Managing OneDrive Integration with Business Central

This article provides an overview of what an administrator can do to control OneDrive for Business integration with Business Central. Business Central online customers benefit from automatic integration with no extra setup required to use the open and share in OneDrive features. With the OneDrive Setup assisted setup guide, you can give users access to even more OneDrive features, like opening Excel file in OneDrive—or even turn off all features.

Configure OneDrive for integration with Business Central

This section discusses requirements that must be met in OneDrive for Business to configure the integration with Business Central and task you can do to manage the integration.

Minimum requirements

  • Each user must have a license for Business Central and OneDrive as part of a Microsoft 365 plan.
  • OneDrive must be set up for each user.

Managing privacy

Important

Important:
If you've chosen to deploy Business Central and OneDrive to different countries or regions, the files generated by Business Central and placed in OneDrive may cross data residency boundaries. Make sure to confirm your organization's policies and government compliance requirements for data residency before enabling the connection to OneDrive.

Administrators and end users control the content stored in OneDrive, and this data is owned solely by your organization. For more information, see How SharePoint and OneDrive safeguard your data in the cloud. You can also visit our Microsoft Privacy Statement, which explains the data that Microsoft processes, how Microsoft processes it, and for what purposes.

By enabling this service connection, you agree:

(a) to share data from Dynamics 365 Business Central with the service provider, who will use it according to its terms and privacy policy; (b) the compliance levels of the service provider may be different than Dynamics 365 Business Central; and (c) Microsoft may share your contact information with this service provider if needed for it to operate and troubleshoot the service.

Configure Business Central

With Business Central online, the connection between Business Central and OneDrive is automatically configured for you, and the OneDrive features are readily available to users by default. If you want to turn off some or all of the features off, you can use the OneDrive Setup assisted setup guide in the Business Central client.

Configuring Business Central on-premises is different because the connection between Business Central and OneDrive isn't configured for you. You'll have to do it manually. For more information, see Configuring OneDrive Integration with Business Central On-premises.

About multiple environments

OneDrive integration is configured per environment, that is, your settings will apply to all companies in that environment. If your organization has more than one environment, you'll have to configure OneDrive integration for each.

Prerequisites

  • Indirect, modify, and delete (imd) permission on table Document Service Scenario as a minimum

Configure OneDrive using OneDrive Setup

  1. Choose the Lightbulb that opens the Tell Me feature. icon, enter OneDrive Setup, and then choose the related link.

  2. The first time you run the assisted setup, you'll see the Your privacy. Read the information on the page, and if you agree to the terms choose Agree to continue.

  3. On the Configure OneDrive file handling page, you have the following options to choose from:

    Option Description
    Use for app features If you turn on this option, the Open in OneDrive and Share actions are made available on files in Business Central, like files attached to documents or in the Report Inbox. These actions let users copy, open, and share files in OneDrive.
    • Business Central features that store or capture documents and other files, and offer Open in OneDrive and Share actions to bring those files out of Business Central, such as Incoming Documents and record attachments.
    • Line of business features that generate custom Excel workbooks, such as Sales Budgets.
    • Reports sent to the Report Inbox
    • If you have installed any customizations or extensions, these may add more features that use OneDrive.
    For more information, see Opening and Sharing Business Central Files in OneDrive.
    Use for system features Turning on this option activates the following features:
    • The Open in Excel and Edit in Excel actions on list pages will automatically copy the Excel file to OneDrive, then open it in Excel Online. For more information, see Viewing and Editing in Excel.
    • Sending a report to an Excel or Word file will automatically copy the file to OneDrive, then open it in the Excel or Word online. For more information, see Saving a report to a file.

  4. Choose Next>Done.

Switching to new OneDrive integration after upgrade

The OneDrive Setup assisted setup was introduced in 2022 release wave 2, version 21.0. Previously, the OneDrive integration used the SharePoint Connection Setup, which has been deprecated and will be removed in 2023 release wave 2, version 23.0. After you've upgraded to version 21, OneDrive will still work as before. But we recommend that you switch to the new OneDrive integration. Making this switch now will make it easier when the SharePoint Connection Setup is eventually removed. Plus, it will enable you to use the OneDrive Setup assisted setup guide to manage the OneDrive features that are accessible to users. The OneDrive Setup assisted setup makes the transition from the legacy SharePoint setup easy and seamless.

To switch, just open and run the OneDrive Setup assisted setup directly, or open the SharePoint Connection Setup page and choose Go to new OneDrive setup in the notification at the top of the page. Follow the setup guide as described in the previous section.

Restoring OneDrive and Business Central

As part of a disaster recovery exercise, administrators might need to restore a Business Central online environment to a backup from a time in the past, and synchronize OneDrive storage to that same point in time. OneDrive provides recovery various tools, such as restoring a user’s OneDrive to a previous time, restore a previous version of an individual file, or restore deleted files. For more information, see the following articles:

Governance

The SharePoint admin center provides extensive control over policies that govern the use of OneDrive throughout the organization. Users who have at least the SharePoint administrator role can set up policies that determine who can access OneDrive, where data resides, the content lifecycle, and much more. The following links provide information about often-used features and settings that may enhance your integration with Business Central.

Note

Note:
Some features may be available only for specific plans.

See also

Business Central and OneDrive for Business Integration
Opening Business Central Files in OneDrive
OneDrive FAQ

Find free e-learning modules for Business Central here