Access Live Dynamics 365 Business Central Data in Excel 365 Online (Excel for the web)

Microsoft Excel for the web represents a cloud-native iteration of Microsoft Excel. When integrated with CData Connect Cloud, you gain immediate access to Dynamics 365 Business Central data directly from within Excel. This access facilitates data analysis, collaborative work, calculations, and more. This article provides a step-by-step guide on connecting to Dynamics 365 Business Central within your Connect Cloud instance and accessing live Dynamics 365 Business Central data in Excel for the web spreadsheets, whether for viewing or updating purposes.

CData Connect Cloud provides a pure cloud-to-cloud interface for Dynamics 365 Business Central, allowing you to easily access live Dynamics 365 Business Central data in Excel for the web. Simply use the Connect Cloud Add-In to query live data (or write your own). Using optimized data processing out of the box, CData Connect Cloud pushes all supported query operations (filters, JOINs, etc) directly to Dynamics 365 Business Central, leveraging server-side processing to quickly return Dynamics 365 Business Central data.

Configure Dynamics 365 Business Central Connectivity for Excel

Connectivity to Dynamics 365 Business Central from Excel is made possible through CData Connect Cloud. To work with Dynamics 365 Business Central data from Excel, we start by creating and configuring a Dynamics 365 Business Central connection.

1. Log into Connect Cloud, click Connections and click Add Connection
2. Select "Dynamics 365 Business Central" from the Add Connection panel
3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to Dynamics 365 Business Central.

   To authenticate to Dynamics 365 Business Central, you must provide the User and AccessKey properties.

   To obtain the User and AccessKey values, navigate to the Users page in Dynamics 365 Business Central and then click on Edit. The User Name and Web Service Access Key values are what you will enter as the User and AccessKey connection string properties. Note that the User Name is not your email address. It is a shortened user name.

   To connect to data, specify OrganizationUrl. If you have multiple companies in your organization, you must also specify the Company to indicate which company you would like to connect to. Company does not need to be specified if you have only one company.

4. Click Create & Test
5. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add Dynamics 365 Business Central Connection page and update the User-based permissions.

With the connection configured, you are ready to connect to Dynamics 365 Business Central data from Excel for the web.

Access Live Dynamics 365 Business Central Data in Excel for the web

The steps below outline connecting to CData Connect Cloud from Excel to access live Dynamics 365 Business Central data.

1. Log into Excel, create a new sheet (or open an existing one).
2. Click Insert and click Office Add-ins. (if you have already installed the Add-In, jump to step 4).
3. Search for CData Connect Cloud Add-In and install the Add-in.
4. Click Data and open the CData Connect Cloud Add-In.
5. In the Add-In panel, click Authorize to authenticate with your CData Connect Cloud instance
6. In the CData Connect Cloud panel in Excel, click Import
7. Choose a Connection (e.g. D365BusinessCentral1), Table (e.g. Accounts), and Columns to import
8. Optionally add Filters, Sorting, and a Limit
9. Click Execute to import the data

Update Dynamics 365 Business Central Data from Excel

In addition to viewing Dynamics 365 Business Central data in Excel, CData Connect Cloud also lets you update and delete Dynamics 365 Business Central data. Begin by importing data (as described above).

1. Update any cell or cells with changes you want to push to Dynamics 365 Business Central (your changes will be in red)
2. In the CData Connect Cloud Add-In panel, select Update
3. Optionally highlight the cell(s) you wish to update and select an update option ("Update All" or "Update Selected")
4. Click Execute to push the updates to Dynamics 365 Business Central

A notification will appear when the update is complete

Live Access to Dynamics 365 Business Central Data from Cloud Applications

New, you have a direct, cloud-to-cloud connection to live Dynamics 365 Business Central data from your Excel workbook. You can add more data to your workbook for calculations, aggregations, collaboration, and more.

Try CData Connect Cloud and get real-time data access to 100+ SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources directly from your cloud applications.