I'm new to excel, but not new to data

I'm kaje, learning excel, but I am not sure if it is the right tool?!

I need to be able to connect it to an API, or small pieces of data from the web. I am to the point where I would like to run more of my business in excel if possible, like reports, billing transactions, calculations, emails, etc.

Right now the idea is to get the data (xml or json) from an API and trigger some billing, emails, etc. from within excel. I just don't know if excel is can call the API through a cell formula.

Not sure if that makes sense, but it does in my head.

Thanks.