Dynamics 365 for Financials: How-to Migrate Data from Quickbooks or Microsoft Excel

Getting up and running quickly. Concerns about user adoption since our current system works. We have a few work-arounds but the learning curve for a new system is too much right now. And how do we tackle the task of importing data from our current financial system?

Depending on the financial solution that your business uses today, you can transfer information about customers, vendors, inventory, and bank accounts.

Companies can start an assisted setup guide that helps transfer the business data from an Excel file or from other formats. Additionally, companies can upload data from QuickBooks using an "extension" provided by Microsoft.

This can be accomplished by using Microsoft's pre-built integration (referred to as an Extension) from QuickBooks.

Upload data from QuickBooks because Microsoft includes an extension that handles the conversion from QuickBooks.

If you want to upload data from other finance solutions, Microsoft includes Excel based templates for customers, vendors, and inventory items that you can choose to apply when you upload your data.

Default Company settings such as Role Center and Work Date are on display in this window.

During the Customer Preview period, each instance creates two companies. The first (default) company called Cronus, provides customers, prospects, partners the opportunity to experience the breadth of Dynamics 365 for Financials with sample data.

A second company titled My Company is provisioned during the sign up process and allows organizations to import data from existing legacy systems.

*Quick Tip - in order for you to toggle between companies you will need to refresh the page. This is completed when a user signs-out of Dynamics 365 for Financials and sign-ins. You will need to perform this action again to return to Cronus to access the sample data associated with Cornus.

Step 1: Open My Company

The blank company is reflected immediately with the 0s located in all the cues and activities.

Step 2: Data Migration Wizard

The next step in the process is to follow the steps detailed in the Data Migration Wizard. This can be accessed either from the bottom right pane on the home page or via the ribbon by selecting Actions and then Assisted Setup & Tasks.

*Quick Tip - If you already completed the Migrate Business task from a previous presentation, you can still click on the Migrate Business data step. you will be prompted with a warning to overwrite the data - select yes.

The welcome screen provides a summary of what users can expect during the import process.

Step 3: Determine Data Source

Microsoft provides multiple methods to import data from legacy systems. One simple way to is leverage the template provided with the data migration wizard when selecting Microsoft Excel.

*Quick Tip - In order to demonstrate Excel import you will need to download the template and populate with Customer, Vendors and/or Items prior to your demo.

*Quick Tip - It is good practice to download and pre-populate the template with your prospect's data. This is not a POC - proof of concept - but providing 2-5 examples of customers, vendors and item is a simple, easy way to build trust with a prospect. And they will be able to see the bridge between their data and Dynamics 365 for Financials.

Users can select the default templates for Customer, Vendor and Item during the import process. You can skip this by selecting "Yes" when prompted to continue.

To import the data from Excel, browse to the location where the file is saved.

As part of the confirmation process, Dynamics 365 for Financials displays a list of imported records and any possible errors during the import.

Depending on the finance solution that your business uses today, Dynamics 365 for Financials enables organizations to quickly and easily transfer information about customers, vendors, inventory, and bank accounts. The pre-built integration tools enable companies the ability to get up and running quickly and easily using their own data immediately.

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