Data Migration in Dynamics 365 for Financials
The ability to bring your existing data from your legacy system to Dynamics 365 for Financials is one of the most important parts of changing systems.
If you or your company are thinking about Dynamics 365 for Financials (D365F), one of the first questions that you should be asking is about data migration. The ability to bring your existing data from your legacy system to Dynamics 365 for Financials is one of the most important parts of changing systems. Without it, companies would be looking at a database empty of all past transactions or will be left manually entering their customer and vendor data, which would eat up hundreds of person-hours. The good news is that Dynamics 365 for Financials allows you to migrate much of your existing data. The great news is that you have multiple options for completing this migration, with more being added throughout the development cycle!
The first option available for data import is through Microsoft Excel. With this method you will use the “Assisted Setup” option inside of D365F, to download an Excel Template. This template will allow you to enter in “Master Data”, which in D365F means G/L Accounts, Vendors, Customers and Items. After populating the data that is needed, you will be able to continue to use the “Assisted Setup” wizard to import the excel template in order to migrate all of the data into Dynamics 365 for Financials. Microsoft is continuing to add additional types of data that can be imported by this means, so feel free to reach out to our team in order to find out what the most recently available data import templates are.
If you would not like to use Excel, there is always the option to use events and extensions from within Dynamics 365 for Financials. These extensions are both Microsoft and third party applications that add functionality to Dynamics 365 for Financials. If you would like to learn more about extensions in general, please take some time to read a previous Blog Post of mine here. Some of these extensions are specifically developed for the purpose of migrating data from a legacy system to Dynamics 365 for Financials. Examples include migration assisting extensions like for programs like QuickBooks or Dynamics GP.
