Import Invoices into Business Central from Excel or CSV

Dynamics 365 Business Central will load a whole batch of invoices in one pass, but only from a spreadsheet that matches its own table layout. It will not read a stack of PDFs or scanned images straight into purchase invoices. So the work has two halves: turn your invoices into clean spreadsheet rows, then run those rows through a Business Central configuration package. This guide walks both halves, with the exact menu path, the two tables the package expects, how vendors are matched, and the errors that stop an import cold. If your invoices are still PDFs or photos, drop them into the converter at the top of this page first and you will have an import-ready Excel or CSV file in a few minutes.

Can you import invoices into Business Central?

Yes. Business Central imports both purchase invoices and sales invoices in bulk using configuration packages, which map a spreadsheet to the program's own tables so you can load a batch instead of keying each invoice by hand. The package reads an Excel (.xlsx) file, and you can prepare the data as CSV first. It does not read PDFs or scanned images directly, so those invoices have to become spreadsheet rows before the import will work.

That split is the whole job. The Business Central side is a short, repeatable routine once your package is built. The slow part is getting the invoice data into rows in the first place, which is exactly what an invoice to Business Central converter removes by turning the PDFs into the columns the package wants.

How do I import purchase invoices into Business Central?

Search for Configuration Packages, create a new package, and add the Purchase Header and Purchase Line tables. Click Export to Excel to download a template, fill the header sheet with one row per invoice and the line sheet with one row per line item, then return to the package and choose Import from Excel followed by Apply Package. The invoices land as draft documents you review and post.

Step by step, the routine looks like this:

1. In the search bar, type Configuration Packages and open the page.
2. Click New, give the package a Code and a Name, and add table 38 (Purchase Header) and table 39 (Purchase Line).
3. Click Export to Excel. Business Central builds a workbook with a sheet for each table and the field names as column headers. Leave those headers unchanged.
4. Fill the Purchase Header sheet with one row per invoice (vendor, document date, your external document number) and the Purchase Line sheet with one row per line, tying each line back to its header by the document number.
5. Back in the package, click Import from Excel, drop in your file, then Apply Package.
6. Open Purchase Invoices, check the drafts the import created, and post them.

The same pattern handles other documents: swap in the matching header and line tables and the rest of the flow is identical, which is why it is the backbone of the broader process to import invoices into an ERP.

Can Business Central import invoices from Excel?

Yes. Excel is the native format for a configuration package: you export the package to Excel, type or paste your invoice data into the generated sheets, and import the same workbook back in. Keep the column headers exactly as exported, because the package maps your columns to Business Central fields by those header names, not by position.

If your source data is in your own spreadsheet rather than the exported template, copy the values into the matching columns of the template instead of importing your own layout. A mismatched header is the most common reason a row is skipped. Converting your invoices to a clean sheet first, with one row per line item, makes that copy step quick. See how to extract invoice line items into rows so every product line lands in the Purchase Line sheet.

Does Business Central import PDF invoices?

Not in bulk. Standard Business Central has no feature that reads a folder of PDF invoices straight into posted purchase invoices, so the supported bulk path is to convert each PDF to spreadsheet rows and load them through a configuration package. The 2026 release wave is adding a way to draft a single purchase invoice from one PDF, but that is one document at a time, not a batch.

For any real volume, the reliable approach is to turn the PDFs into one Excel or CSV file first. An invoice PDF to Excel converter reads the vendor, dates, totals, and line items off each document and writes them into columns, so you import structured rows instead of trying to make Business Central parse a document it was not built to read. If most of those bills arrive as email attachments, an email invoice parser can pull them out of the inbox before you convert them, so nothing sits unprocessed in a mailbox.

What is a configuration package in Business Central?

A configuration package is Business Central's built-in tool for moving data in and out through Excel. You pick the tables you want to populate, export them to a workbook that carries the field names as headers, fill in your data, and import it back. It is the standard, license-included way to bulk load invoices, customers, vendors, and items without writing code.

Packages are reusable. Once you build an invoice package with the Purchase Header and Purchase Line tables, you save it and run the same package every month against a fresh spreadsheet. That repeatability is what makes the converter-plus-package workflow practical for an ongoing accounts payable backlog rather than a one-off cleanup.

How does Business Central match vendors when you import invoices?

Business Central matches each imported invoice to a vendor by the Vendor No. you put in the Buy-from Vendor No. field on the Purchase Header row. The number has to be an existing vendor card; the import does not create vendors on the fly. If the number is blank or unknown, that invoice row fails validation and is not created.

So load or confirm your vendors before the invoice import, and use the exact Vendor No. from each vendor card in your spreadsheet. It also helps to fill the external document number (your vendor's invoice number), which Business Central can require to block duplicate postings of the same bill. Getting vendor numbers and invoice numbers right in the sheet is far easier than fixing rejected rows after the fact.

How do I import sales invoices into Business Central?

Sales invoices follow the same configuration package routine as purchases, but with the Sales Header and Sales Line tables instead of the purchase tables. Export the package to Excel, put one row per invoice on the header sheet with the Sell-to Customer No., one row per line on the line sheet, then import and apply. The result is draft sales invoices you review and post.

Keep sales and purchase imports in separate packages and separate files. Customers are matched by Customer No. the same way vendors are matched by Vendor No., so the customer cards need to exist first. Mixing document types in one workbook is a common cause of failed imports.

Why is my Business Central invoice import failing?

Most failed imports come down to four things: a changed or misspelled column header so the field does not map, a Vendor No. or Customer No. that does not exist on a card, line rows that do not reference a valid header document number, or a required field left blank such as the document date or the external document number. Business Central reports the error per row, so read the package error list before reimporting.

Work through the errors one row at a time. Fix the spreadsheet, clear the failed rows from the package, and apply again rather than importing the whole file twice, which can create duplicates. The cleaner your starting data, the fewer rounds you run, which is the case for converting invoices into correct rows up front. The same discipline applies whether you are loading Business Central or any other system, as covered in our guide to extracting invoice data to Excel.

From PDF invoices to a Business Central import in minutes

The configuration package is the dependable way to get invoices into Business Central, but it only works on clean rows. That is the bottleneck for most accounts payable teams: not the import wizard, but retyping dozens of PDF invoices into the Purchase Header and Purchase Line sheets without a transposed total or a missed line. Convert the invoices to a structured Excel or CSV file first, paste the values into the exported template, and the import becomes a two-minute step you repeat every month. Upload your invoices to the converter at the top of this page to get an import-ready file, then run it through your package. The expense receipts behind employee reimbursements post to Business Central too; a receipt OCR tool turns those into rows the same way, so the whole accounts payable side comes in structured rather than retyped.