The Insight Works Import Export PowerTool can be used to export and import Business Central Record Links, including links associated with customers, items, sales documents, purchase documents, and other records.

This is useful when:

• Moving data between companies or environments.
• Migrating links from another system into Business Central.
• Restoring Record Links that were removed or lost.
• Bulk updating URLs, such as when a document server or SharePoint location changes.

Import Export PowerTool supports Record Links separately from normal table fields. Insight Works specifically supports exporting and importing Record Links and record notes as part of a data migration.

Important: Record Links are not the same as Business Central file attachments. Import Export PowerTool can move the URL and related Record Link information, but it does not export or import the binary files stored as Business Central attachments.

This article uses a Posted Purchase Invoice as an example.

Importing Record Links for Posted Documents and Other Protected Tables

When importing Record Links for posted documents or other protected Business Central tables, review the Import Export PowerTool Setup before running the import. For protected tables, such as Posted Purchase Invoice Header, set Protected Tables to Allow Access and configure Update Access to permit the import.

These settings are required even when the import is only creating Record Links and is not changing fields on the posted document itself. The PowerTool still applies its protected-table access rules to the target table used by the import.

Example Scenario

Suppose posted purchase invoice PPI47119 has links to documents stored outside Business Central, such as:

• A PDF stored in SharePoint.
• A supplier certificate.
• An externally hosted packing slip.

You want to export those links and later import them back into another company, another environment, or the same company after correcting the exported data.

Posted Purchase Invoices are stored in table 122, Purch. Inv. Header.

Export Record Links

Import Export PowerTool can export data either by specifying table IDs or by using a Business Central Configuration Package. Table exports include all normal table fields, while Configuration Package exports include the fields configured in the package.

To export Posted Purchase Invoices and their Record Links:

1. Search for Insight Works Import Export PowerTool in Business Central.
2. Set Operation to Export.
3. In Table ID Filter, enter:122
4. If required, apply filters so that only the posted invoices you need are exported.
5. Enable the export option to include Record Links. The PowerTool export options allow additional Record Link and note information to be included with exported records.
6. Select Export Data.
7. Download and save the generated text file.

Insight Works uses tab-delimited text files for PowerTool exports. These files can be reviewed or edited with tools such as Excel or Notepad++.

Understanding the Exported Record Links

Record Links are exported against the record to which they belong.

For a Posted Purchase Invoice, the important field identifying the Business Central record is:

No.

If posted invoice PPI47119 has multiple Record Links, the exported data may therefore contain multiple rows referencing PPI47119, with one row for each link.

Conceptually, the resulting data resembles:

TABLEID:122
NO.	RECORDLINK	LINK_DESCRIPTION	LINK_USERID	LINK_CREATED
PPI47119	https://contoso.sharepoint.com/invoices/invoice.pdf	Invoice PDF	ADMIN	8/17/2026 1:30 PM
PPI47119	https://contoso.sharepoint.com/invoices/certificate.pdf	Certificate	ADMIN	8/17/2026 1:31 PM

The actual export can contain additional fields from the Posted Purchase Invoice Header.

The special fields used by Import Export PowerTool are:

Field	Purpose
RECORDLINK	URL associated with the Business Central record
LINK_DESCRIPTION	Description shown for the link
LINK_USERID	User associated with the Record Link
LINK_CREATED	Date and time the link was created
RECORDNOTE	Used for Business Central record notes rather than normal URL links

These are special PowerTool fields and are not fields on the Posted Purchase Invoice Header table itself.

Import Record Links

Record Links should normally be imported against the business record, such as table 122, rather than by attempting to import directly into the system Record Link table.

Import Export PowerTool provides special handling for the RECORDLINK field. Insight Works’ published events specifically describe Record Links imported using the special RECORDLINK field on a standard table.

For example:

TABLEID:122
NO.	RECORDLINK	LINK_DESCRIPTION
PPI47119	https://contoso.sharepoint.com/invoices/invoice.pdf	Invoice PDF

When the file is imported, Import Export PowerTool:

1. Finds Posted Purchase Invoice PPI47119.
2. Creates a Business Central Record Link against that invoice.
3. Stores the URL from RECORDLINK.
4. Applies the description and other supplied Record Link information.

You do not need to determine or manually construct the Business Central Record ID or Record Link ID.

