Data Management Importing Tips for D365 for Finance and Operations: Part 3

Posted on: July 6, 2018 | By: Jarrod Kraemer | Microsoft Dynamics AX/365

Authored by: Chris Rusing

Welcome back for the final installment of this blog series on data management in Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations.  In the first blog, we discussed configuration and in the second blog, I gave examples of common errors and how to troubleshoot them.  For the final part of this series, we will discuss tips in preparing your data management imports.

The first tip I want to mention is regarding the journal batch number field.  If you are importing any kind of journal, this field is necessary.  However, even though you need the field in your import file, you don’t need to put any data in the column because D365 will automatically generate the journal batch number.  As you can see in the image below, I have included the journal batch number header, but the contents of that column are empty.  Additionally, this will ensure that every line in this file is imported under the same batch.

 

In the general journals form, you can see the journal batch number generated automatically and the import came in one batch.

 

This next tip should make your life just a little bit easier.  Occasionally, you may get an error that some of the fields are not correctly mapped.  During your initial setup of the import job, you can see which fields were mapped incorrectly by clicking the View map button.  In that form, you can manually connect the lines from your header fields to the D365 fields.  However, there is an easier way to ensure your mapping is correct the first time around.

 

In the data management form, choose the Export job.  Configure the export job and choose the data entity that you want to import to later.  When ready click the Export button at the top of the form.

 

Once the file has been exported, click Download package at the top of the form.

 

The file generated will provide you with all the D365 fields and the data from the system.  Simply compare the file to the actual form in the system to determine which fields you may need and delete the ones you don’t.  This allows you to get through a lot of the leg work of deciding which fields you may need and what is the actual field name.  For example, the ‘Account’ field in general journal lines is called ‘AccountDisplayValue’ field for importing purposes.  ‘Debit’ is ‘DebitAmount’ and so on and so forth.  I suggest using this method for master data imports as well (customers, vendors, items, etc.).

 

Let’s say you have completed the task above and now you are ready to import.  Before you import though, click on View map.

 

In this form, you may notice that the field LineNumber is a required staging field (denoted by the red asterisk).  The import requires a line number for each line in the file, but the number of lines could be different on every import.  Fortunately, there is a simple configuration change to the import job to alleviate this issue.

 

Click the Mapping details tab at the top.  Next, click the New button.  Select the box so that the source field is Auto-generated.  Choose the staging field LINENUMBER in the drop down.  As the name aptly describes, the Line Number field will now be auto-generated at the time of import, so there is no need to enter that information in your import file.

 

That concludes not only this blog, but also this three-part series on data management!  I hope you gained valuable insight and knowledge on how to utilize the data management functionality to the best of its abilities and to mitigate the issues you may encounter along the way.  For additional information please feel free to reach out to us at info@loganconsulting.com or (312) 345-8817. 

All the best!
Logan Consulting
www.loganconsulting.com



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