Open in Excel v/s Export to Excel

This is a short post explaining the subtle difference between ‘Open in Excel’ and ‘Export in excel feature’ in Dynamics 365 FinOps.

Open in excel


When the ‘Open in Excel’ option is clicked on the data grid in Dynamics 365 FinOps, then the system opens the DYNAMIC excel sheet using ‘Data connector’. That DYNAMIC excel sheet is nothing but the ‘Data entity’ holding that data. The sheet is dynamic because if the user creates a new record in the excel sheet and hit ‘Publish’, then the new record is created in the system and stored in the database. Similarly, if the user edits/deletes any record in the excel sheet and publishes the sheet, then the grid is updated accordingly.

Open in Excel

Data entity file created

Data connector

Export to excel


When the ‘Export to Excel’ option is clicked on the data grid in Dynamics 365 FinOps, then the system downloads the STATIC excel sheet with the data from the data grid on the screen. It is just a copy of the data and has no impact on the actual data in the system if records are created, edited or deleted in the excel sheet.

Export to Excel

Static excel sheet with downloaded data

Hope the difference is clear now.

Thanks

Kind Regards
Sarang