Import and export maintenance budgets

Export the initial Maintenance Budget to Excel - and import it back into EAM for Business Central.

Introduction

The ability to manage budget figures in Microsoft Excel makes the budgetting process a breeze. In this section, you will learn how to import and export maintenance budgets from / to Microsoft Excel.

Prerequisites

End-user experience with Business Central.

Knowledge of what financial budgets are.

Export Maintenance Budget to Excel

Microsoft Excel is an often used tool when working with budgets in maintenance as well as finance departments because it's easy to update and add content. EAM-BC supports exporting maintenance budgets to Excel, modify the contents, and then import back into EAM-BC.

To export a maintenance budget, you edit the relevant budget and choose Export Budget to Excel from the budget menu item. When exporting, it is possible to specify starting dates and dimension filters for maintenance budget entries.

In Excel, new lines can be added and existing lines can be modified at will - and will be created or updated in EAM-BC on import. The only requirement is that used data (like Asset No., Work Order Category, etc.) exist in EAM-BC prior to importing.

Add budget entry. To add a budget entry for an Asset, simply add Asset No. and specify data and costs.
Update costs. When a budget entry exists for an Asset, then it becomes possible to update Resource Cost, Item Cost, and Expense Cost for the Asset in Excel.
Unspecified Asset costs can be added in Excel by leaving Asset No. field blank.

Import Maintenance Budget from Excel

To import a maintenance budget back from Excel, mark a budget, press Edit Budget, and choose Import from Excel from the Budget menu item.

When importing, the user is asked to specify import options:

Replace entries - data from Excel will replace budget entries in EAM-BC for each Asset. Importing will never delete anything, it will either add new entries or optionally replace existing costs (for the same date and dimensions). Let's say you plan to spend EUR 3000 on an Asset in EAM-BC - and update the number to 5000 in Excel, then the resulting value will say EUR 5000 after import into EAM-BC.
Add entries - data from Excel will be added as new entries in EAM-BC for each Asset. Let's say you plan to spend EUR 3000 on an Asset in EAM-BC - and update the number to 5000 in Excel, then the entry from Excel will be added as a new entry and the new total for the Asset will be EUR 8000 after import into EAM-BC.