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Finance | Project Operations, Human Resources, ...
Answered

Excel add-ins in D365FO

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Posted on by 702
Hi team,
 
I never know about before excel addins functionality.  I do research on blogs but get to know what is the main purpose of use Excel add-ins.
 
Pls advise, thanks!
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  • Assisted by AI
    AX-US Profile Picture
    99 on at
    Excel add-in for Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations (D365FO) lets the business users work with D365FO data directly in Microsoft Excel.
     
    Some of its main purposes such as Open and view live D365FO data in a familiar spreadsheet format. You can directly edit or create multiple records efficiently, or mass update the records rather than entering them one by one in D365FO. Publish changes back to D365FO through the add-in. Refresh the workbook to retrieve the latest data from the system. Use Excel features such as formulas, filtering, sorting, copying, and fill-down while maintaining a connection to D365FO data entities. 
    •  
  • Verified answer
    Anton Venter Profile Picture
    21,054 Super User 2026 Season 2 on at
    In addition, it is important to understand that the Excel add-in for F&O works only with the data entities in F&O. In other words, you can only read, update and create data in F&O if there is a data entity for the underlying tables and if the data entity supports it (data entity property IsPublic = Yes). Not all data entities can be opened with the Excel add-in and not all data entities allow creating and updating of data because they are read only (IsReadOnly property = Yes).
     
    View and update entity data with Excel
     
     
  • Verified answer
    Layan Jwei Profile Picture
    8,282 Super User 2026 Season 2 on at
  • Verified answer
    Subra Profile Picture
    1,938 Super User 2026 Season 2 on at
    Hi @CU10121822-0

    Please check the below blog.

    https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/d365-fo-excel-add-in-all-them-entities-%C3%B6rvar-sigurgeirsson/
     
    Thanks,
    Subra

    If this helped, please mark it as "Verified" for others facing the same issue
  • Suggested answer
    Assisted by AI
    vishalsahijwani Profile Picture
    341 on at
    Hi ,
     
    Excel Add-ins in Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations helps us to work with live D365 F&O data directly inside Excel, instead of copy-pasting exports and then doing any kind of data manipulation.
     
    Please try to follow these steps as mentioned below : - 
     

    Step 1: Find the "Open in Excel" option

    Go to any list page in D365 F&O — say Accounts Payable > Vendors or General ledger > Journal entries. Look at the top ribbon or the grid options. You'll see an icon or option like:


    • "Open in Excel", or

    • "Export" → "Excel" with an add-in option

    •  

    Click it. D365 will download a special .xlsx file.

     

    Step 2: Open the file

    When you open it, Excel may ask you to enable the add-in or you'll see a task pane on the right side showing something like "Dynamics 365 Add-in" with a Refresh and Publish button. Sign in with your D365 F&O credentials.

     

    Step 3: You'll see your data as it was appearing in D365 F&O

    The rows and columns mirror exactly what you saw in the D365 F&O grid. 

     

    Step 4: Make your changes

     
     

    • Editing existing data? Just type over the cell values directly (like changing a price, a due date, a description).

    • Adding new records? Scroll to the bottom and start typing in a new row — the add-in usually shows you a blank row ready for input.

    Step 5: Publish your changes back to D365

    Once you're done editing, click the Publish button in the add-in pane.


    • It validates your data against D365's business rules.

    • If something's wrong (like a missing required field or invalid account), it'll flag the specific row/cell with an error — fix it and publish again.

    • If everything's correct, your changes go live in D365 immediately.


    •  
    •  

    Step 6: Refresh anytime

    If someone else updates the data in D365 while your Excel file is still open, hit Refresh to pull the latest version before you keep editing.

     

    Please check if this helps and makes sense to you and let us know if you have any further doubts we will be more than happy to help. 

     

    All the best...

  • Verified answer
    Syed Haris Shah Profile Picture
    1,817 Super User 2026 Season 2 on at
     
    The Excel Add-in allows users to efficiently create and update large amounts of D365 F&SCM data directly from Excel while still applying system validations and business rules. For example, updating thousands of customer or product records takes minutes instead of manually editing each record in the application.
     
    Regards,
    Syed Haris Shah
  • Verified answer
    André Arnaud de Calavon Profile Picture
    306,642 Super User 2026 Season 2 on at
    Please note that the reply from Vishal seems to be crafted with AI. The language model mixed up Open in Excel versus Export to Excel. Let me clarify the differences between these two by correcting the details as provided above. 
     
    Export to Excel:
    • This is exporting the details on the grid with the current records and columns.
    • The data is always static and does not have any interaction back into Dynamics 365.
    • There is no "add-in" option here.
    Open in Excel:
    • Dynamics 365 creates an Excel file with an add-in and will use the selected data entity to create an Excel table with some columns.
    • The columns are not exactly like the columns on the grid. The columns are pre-developed in the data entity.
    • The records in Excel is based on the data entity definition and is ignoring all filtering or selections done in Dynamics 365. The data entity might have its own query ranges.
    • With this option, you can refresh data or publish changes into Dynamics 365 (create, update, and delete).
  • Anton Venter Profile Picture
    21,054 Super User 2026 Season 2 on at
    Thank you for your reply on this forum. I marked your reply as AI-assisted as it seems to be the case. When using AI to answer posts, please remember to enable the "Mark reply as AI-assisted" checkbox before posting so that the source is clear to everyone.

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