Microsoft CRM 4.0 New Feature: Update CRM with Excel

Clients have often asked, “That export to Excel functionality is pretty cool but can I update the information in Excel and have that update CRM?”  The answer now with Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 is “YES!”  Here’s a quick snapshot of how it works.   

Step 1:  Export your entity information to Excel (My Active Contacts in this example)


Step 2:  Select Static Worksheet and make sure to select "Make this data available for re-import".  Note: This feature is only available for static worksheets.

Step 3:  Update the information in Excel.  Note: Only static attributes can be updated.  Fields that are lookups cannot be updated using this method.

Step 4:  In this example we updated the phone number for Bart Sneary 

 

Step 5:  You need to save the file as a .CSV file type 

Step 6:  Name your file and use this file to re-import into CRM

 

Step 7:  Import your data back into CRM by clicking on Import Data 

Step 8:  Walk through the Import Data Wizard.  Leave the default selections in place. 

 

Step 9:  On the Duplicate Detection page leave the default selection of "Do not import duplicate records" selected

 Step 10:  Name the import process (this will be the name you will lookup to check the status of the import process)

Step 11:  Validate your import completed successfully (My Work - Imports)

Step 12:  Navigate back to the source entity you updated to validate your changes 

 

This is a great tool for doing quick updates of your CRM data. 

:: Ryan :: 

Published Monday, November 05, 2007 3:58 PM by Ryan Toenies

Comments

# re: Microsoft CRM 4.0 New Feature: Update CRM with Excel

Does it exists in the RTM Version? I cannot find it

Tuesday, January 15, 2008 5:46 AM by Javier

# re: Microsoft CRM 4.0 New Feature: Update CRM with Excel

Javier -

UNFORTUNATELY! You are correct - The feature got cut during release of the RTM code.  I have not received any justifications as to why it got cut but my guess is that they found data corruption issues during regression testing (speculation only).  A little birdie says that some blogs will be coming from Microsoft on how to still accomplish this feature even though the option does not appear when exporting to Excel.

:: Ryan ::

Tuesday, January 15, 2008 7:38 AM by Ryan Toenies

# re: Microsoft CRM 4.0 New Feature: Update CRM with Excel

Friday, February 22, 2008 6:45 AM by Nitin

# re: Microsoft CRM 4.0 New Feature: Update CRM with Excel

This functionality is not available in RTM. However, there is a blog and Tool that gives you alternate approach. The blog details are:

http://blogs.msdn.com/crm/archive/2008/01/25/data-manipulation-tool.aspx

Friday, February 22, 2008 10:12 AM by Arun Kumar

# re: Microsoft CRM 4.0 New Feature: Update CRM with Excel

RTM does not have this functionality available. However, there is a blog published on this: http://blogs.msdn.com/crm/archive/2008/01/25/data-manipulation-tool.aspx

Friday, February 22, 2008 12:04 PM by arkuma

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