Edit or delete many records at once

Select several records

On many lists you can select several lines with the action Select More, and then perform an action on the selection. Microsoft Learn uses it to post or batch post several documents. We did not find a description in Learn of being able to delete or edit a selection directly in the list. An answer on Microsoft's Q&A site says that mass deletion is not possible in standard, but that is not documentation.

Edit in Excel

Edit in Excel is standard's answer to mass editing. You export a list, edit in Excel and publish the changes back. Learn describes that the action exists on most lists, but not all, and that Excel respects most of the filters on the page.

Open in Excel is different: there you can change the workbook, but the changes cannot be published back to Business Central.

Forums and partner blogs describe that you can delete rows in Excel and publish to delete records. This is not described on the Learn page, so test it in a test company. The rule is that the system's own rules still apply, so records that may not be deleted cannot be deleted this way either.

Configuration packages

Configuration packages are used to move data and setup in and out of Business Central, and Microsoft Learn presents them as the way to import business data. They are best for one-off jobs on many records. We have not confirmed on Learn how they handle existing records and deletion, so try it in a sandbox before you use them in production.

Before you edit or delete in bulk

• Filter hard and count. Check the number of rows before you publish.
• Save a copy of the workbook with the original values.
• Test in a sandbox or in a copy of the environment. Learn describes how to copy an environment and restore an environment.
• Be aware that posted entries cannot be deleted. They are corrected with reversing entries.
• Publish in small batches, and check after each batch.

An example: old open orders

A typical need is to clean up old open sales orders or lines with no activity. The approach could be: filter the list on date and status, open in Excel for a check without being able to publish, have someone else approve the list, and then run the change in small batches with Edit in Excel.

If the records have never been used, deletion is often reasonable. If they are records with history, blocking is often better than deletion, because the history is kept.

Write down which filters were used, so the check can be repeated, and so an auditor can see how the list was delimited.

Limits to know about

When OneDrive is set up for system features, the workbook is limited to 100 columns. Some fields can only be changed through special actions, and Excel does not know the validations that run when you change a value. Business Central runs them at publish, and errors only come back there.

We have Bulk Edit and Delete on the list of possible apps. It is an idea we are considering, and not an app you can download or buy. The idea of being able to delete several records has about 170 votes on Microsoft's ideas portal.

If it is master data, such as items or customers, blocking is often better than deletion. It removes the record from daily use without losing the history.