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Mass Editing Dynamics CRM 2011 Records using Microsoft Excel

Post Author: Joe D365 |

What's the Situation?

I need to mass edit Dynamics CRM 2011 records and I need to make changes to more than 250 records at a time.

How do I accomplish this without using the Edit button in MSCRM 2011 which limits me to up to 250 records at a time?

How to Solve?

In Dynamics CRM 2011 you have the ability to export data to Excel, make changes to that data and then import them back into CRM.

Here is how you do it……

First, find a view with data that you want to edit. In this example the view is Active Accounts. All the records in your view do not need to be displayed on the same page. For example if in the bottom left of your page you have something that looks like this:

No need to worry, we'll include all the records from the View in the next step.

Next, select Export to Excel from the Ribbon

In the new window that opens, select Static worksheet with records from all pages in the current view and select Make this data available for re-importing by including required column headings. Then select the Export button.

Save the export (It should save as an XML document) and then open the file.

The export will have the same columns as the view from CRM.

Now change your data. For example, if you want to change the lead source for records use the lead source drop down.

Make your changes and then save your file. Make sure you keep it in the same XML format.

Go back into CRM and select Import Data and then Import Data again.

Find your file using browse and then select next

Determine if you want to allow duplicates and who will be the owner of records if an owner is not already assigned. Then select Submit.

After you hit Submit you should see:

Then check back on your Active Accounts View ( it may take a minute to refresh depending on how many records are being edited) and the changes we made in Excel should be reflected in your CRM records.

Summary

Working with MSCRM records in Excel can be a huge time saver when you need to fix data that was categorized incorrectly when it was brought in or if you just need to be append a lot of records with a new field that was added.

* Note: Based on Excel settings, some users will receive a "File is Corrupt" error when you first try to open your exported file. This can be fixed by adding your CRM Organization to your Internet Explorer trusted sites.

Happy CRM'ing

Joe CRM
By Joe D365
Joe D365 is a Microsoft Dynamics 365 superhero who runs on pure Dynamics adrenaline. As the face of PowerObjects, Joe D365’s mission is to reveal innovative ways to use Dynamics 365 and bring the application to more businesses and organizations around the world.

10 comments on “Mass Editing Dynamics CRM 2011 Records using Microsoft Excel”

  1. Thanks for this, it saved me a lot of work!
    However, I ran into a problem while changig the formating of phone numbers. I needed the phone numbers whithout spaces, and doing this in Excel was easy. The problem is that Excel changes the xml type from string to number, crm will not accept this change.
    Original XML:
    12 34 56 78
    After change in Excel:
    12345678

    To solve this I had to open the file in notepad and search for "Number" and replace with "String".
    After doing this the import succeeded.
    Changing the data type to text in Excel had no affect on the data tag in the XML file.

    1. Looks like the tags where removed in my post. I'l try again:
      Original:
      ;lt Cell ;gt ;lt Data ss:Type="String" ;gt 90613604 ;lt /Data ;gt ;lt/Cell ;gt

      After Excel:
      ;lt Cell ;gt ;lt Data ss:Type="Number" ;gt 90613604 ;lt /Data ;gt ;lt/Cell ;gt

      If the code is still not shown; open the file in Notepad, and you'll see what I mean...

  2. This new edit functionality in 2011 is great (export/reimport), except that I wish it could apply to the OWNER field as well. We have a lot of Territory changes at the end of each fiscal year and I end up reassigning 1,000's of records separately between individuals, both for accounts and leads and their related activities. It's a very lengthy, wearisome process! Does anyone know of a new solution coming?? Why couldn't OWNER (users) be included as well?

    1. Hi - if the data was exported from crm with the 'enrich data...' checkbox checked then you can re-import and it will NOT create duplicates.

  3. Joe,

    I'm running into an issue with the in-box Bulk Edit feature. I can bulk edit every entity EXCEPT (for some reason) my Account records. Even if I'm just trying to bulk-edit 2 Account records (let's say to change their Country to Canada)... it fails.

    "An error has occurred. The selected action was not completed for one or more records."

    Is there anyway to find out WHY I can bulk edit everything except my Account records?

    Thanks!

  4. Hi How can I bulk edit cases that are already resolved without reactivating them and changing the resolve date? I want to simply change the status reason.

  5. We were already taught this trick by our CRM consultant but still --- wish i found this earlier. Cheers buddy, great piece.

  6. Our big issue is that an external company will take our export, and then we will need to reimport it back to the system. It is the lead record, so the topic wont change but the company and the contant name might do so. Is it possible to do some matching - based on a lead unique id or something else, using the standard export functionality of CRM 2013?

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