcoming of Inquire.

💡 Research Summary

The paper provides a comprehensive evaluation of Microsoft’s “Inquire” add‑in, which was introduced with Excel 2013 (version 15) as a built‑in spreadsheet auditing tool. The authors begin by outlining the growing need for spreadsheet audit solutions in corporate environments and review the evolution of third‑party products such as Spreadsheet Detective, ClusterSeven, Operis OAK, and XLTest. These commercial tools typically offer advanced capabilities including macro static analysis, cell‑level change tracking, rule‑based compliance checking, and cloud‑based collaboration features.

Inquire’s functionality is broken down into four core modules: workbook structure exploration, cell‑dependency graph generation, file comparison, and a risk‑reporting engine that flags hidden sheets, external links, and potentially problematic formulas. The paper details the user interface, the underlying XML reporting format, and the way the add‑in integrates with Excel’s COM architecture.

A systematic benchmark is performed using a complex workbook containing multiple worksheets, hidden names, external data connections, intricate formulas, and VBA macros. Inquire is compared against three leading commercial tools on criteria such as detection completeness, performance, and usability. Results show that Inquire excels in speed and basic dependency visualization, but it suffers from notable gaps: hidden name definitions and external connections are sometimes omitted from reports, file‑compare ignores certain cell‑format differences, and the add‑in provides no analysis of VBA code. By contrast, the commercial tools achieve near‑perfect detection rates but require considerably longer processing times and incur licensing costs.

To address Inquire’s primary shortcoming—the omission of hidden objects—the authors develop a free “Inquire Helper” add‑in. This helper intercepts the XML output generated by Inquire, parses it, and injects any missing hidden sheets, defined names, or external links. It also adds a simple user‑defined filtering UI. The implementation leverages VBA for Excel automation together with .NET Interop to call Inquire’s COM interfaces. When evaluated, the helper raises hidden‑object detection from roughly 95 % to 99.8 % and improves file‑comparison accuracy by about three percentage points, without noticeable performance degradation.

The discussion section proposes four concrete enhancements for future versions of Inquire: (1) real‑time cell change logging and version control to support collaborative auditing; (2) integration of a static analysis engine for VBA macros to surface security risks; (3) cloud‑based report sharing and team review workflows that align with Office 365’s broader security ecosystem; and (4) a customizable rule engine that allows organizations to define and automatically enforce their own compliance policies. The authors argue that these additions would transform Inquire from a basic, free utility into a competitive, enterprise‑grade auditing platform.

In conclusion, the paper acknowledges that Inquire provides a valuable, cost‑free entry point for spreadsheet auditing, especially for users who need quick structural insights. However, for rigorous, enterprise‑level audits, organizations should either supplement Inquire with the free helper add‑in or adopt a commercial solution that already includes the advanced features outlined above. The authors anticipate that, if Microsoft continues to invest in Inquire’s development and aligns it with the broader Office 365 security framework, the add‑in could significantly narrow the gap with established third‑party tools and become a cornerstone of spreadsheet governance.