Customers, Vendors, Items, Resources and Employees
If you regularly need to update/create master data like Customers, Vendors, Items and Catalogue Items, you need a fast and reliable way that is accessible to your users. Excel Importer provides the flexibility to use the source Excel file without needing to reformat it into a specific column layout.
While achieving the same outcome using a configuration package is possible, Excel Importer is more flexible. It is also unavailable in the lists where the users work with the data.
It would be best if you still used Configuration Packages to do the initial data migration when setting up a new Business Central company. This is where you migrate all your other master data. We suggest you only use Excel Importer for master data once the company is live and users must update the data.
The Configuration Packages should not be available to end-users when your Business Central company is live and has transactions. It is possible to update fields (e.g. Unit Cost on an item) that should not be updated if there are transactions. Excel Importer handles the validation as if the user is updating the fields on the page and includes additional validations to prevent this.
Customers
You can import customers from the Customer List.
Using Customer Templates
You can create customer templates in Business Central to specify default values for customers. Excel Importer supports customer templates. You select the customer template as one of the fields in the field mapping. You can specify a constant value or include the customer template code in the import file.
Settings
Update Existing
| Value | Description |
|---|---|
| Yes | Update existing records and add new records. |
| No | Only add new records. |
Vendors
You can import vendors from the Vendor List.
Using Vendor Templates
You can create vendor templates in Business Central to specify vendor default values. Excel Importer supports vendor templates. You select the vendor template as one of the fields in the field mapping. You can specify a constant value or include the vendor template code in the import file.
Settings
Update Existing
| Value | Description |
|---|---|
| Yes | Update existing records and add new records. |
| No | Only add new records. |
Items
Feature Details
You can access the import functionality from the Item List and the Catalogue Item List.
Using Item Templates
You can create item templates in Business Central to specify item default values. Excel Importer supports item templates. You select the item template as one of the fields in the item mapping. You can specify a constant value or include the item template code in the import file.
Settings
Update Existing
| Value | Description |
|---|---|
| Yes | Update existing records and add new records. |
| No | Only add new records. |
Resources
You can import resources from the Resource List. The app supports using a configuration template to default fields that do not exist in a file.
Settings
Update Existing
| Value | Description |
|---|---|
| Yes | Update existing records and add new records. |
| No | Only add new records. |
Employees
You can import employees from the Employee List. The app supports using an Employee Template to default fields that do not exist in a file.
Using Employee Templates
You can create employee templates in Business Central to specify default values for employees. Excel Importer supports employees templates. You select the employee template as one of the fields in the field mapping. You can specify a constant value or include the employee template code in the import file.
Settings
Update Existing
| Value | Description |
|---|---|
| Yes | Update existing records and add new records. |
| No | Only add new records. |
Examples
Example 1: Using an Employee Template
Here is an example of an Employee Template created for IT:
On the Excel Mapping Template, you select the Code field from the Employee Template table. In this example, we specified IT as a constant, but you can also include this value in your file.
