AL Generic Import

AL Generic Import loads data from Excel into the journal lines (and other records) of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, with automatic column mapping and events for customization. It is a lightweight utility that turns spreadsheets into journal lines without ad-hoc development.

Key capabilities

• Excel import into journals - the item journal, physical inventory journal, general journal and recurring general journal, via an import action on the journal (with a "Delete All Lines" cleanup action).
• Open customer/vendor entries - a dedicated action imports open entries into the general journal, grouping lines by document and handling currencies and dimensions; default customer and vendor templates and batches are set in the setup.
• Automatic mapping - column headers match Business Central field names: no mapping table to maintain, unknown columns are simply ignored.
• Fast on large files - import time stays linear even on tens of thousands of rows, with progress and end-of-import statistics; the processing block size is tunable from the setup.
• Schedulable - imports can also run in the job queue.
• Extensible via events - bus events (before insert, before set value, before modify) let you adapt or extend the import to any record.

Why it matters

• Bulk data from Excel - load adjustments, inventories, entries and opening balances without manual typing.
• No ad-hoc development - automatic mapping instead of custom import code.
• Predictable on volumes - large files import in linear time, with clear statistics.
• Extensible - adapt the import to any record through events.

Built for

Administration and operations teams that import from Excel into Business Central journals and want a repeatable load instead of manual entry or custom code.

What makes AL Generic Import different

• Automatic mapping - headers to fields, by convention rather than configuration.
• Extensible to any record - through bus events.
• Solid on volumes - linear import time and statistics even on large files.
• Lightweight - a focused utility, easy to adopt.

How it works

Prepare the sheet with field names as column headers, then run the import from the journal (or schedule it in the job queue): AL Generic Import reads the Excel file and creates or fills the lines, applying the GI_ events where you need to adapt the import for a specific record or field. At the end of the run you get the import statistics.

Italian localization

In Italy, open customer and vendor entries carry payment installments. The AL Generic Import IT module generates them automatically on the imported entries, with the amount and due date of the rows the document was built from, and rewrites them if the document is imported again. Nothing to configure: install the module, which requires the Italian localization of Business Central and includes AL Generic Import.

Requirements

• Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central online (SaaS), version 25.0 or higher.
• Languages - English (en-US), Italian (it-IT) and French (fr-FR).
• License - free, with no key to activate.
• Dependencies (installed automatically) - AL Message Passing and AL Role Center, from AppLibra.
• Companion - AL Generic Import IT adds Italian payment installments on imported open entries.