How Business Analytics accesses spreadsheets determines whether the data from the spreadsheet is a simple snapshot or is dynamic.

If the spreadsheet is located on your computer or on a network drive, Business Analytics takes a snapshot of the data when you register the spreadsheet. Updates to your spreadsheet are not automatically visible in Business Analytics. You must re-register the spreadsheet to update the data in Business Analytics in this case.

If the spreadsheet is hosted in a content management system, such as SharePoint, or is simply accessible with a URL using HTTP, Business Analytics links to the spreadsheet rather than copying data. Each time users use the spreadsheet mashable in Business Analytics, Business Analytics retrieves the current data from the spreadsheet dynamically.