Category: Business CentralRead time: 5 MinsPublished on: 27 Jan 2026

How to Create Journal Entries in Excel and Upload Them to Dynamics 365 Business Central

  1. Home
  2. Blog
  3. How to Create Journal Entries in Excel and Upload

1. Why Use Edit in Excel for Journal Entries in Business Central

In Dynamics 365 Business Central, creating journal entries can take a lot of time, especially during month-end closing, year-end activities, or data migration. To make this easier, Business Central lets you prepare journal entries directly in Excel and then publish them back into the system using the Edit in Excel feature.

As excel is still the preferred working tool for many finance users, this will help them better. This approach allows finance teams to work in a familiar Excel environment while still using Business Central's built-in checks and validations.

Use the Edit in Excel feature when you need to:

  • Upload high-volume journal entries
  • Perform month-end or year-end adjustments
  • Migrate opening balances or historical data
  • Reduce manual posting errors during peak finance cycles

Limitations

  • Posting is not allowed directly from Excel
  • Validations occur only during Publish
  • Permissions control visibility of Edit in Excel
  • Line No. increments are mandatory

2. Advantages of 'Edit in Excel' feature

This approach makes it much faster to enter large volumes of journal lines. You can easily copy and paste data, use Excel formulas, and reduce manual effort. Since there's no need for third-party import tools, the process stays simple and cost-effective. Most importantly, Business Central validates the data before accepting it, which helps prevent errors.

The 'Edit' in Excel feature is available for:

  • General Journals
  • Purchase Journals
  • Sales Journals
  • Payment Journals
  • Fixed Asset Journals

For organisations handling complex financial processes, large data migrations, or frequent month-end adjustments, working with an experienced Dynamics 365 Business Central consulting partner ensures that features like Edit in Excel are configured correctly, securely, and aligned with best practices.

3. Steps to create a Journal entry with 'Edit in Excel' feature

Step 1: Login into Business Central and Open 'General Journals page', select respective batch and make respective filters if needed. Click on Share -> 'Edit In Excel' action, which will be downloading an excel file.

A screenshot of the Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central interface showing a General Journals page. A red box highlights the Share icon in the top right, while another red box highlights the Edit in Excel option within the dropdown menu, demonstrating how to export journal data for external editing.

Note: If you don't have the 'Edit in Excel' action at all, that is probably a user permission issue. To check and resolve this, you should ensure that your user role includes the EXCEL EXPORT ACTION permission set.

Step 2: Open the downloaded excel file and click on 'Enable Editing' to process further.

A screenshot of an Excel ribbon and formula bar containing data exported from Business Central. A yellow Protected View warning bar is visible at the top, with a red box highlighting the Enable Editing button.

Step 3: Sign in with your respective credentials.

A screenshot of Excel featuring the Microsoft Dynamics Office Add-in task pane on the right side. The pane displays a Sign in prompt to connect the spreadsheet to the Business Central server.

Step 4: Once signed in the values will be populated from Business Central. Now in the new cell enter values needs to be inserted based on the column. Increase 'Line No.' by 10000 and fill all other fields carefully. Once you've done with the new line. Click on 'Publish' to publish the changes into Business Central. This will publish all the modifications including delete, so be aware of the changes. Also, it'll throw error on any issues with the modified date, we can review them and take action.

A screenshot of the Excel interface with populated data lines. The Microsoft Dynamics Office Add-in pane is active on the right, with a red box highlighting the Publish button used to sync modified spreadsheet data back to Business Central.

Step 5: Once the page is refreshed, we can able to see the new line published from excel.

A screenshot of the General Journals page back in Business Central. It now displays two journal lines that were successfully imported from the Excel spreadsheet.

4. Common Errors and Validation Checks to Know Before Publishing

When using Edit in Excel, Business Central does not validate data while you are editing the Excel file. All validations occur only when you click Publish. Understanding common errors in advance helps avoid rework and delays.

  1. Missing or Incorrect Mandatory Fields

    Business Central will reject journal lines if required fields are incomplete or invalid. Common examples include Blank Account Type or Account No., Missing Posting Date, Empty Document No. & Invalid Balancing Account.

  2. Line No. Conflicts

    Each journal line must have a unique Line No., typically incremented by 10,000. Duplicate line numbers, non-sequential numbering & overwriting existing lines would cause these errors.

  3. Posting Date Outside Allowed Periods

    If the Posting Date falls outside the allowed posting range set in Business Central, publishing will fail. This often happens during Year-end close, backdated adjustment entries, data migration.

  4. Dimension Validation Errors

    If dimensions are mandatory or restricted, Business Central enforces validation strictly.

    Typical issues include missing required dimensions, invalid dimension values, dimension combinations not allowed.

  5. Accidental Deletes or Overwrites

    Publishing applies all changes, including deletions and edits. Risk scenarios include filters not applied correctly, rows accidentally deleted in Excel and existing lines overwritten unintentionally.

5. Best Practices for Using Edit in Excel During Month-End and Data Migration

Edit in Excel is particularly powerful during high-volume financial activities, but it must be used carefully to maintain data integrity and audit readiness.

  1. Use Sandbox Environment for Testing

    Before publishing critical entries test the Excel upload in a Sandbox environment, validate posting logic, dimensions, and balances & confirm no unexpected overwrites occur. This is essential during year-end adjustments or opening balance migrations.

  2. Split Large Volumes into Smaller Batches

    Publishing thousands of lines at once increases the risk of validation failures, hard-to-trace errors, rollback complexity. Upload journals in logical batches (e.g., by period, account group, or entity).

  3. Lock Excel Formulas Before Publishing

    Excel formulas are useful, but Business Central only publishes final values. Use formulas for calculation, copy and paste values before publishing and prevent accidental recalculation issues.

  4. Maintain Clear Audit References

    For compliance and traceability use consistent Document Nos., add meaningful Descriptions and reference source systems during data migration. This simplifies audits and future reconciliation.

  5. Control Access Through Permissions

    Not all users should have Edit in Excel access. Assign EXCEL EXPORT ACTION permission only to trained users, restrict high-risk journal batches and monitor changes during close periods.

  6. Plan Edit in Excel as Part of Your Close Process

    For organisations with frequent adjustments or multi-entity structures, 'Edit' in Excel should be documented in month-end SOPs, standardised across teams and reviewed periodically for risk control.

If your team struggles with high-volume journals, data migration, or month-end bottlenecks, contact our experts to help you streamline finance operations and optimise system usage.