Using Excel Online: How to Easily Change and Update CRM Records

Posted on: July 11, 2016 | By: Craig Thompson | Microsoft Dynamics CRM

If your organization has Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online 2015 Update 1 or later users now have the ability to update and analyze CRM data in Excel Online. This new feature makes it incredibly fast, efficient, and easy to view and update data in Excel format within your CRM window.

Opening and Viewing Your Data

Open any System View or Personal view and simply click the ‘Open in Excel Online’ from the Export to Excel dropdown in the ribbon bar. You have the ability to export up to 100k rows at a time, but you will most likely want to avoid large amounts of data as this is a great tool for making small to medium size quick updates to datasets.

Note that you cannot open in Microsoft Excel Online directly from advanced find, but by saving an advanced find into a personal view you can specify what sort of information you want to see in Excel Online. This way you can also include additional columns that may not have been included in a system or personal view. For example, you could add an address or email field to your newly created view to be quickly updated in Excel Online. 

 

Note that you cannot open in Excel Online directly from advanced find, but by saving an advanced find into a personal view you can specify what sort of information you want to see in Excel Online. This way you can also include additional columns that may not have been included in a system or personal view. For example, you could add an address or email field to your newly created view to be quickly updated in Excel Online.

Updating Data and Performing Analysis

Once you have your view opened in Excel Online, you will notice excel appears just as it would as if you have opened the application outside of CRM. From here, you have the ability to update multiple pieces of data as needed. You can change dates and dollar amounts, update names and other text fields, or change option set fields from one option to another. The only thing you need to be mindful of is keeping the data in the same format as the column allows, for example a whole number field must be updated to another whole number. The Excel Online function does make this easy though and specifies the field format when you click on the field.

In addition to updating data, you can also do Ad-Hoc analysis like you would in excel outside of CRM. This can be very useful if you need to quickly get the sum total of a revenue field or compare different account information in a chart. Functions, tables, graphs, and charts work just like you are accustomed to in Excel; just be mindful that this is for Ad-Hoc analysis and will not save back into CRM. You can however, save your information into another excel file outside of CRM.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once you are ready to save your updates back to CRM, click on the Save Changes to CRM button. The great feature about this way of updating is that it uses the Imports tool feature of CRM to actually make the changes. You can go to Settings –> Data Management –> Imports to check the status of the import, view the success and failures of the import, and navigate to the specific records that were updated.

Requirements for Using Excel Online

Lastly, there are a few things you and your system will need to have the ability to use the export to excel feature in CRM. Check with your System Administrator if you have questions about obtaining any of these

• CRM Online 2015 Update 1 or later
• Office 365 subscription or a subscription to an online service such as SharePoint or Exchange Online
• Export to Excel privileges in CRM. This can be found in Business Management tab in the Miscellaneous Privileges section under Security Roles

For more information on Microsoft CRM, contact Logan Consulting your Chicago based Dynamics CRM partner for a consultation, or details/pricing on Dynamics CRM Training.

---

---