- Feature
- Telemetry for Open in Excel usage
- Availability
- Generally available (October 2026)
- Industry focus
- Private healthcare providers (clinics, diagnostics, dental and therapy groups)
Private healthcare providers hold some of the most sensitive data there is. Even when the clinical record sits elsewhere, the finance system often contains patient names, insurer details and treatment-related billing information. Open in Excel is one of the most useful features in Business Central, and one of the easiest ways for data to leave it. Business Central 29.0 makes those exports visible.
The industry challenge
A group of private clinics might use Business Central for:
- Patient and insurer invoicing
- Practitioner payments and commissions
- Supplier payments and inventory for consumables
Staff regularly use Open in Excel to analyze data, prepare reports or share figures with managers. That's legitimate and valuable. But under data protection laws and healthcare confidentiality rules, the organization must be able to show how personal data is handled. It must also be able to investigate if something goes wrong.
Until now, an export from a customer list or an invoice ledger left little trace. If a spreadsheet of patient billing data turned up somewhere it shouldn't, working out who exported it and when was difficult.
What Microsoft delivered in Business Central 29.0
According to Microsoft, Business Central 29.0 logs Open in Excel actions to telemetry. Microsoft says this makes data export events auditable, which can be critical for compliance, security investigations and understanding how people use Business Central.
Telemetry in Business Central online is typically sent to Azure Application Insights, where administrators can query, report on and alert on events.
Where the value shows up
| Business area | Impact for a private healthcare provider |
|---|---|
| Data protection | Exports of potentially sensitive data are recorded |
| Investigations | Evidence of who exported data, and when, if an incident occurs |
| Compliance | Supports accountability obligations under data protection law |
| Usage insight | Shows which lists staff export most, guiding better built-in reports |
| Deterrence | Staff know that exports are logged |
There's also a positive side. Telemetry shows which data people repeatedly export to Excel. That often reveals reports or dashboards the business should build inside Business Central, which reduces the need to export sensitive data in the first place.
A worked scenario
Consider a group of eight physiotherapy and sports medicine clinics (an illustrative example). Its finance system holds patient billing records and insurer claims.
The data protection officer asks IT how the organization would investigate a suspected data leak from the finance system. With Business Central 29.0, IT confirms that Open in Excel events now go to the group's Application Insights telemetry. They build a simple report of exports from customer and invoice lists by user and date, and set an alert for unusually large or frequent exports.
A review of the first month's data shows that the operations team exports the same invoice list every week to build a utilization report. IT builds that report inside Business Central, and weekly exports of patient-related data drop sharply.
Adoption considerations
- Make sure telemetry is set up. Connect your environment to Application Insights if you haven't already.
- Define what to watch. Focus on lists that contain personal or sensitive data.
- Set sensible alerts. Flag unusual patterns rather than every export.
- Update policies. Tell staff that exports are logged and explain acceptable use.
- Act on the insight. Use export patterns to build safer, in-system reporting.
The bottom line
For private healthcare providers, every copy of patient-related data is a responsibility. Open in Excel telemetry in Business Central 29.0 brings exports into the light, supporting compliance, investigations and better reporting design. It's a governance feature that balances convenience for staff with accountability for the organization.
If data exports from your finance system are a concern, it's worth reviewing your telemetry and data governance set-up with an experienced Business Central adviser.
Source: Microsoft roadmap 573317