How to install the HISAB 360 Excel add-in on Windows
Prefer YouTube? Watch this walkthrough on YouTube →
This walkthrough shows the complete HISAB 360 setup on a Windows PC, start to finish — about two minutes on screen and roughly five minutes on a clean machine. You'll watch the four steps in order: run the signed installer, open Excel and sign in to HISAB, install your AI engine (Anthropic's Claude Code or OpenAI Codex), then sign in to that engine and verify the connection.
HISAB 360 is a chat agent that lives inside Excel. It doesn't ship its own AI — it drives your own Claude or Codex account through a small local server, so usage is billed to you by the provider with no markup. The written steps below mirror the video; for the canonical reference, see the installation docs.
Check the requirements
You need Windows 10 (build 1809 or later) or Windows 11, and Microsoft Excel 2016 or later — or Microsoft 365 desktop (not Excel for the web). .NET Framework 4.8 and the WebView2 runtime are already present on current Windows; the installer pulls WebView2 in if it's missing. Node.js is bundled with HISAB, so there's nothing separate to download.
Step 1 — Run the signed installer
Download the Authenticode-signed installer from the Download page — it serves the right build for your Office bitness, or grab the 32-bit installer if your Excel is 32-bit. Run the file; because the certificate is still building reputation, Windows SmartScreen may say "Windows protected your PC" — click More info ▸ Run anyway, approve the one-time UAC prompt, and finish the wizard. It installs per-machine to C:\Program Files\HISAB.
Step 2 — Open Excel and sign in to HISAB
Launch Excel and open a workbook; the HISAB 360 panel appears in the ribbon. If Excel asks you to enable the add-in, allow it. Open the panel and sign in with the same account you used on the website (Google, GitHub, or email) to activate your 14-day free trial — no card required. The trial is once per machine.
Step 3 — Install your AI engine
On a new install the Chat tab shows a "Connect an AI engine" card. Open Settings, find the Install Claude / Install Codex card, and use the Copy button to grab the one-line command — npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code or npm install -g @openai/codex. You run it in your own terminal, not from inside Excel: that keeps endpoint-security (EDR) tools from freezing a process spawned by Excel. Because Node.js is bundled, npm just works.
Step 4 — Sign in to the engine and verify
Back on the Settings card, click Sign in for the engine you installed — the button builds the exact login line (adding Claude to PATH, or pointing Codex at HISAB's isolated home) and opens your browser. Authenticate with a Claude or ChatGPT subscription (more usage per dollar) or a pay-as-you-go API key, then return and click Verify.
Confirm the MCP connection
Verification is restart-free, so there's no need to relaunch Excel. Once the engine is installed and signed in, the "Connect an AI engine" card disappears. Pick a model — Claude Opus is a solid default — and send a quick hi. The MCP pill at the top of the Chat tab turns from amber to green and a reply comes back, confirming your AI client is talking to HISAB's local server end to end.
Why this matters for finance teams
For a finance team, where the add-in installs and how it gets its AI both matter. HISAB is a real per-machine signed setup — not a fragile per-user ClickOnce drop — which makes it predictable to deploy, and IT can use the accompanying MSI. Your workbook stays on your machine: only sheet names, ranges, headers and sample rows are ever sent to the AI, never the full file.
Bring-your-own-key is the part most teams care about during setup. HISAB never resells AI, so there's no per-token markup — you sign in to your own Claude or OpenAI account and the provider bills you directly. The deliberate \"run the install command yourself\" design exists precisely so corporate endpoint-security software has no reason to block the install, which is why a managed laptop usually goes as smoothly as a personal one. From the first message onward, every change HISAB makes to a workbook is approval-gated and written to an audit log.
Frequently asked questions
Why does Windows SmartScreen warn me when I run the HISAB installer?
The installer is Authenticode code-signed, but a freshly released certificate is still building reputation with SmartScreen, so it may show "Windows protected your PC." This is expected for a newly signed build. Click More info, then Run anyway, and approve the one-time UAC prompt to continue.
Do I need to install Node.js or the AI separately to use HISAB in Excel?
Node.js is bundled with HISAB, so npm works out of the box with nothing extra to install. You do install one AI engine — Claude Code or OpenAI Codex — by running the one-line command from the Settings card in your own terminal. HISAB doesn't ship its own AI; it uses your account.
Why does HISAB show me a command to run instead of an Install button inside Excel?
It's deliberate and EDR-safe. Some endpoint-security products freeze any process spawned by Excel as a precaution. When you run the install command in your own terminal, the process is parented by your shell rather than EXCEL.EXE, so the security software has no reason to gate it.
Do I have to restart Excel after installing or signing in to the AI engine?
No. Detection and verification are restart-free — HISAB reads the live PATH and the bundled-Node location, so after each Verify click it re-checks on the spot. Once the engine is installed and signed in, send a quick message and the MCP pill turns green to confirm the connection.
Try it on your own workbook
The 14-day trial is the full product — no card, no feature gates. The fastest way to evaluate HISAB 360 is on a real file from your own month-end.