Importing MRP Parameters into Business Central
- John Ellis
- 4 days ago
- 2 min read
Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central Consultant
Material Requirements Planning (MRP) in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central (BC) is a planning engine, ensuring that customer demand is met through automated replenishment of supply.
MRP is configured, specifically, within BC’s “Stockkeeping Unit Card” screen -- or SKU -- when Location Mandatory is enabled in the “Inventory Setup” screen.
Importing MRP parameters into SKUs is simple, thanks to the free Import Export PowerTool developed by Insight Works.
Importing is useful, both during initial implementation or when needing to update SKUs after go-live.
Reviewing MRP Parameters
MRP’s parameters reside in the SKU’s “Replenishment” and “Planning” sections:
As explained in Turnkey’s previously published article on BC MRP, the planning engine won’t run without these parameters.
But, First, Export!
The first step in importing MRP parameters is, actually, exporting!
Exporting from the “Stockkeeping Unit” table, 5700, creates a template to fill out for importing.
First, search in BC for import export powertool:
Next, follow these steps:
choose Export as the Operation,
select 5700 for the Table ID Filter,
click the “Actions” button, and
choose Export Data.
When exporting has finished, click OK to the following:
This process exports the table to a text file, residing in the Microsoft Windows “Downloads” folder:
The file can be saved, however, in any location.
To open this text file, take these steps:
open Microsoft Excel,
navigate to File…Open…Browse,
in the lower right-hand corner change “All Excel Files” to “All Files”,
select the file,
click Open,
click Next,
click Next, and
click Finish.
Importing MRP Parameters
With the text file open in Excel, select all records and navigate to Format…AutoFit Column Width. This makes it easier to work with the template.
After hiding any empty and unnecessary columns, save the file in Excel as a *.xlsx file.
Next, copy and paste any required MRP parameters into this spreadsheet.
Then, save the spreadsheet as a tab-delimited text file:
navigate in Excel to File…Save As…Browse,
select Text (Tab-delimited) (*.txt) in the “Save as type:” field,
choose a location to save this file, and
click Save.
Once again, search in BC for import export powertool:
Now, follow these steps:
choose Import as the Operation,
select 5700 for the Table ID Filter,
click the “Actions” button,
choose Import Data, and
click OK in the resulting message.
Whether this import takes place during the initial implementation or as an ongoing update of parameters after go-live, the settings shown in the previous screenshot are used.
👉 Connect with John Ellis for more supply chain insights. John Ellis' LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-ellis-20464a221/