Import Existing Posted Purchase Invoice Links

When importing links for Posted Purchase Invoices that already exist:

1. Search for Import Export PowerTool.
2. Set Operation to Import.
3. Set Allow Record Inserts to false.
4. Configure Allow Record Updates as appropriate for the import.
5. Select Import Data.
6. Choose the tab-delimited file containing the Posted Purchase Invoice numbers and Record Links.
7. Run the import.

Insight Works’ standard recommendation when modifying existing records is to disable record inserts and enable record updates.

For a Record Link-only import, however, the important operation is the special Record Link processing. The PowerTool source creates the link independently after locating the target record.

Required Primary Key Fields

The import file must contain enough information for Import Export PowerTool to identify the Business Central record.

For Posted Purchase Invoice Header, the primary key is the invoice No., so this is sufficient:

TABLEID:122
NO.	RECORDLINK	LINK_DESCRIPTION
PPI47119	https://example.com/PPI47119.pdf	Purchase Invoice

For tables with a multi-field primary key, all primary key fields must be included.

If the required primary key fields are not present, PowerTool cannot determine which Business Central record should receive the link.

Import Multiple Links for One Invoice

Place each Record Link on its own row.

For example:

TABLEID:122
NO.	RECORDLINK	LINK_DESCRIPTION
PPI47119	https://example.com/invoice.pdf	Invoice
PPI47119	https://example.com/packing-slip.pdf	Packing Slip
PPI47119	https://example.com/certificate.pdf	Certificate

All three links will be associated with Posted Purchase Invoice PPI47119.

Insight Works recommends the same approach when moving Record Links: repeat the business record as necessary and put each link or note on its own line.

Creating New Record Links Manually

An exported PowerTool file can also be used as a template for creating new Record Links.

For example, you could create:

TABLEID:122
NO.	RECORDLINK	LINK_DESCRIPTION
PPI47119	https://contoso.sharepoint.com/sites/AP/PPI47119.pdf	Scanned Supplier Invoice
PPI47120	https://contoso.sharepoint.com/sites/AP/PPI47120.pdf	Scanned Supplier Invoice

Save the file as tab-delimited text and import it using Import Export PowerTool.

This can be useful when migrating links from:

• A legacy ERP.
• A network file repository.
• SharePoint.
• Another Business Central environment.

Record Link Descriptions and Dates

LINK_DESCRIPTION, LINK_USERID, and LINK_CREATED are optional.

A typical import only requires:

NO.	RECORDLINK	LINK_DESCRIPTION

If LINK_CREATED is supplied, it must be formatted as a date/time value that the Business Central session can evaluate correctly.

If preserving the original creation date is not important, omit LINK_CREATED.

Avoid Duplicate Links

Each imported RECORDLINK causes a new Record Link to be created.

For example, importing this twice:

PPI47119	https://example.com/invoice.pdf	Invoice

can result in two Record Links pointing to the same URL.

The base PowerTool Record Link import does not perform URL-based duplicate detection before creating the link.

Before repeating a Record Link import, verify whether the links were already created.

Do Not Import the Record Link System Table Unless Necessary

Business Central stores Record Links in system table 2000000068, Record Link.

However, importing this table directly requires dealing with system-level information such as the Record ID that connects the link to its originating record.

For normal data migration, restoration, and bulk link creation, use the special RECORDLINK field against the original table instead.

Record Links vs. Attachments

Import Export PowerTool does not transfer the physical file behind a Business Central attachment.

For example:

• A SharePoint URL stored as a Record Link: Supported
• A web URL stored as a Record Link: Supported
• A Business Central record note: Supported
• A PDF stored as a Business Central Document Attachment: Not transferred by the Record Link functionality

If a document has already been moved to SharePoint and Business Central contains a URL pointing to it, that URL can be exported and imported with Import Export PowerTool.

Troubleshooting Record Link Imports

If the import immediately returns “Import complete. 0 records imported in 0 seconds”, review the Import Export PowerTool Setup before changing the import file. This result can occur when the target table is protected and the required access has not been enabled.

Check the following:

• Update Access is configured to allow the import.
• Protected Tables is set to Allow Access when importing against posted documents or other protected tables.
• The import file identifies the correct target table and primary-key fields.
• RECORDLINK contains the URL to create.
• LINK_DESCRIPTION contains the description to store on the Business Central Record Link.

When troubleshooting, start with a small import file containing one or two records. Once the Record Links are created successfully, use the same format and settings for the full import.

Example Walkthrough: