How to Export to Excel file directly the way Dynamics 2013-2018 Webclient did it?

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Posted on by Povl O

Hi,

The option "Open in Excel" found in regular NAV and WebClient (2013-2018) where the filtered list is exported directly to an Excel file is very much needed. Why is this option not present in Business Central?

Currently, the button "Edit in Excel" does not always work in BC- e.g. as of today, you can't use this to export G/L Entries to Excel as you get instant error in the Addin when loading data. You can't use the ODATA feeds for the G/L entries either in Excel, or even PowerBI Desktop.

Please fix this too, it must be some mistake.

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Povl O on at

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3 weeks later, and the Excel Addin still does not work on at least two of my danish tenants.

Meanwhile I wonder, why was the old fixed export removed to be replaced by something that just simply doesn't work, and doesn't allow filtered lists to be exported. It's a massive drawback.

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Marco Mels Microsoft Employee on at

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Hello,

The Open in Excel feature is a client option that can be installed via the Dynamics NAV OnPrem installation DVD. This cannot be provided via Dynamics 365 Business Central. With Dynamics 365 Business Central we also had to add an additional layer of security which means an additional authentication layer before we allow export.

We may be able to help you further if you can copy and paste the "instant error" you sometimes do receive.

Did you consider to create an Idea for the filter issue as it is something that does work in OnPrem release with the Open in Excel feature while this is not available with the Edit in Excel feature. Of course taking into account it is like comparing apples and pears. Both have their advantages and limitations. For the sake of completeness, you can filter from the Excel Add-In but I understand that if you set up all filters in the Business Central you want these to be pushed to the Excel sheet. The idea itself is interesting enough to file it as an idea for a future release if possible.

Though I do not know what the design reasons of these limitations are, but I can imagine that if you set a filter on the a list page, push it over via Edit in Excel and then adjust the data in Excel, try to publish it back to Business Central, issues may occur or at least confusion because the exported sheet does not have the full data range. If there are no technical limitations to export a filtered list, I can imagine though that it is a design decision not to publish the filtered list but to publish the whole list.

Hope it does give you at least some background information.

If this answer is sufficient enough, please validate the answer so that others can benefit from this as well.

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Povl O on at

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Hi,

Thanks for commenting. Someone has posted the idea 11 months ago here. I think this is same issue request, so not sure if anything is happening with these ideas.

experience.dynamics.com/.../idea

I still don't understand why the old option that worked in webbrowser client that generated a direct xlsx file for download can't be made for business central.

While I see the edit in excel button as a step forward in right direction , I also see it is as two huge steps backward when you loose preset filters.

Can anyone see the point of the button Edit in Excel in ledger entries pages when it insist on on downloading every single record to excel the moment you click the button.

I have a support incident on my mistake already, and it is being looked at. I get various errorss. One is Metadata, another is just server error.

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Marco Mels Microsoft Employee on at

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Hi,

Great to hear that you initiated a support request so that errors can be taken care off. There is nothing more frustrating then errors you cannot solve yourself easily. I will keep an eye on that idea posting though and update this thread as soon as I do hear something back. That can indeed take a while. For now, there is the Edit in Excel that should work and should not result in errors.

Thanks.

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Mustufa Shehreyar 1,070 on at

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@Marco and POVl O: Why not use web services along with the Excel Add-in? I did not check in updated Business Central but before the Business Central update I recall being able to export/import GL entries and other data using this method.

I also explained detailed steps on another thread please refer to the link below:

community.dynamics.com/.../268754

Use can use this method to import/export data into tables directly. (This does not apply to locked for editing fields)

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Povl O on at

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Thanks for this tip, but It's just not very user friendly for so many daily tasks for bookkeepers and others who look at the system.

In my 10 year experience with Dynamics NAV often bookkeepers would for various reasons need to look at a specific G/L accounts ledger-entries and might set various filters before further manual analysis needs to be continued on in Excel.

To achieve this in BC - it is simply downright tedious to use the addin for a non-techie - significantly more intuitive & faster to filter down to begin within BS, and then get this lists to Excel directly.

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Povl O on at

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Btw. if any Danish users looking here, that can't get Excel Addin to work, try and uinstall the Microsoft OIOUBL extension, this seems to cure some issues.

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Claus Macali.dk 1,045 on at

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Hi Povl

Thanks, for the tip, it works :)

I seems taht all of the danish extension, makes it deficultie to work with BC,

have also problem with konfigurationmanage, (rapid start), so uninstall the FIK modul

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Marco Mels Microsoft Employee on at

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Thanks Povl for sharing that insight. For non Danish speakers like me, this is great info that we can use. We will look further into the Danish extensions and I will share this information with one of the product managers in Denmark.

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Povl O on at

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Today I discovered that the Sandbox https://businesscentral.dynamics.com/Sandbox/ seems to open a pre-generated excel file that respects the filters set, instead of using the unstable and often usuable Excel Addin.

Does this mean production will get this soon ?

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