Ever have the problem of scrolling down a long list of options only to miss what you were looking for? What if there was a way to limit your option choices based on values previously selected? Well now there is!

Dependent options in Dynamics 356 gives users the ability to filter down a long list of option values to just a handful of choices based on previously selected parent fields. This feature dynamically updates the options users see based on pre-set business logic.

Take the following transpiration data model as an example.

Traditional Option Set

Traditional option sets simply display all the options for each field without any consideration for previously selected option values. This method is cumbersome when it comes to long lists and can feel very redundant when looking through lists where some of the options obviously shouldn’t be there based on previous values selected.

Wouldn’t it simplify things if you could go to one record and see everything you need to see? Ever find yourself heading into a meeting, and wish you could quickly “ramp up” on all interactions with the Customer? Getting the total picture in one place, enabling you to see every touchpoint, this is the benefit that sub-grids afford you.

One of the great things about Dynamics 365 is that it allows you to customize entity forms to display the information most relevant to your business. You will quickly find that providing your users with the ability to see, at a glance, a subset of related records when viewing a lead, contact or account record provides immeasurable value.

For example, your salespeople may benefit from seeing all tasks related to an account directly on the account record. Instead of having to navigate to a separate page or running an advanced find query, you can easily set this up by adding a task sub-grid to the account form.

To add a sub-grid to your account form, open the D365 form editor directly from the account record’s ribbon menu or by opening the general customizations menu, navigating to the account entity forms, and selecting the account main form.

Once you’re in the form editor, select the section that you want to add the sub-grid to, switch to the form editor’s Insert tab, and click the Sub-Grid button.

Picture This.

It’s a lovely Tuesday afternoon, and the sun is shining birds are singing as you are packing up your car to go to your first meeting. As a business owner, there is no such thing as a 9-5 schedule but today seems possible, you only have two meetings today and maybe even have time to make a pit stop to the office.

After your first meeting, you realized that you missed a call from the office and tried calling back, but there is no answer. Your first meeting took a little longer than normal, and you’re running a little behind schedule, so you check your email just to double check and no luck. Once you have finished with the second meeting you check again to see if there is anything and finally there is an email from one of your employees about a possible lead that wants to schedule up something today.

Now you are running behind schedule even more now cause the last meeting took longer than expected with a whole bunch of questions. Now, as you’re on route to your “final” meeting you try following up with this lead and no answer on the phone call and you send them a quick email right before you walk into your third meeting. The final meeting ends and as you check your email, you see that they had an opening for today but are booked until Friday and could book something then. You realize that you could be Missing Opportunities.

We are in the year 2018, the time of digital transformation and moving to the cloud; missing opportunities is not an option anymore. With the hectic life of a business owner, you need something that can help you and your company work in harmony and work more in sync. With Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Sales your team can add a lead into your system with little information and you can get a notification about the new lead.

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If you’re looking for a cost-effective ERP solution that combines sales, customer service, operations, financials, field service, project service automation, Marketing and Customer Insights, Dynamics 365 Business Central offers all these capabilities plus familiar tools that can grow with your business. Designed to work seamlessly with Office 365 and Dynamics 365 for Sales, Dynamics 365 Business Central encourages users to start small by using only apps that they need and expanding as their business requirements change.

Below, we outline the differences between Dynamics 365 Business Central and Enterprise editions: