Out of the box, Dynamics 365 has many great out-of-the-box entities such as accounts, contacts, leads, and opportunities. However, it is often the case, that the out of the box entities may not be the right fit or the only fit for every business. Businesses often have their own special requirements, and when these requirements do not fit the D365 mold, we look to custom entities to accomplish the desired result. Through the configuration of custom entities, D365 can be tailor fit to meet any business’ unique needs. That means custom forms, fields, business process flows, views, charts, and dashboards, all based on your specific requirements.

D365 out-of-the-box is like a good suit, you purchase it because you like the suit, but know that to get the “right fit,” your next stop will be your tailor. Custom entities are your D365 tailor. With custom entities you can construct entities based on your organizational needs. These custom entities can drastically elevate your D365 experience. By creating custom entities you’ll have a unique, one of a kind system, unlike anything on the market. This could be as simple as an entity to capture employee data in your organization, to a collection of custom entities working together to bring you a whole new experience.

The following is an example of some custom entities built to manage human resource activities. The below demonstrates a custom navigation tile built to clearly distinguish the custom entities which have been built to fall within the Human Resources component of the system, thereby easily distinguishing it from the out-of-the-box areas of the environment.

The Candidate entity in the collection had fields created and a custom business process flow built to manage the hiring process. This entity had relationships built which further tie it to the other custom entities which fall within the human resources collection. Being this is all custom built, the skies the limit. If you can imagine it, you can make it a reality.

Custom entities truly transform your D365 environment to fit your business requirements, so you never have to compromise. D365 out of the box is a great base to get started, but one size does not fit all, and that is where the ease and flexibility of the system is best recognized and where custom entities shine. Talk to your team and determine how you can leverage custom entities in D365, then email us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. to discuss your ideas and get started on the path to building your perfect D365 environment.

Analyze Dynamics 365 data to gauge performance. Recognize trends. Mass edit thousands of records. Share data with someone that is not a D365 User. These business requirements and so much more can be accomplished when you export your data to Excel or Excel Online from Dynamics 365. Plus extracting a large number of records is a non-issue because you can export up to 100,000 records in a single export file.

The Export to Excel feature has proven to be a vital asset in the D365 application over the years due its ease of use, and its obvious connection to Excel. With the continued enhancements in Dynamics 365, and the technology which can be integrated with the application, you can certainly do so much of your data analysis without ever leaving the environment, thereby reducing the need to export your data. Fact is though, so many have come to know, love and depend upon the tools and functions in Excel which bring data to life, thereby making the Export to Excel feature a much-coveted feature still.

Besides the need to extract data for data analysis, the Export to Excel feature carries another extremely valuable purpose. What if you have a query of 10,000 Account records, for example, and want to update the Industry field on all of them to the same value? Sure, you could select a maximum of 250 records per page and mass edit them. But consider this, 10,000 divided by 250, you would need to repeat the process 40 times. And let’s be realistic, out of the 10,000 records, chances are slim you would be modifying the Industry field value to the exact same value for all.

By leveraging the export to Excel function, not only can you view thousands of rows of data at once, you can also update all of them at once too. Data is exported in the same format as you see in your View, so text remains text, numbers remain numbers, and dates remain dates. The cell format in Excel may change for some formatting types, so you will need to be aware of this and be sure to update the affected rows accordingly.

Make any necessary changes in the exported file, and then import the file back into Dynamics 365. Just like that, your 10,000 Account records have been updated in a fraction of the time, and you have significantly reduced the risk of making an error.

Dynamics 365 is a sophisticated Microsoft business application, it grants the ability to better manage the relationships of your Sales, Customer Service, Field Service and Operation processes. But how can you access your data while you are out in the field, the internet is down or you are not anywhere near your PC? Dynamics 365 for phones and Dynamics 365 for tablets apps are the solution when you're on the go. These apps give you immediate access to accounts, contacts, opportunities, cases, and so much more!

How to get the App:

Go to the app store on your device and download either Dynamics 365 for phones or Dynamics 365 for tablets, depending on the device you are working with. Both phone and tablet users alike will appreciate the new Unified Interface. The Unified Interface provides an optimized viewing and interaction experience, relative to screen size, device, and orientation.

 Accessing the App:

Once you have the app installed, open the app on your device, enter your Dynamics 365 URL (web address), and click the arrow to continue. Next you will be prompted for your user name and password. If you are unsure of any of these values, contact your Dynamics 365 administrator.

You can now brand your Dynamics 365 environment! Themes allow you to apply your distinct logo and color scheme to your Dynamics 365 environment. Three simple clicks and you are well on your way to a D365 environment with a look all your own.

1. From the Navigation Bar, select Settings

2. Select Customizations

3. Select Themes

Quick View forms are a great way to view information from different entities while remaining on a single record. Quick view forms enable you to surface data from associated entities and display the data in read only mode on the form. This is done through linking the two different entitles together using a lookup field. Below you’ll learn how you can setup your own quick view form in just 3 easy steps.

1. Create a Lookup field

The first step in setting up a quick view form is to ensure you have a lookup field to the entity where the data is stored. If you do not already have a lookup field created, you will need to create one. To do so, go to Settings > Customizations on the navigation bar and select Customize the System.

Next navigate to the entity you wish to add the lookup field to, and thereby surface the Quick View form on. Click the Fields node, and create a new field.

Once you click new, the following pop up window will appear. Indicate a display name and change the data type to Lookup and select the entity you wish to associate to. Once that is done, click save and close.

The records you store in Dynamics 365 typically share some association with other records of the same type. Whether it be leads owned by a specific user, accounts of the same relationship type, contacts located in a specific city, opportunities created in last “X” days. The list is endless and limitless. With a little planning, you can create Views which automatically filter records for you based on the criteria you set.

So, what are Views in D365?

Views display all the records of a specific entity type in your D365 environment. Out-of-the-box you are provided with a variety views, but you can add to these, creating custom views which are significant to you. Clicking the drop-down arrow next to a view name reveals all the views you have at your disposal.

There are two types of Views which can be created, system views and personal views. System Views are created by a System Administrator or System Customizer, and are available to everyone in the organization. Personal Views are those that a User can create for themselves, and are only viewable by that User (or Users they “share” the view with), and what this blog will focus on.

Creating a Personal View

Leave the spreadsheets to your data analysts, and appreciate the effectiveness that charts provide. Dynamics 365 comes with a handful of charts out-of-the-box which you can pair with corresponding views to surface data visually. Like most companies, you likely have unique measures which the standard charts do not account for. That is where the flexibility and ease of creating your own charts in D365 shines. Dynamics 365 provides a variety of chart types allowing you to create column, bar, pie, funnel, and many more chart types, to fulfill your business needs.

Charts interact with the view which is chosen, and the data reflected in the chart is refreshed when you toggle between views. So, if viewing My Opportunities, the chart will depict that information, if you switch the view to All Opportunities, the Chart will change to reflect the data of the newly selected View. Similarly, you can switch Charts to display the View data in another way.

There are two types of Charts which can be created, system charts and personal charts. System Charts are created by a System Administrator or System Customizer, and are available to everyone in the organization. Personal Charts are those that a User can create for themselves, and are only viewable by that User (or Users they “share” the chart with), and what this blog will focus on.

Creating a Personal Chart

To create a chart, navigate to the entity (Accounts, Contacts, Leads, Opportunities…) for which you want to create a chart and choose the view which best demonstrates the data you want to visualize. Click the charts pane to expand this section.

Creating views and charts are a meaningful way to analyze and visualize your data, but they often live in multiple entities in Dynamics 365, and truth be told, you probably overlook or do not use them to their fullest potential. Custom dashboards in D365 give you the ability to pull together a variety of views and charts into one place, providing you a single stopping point to easily view metrics which span multiple entities.

Dashboards can be made up of views, charts, web resources and iFrames, allowing you to build your own collection of business intelligence metrics.

There are two types of Dashboards which can be created, system dashboards and personal dashboards. System Dashboards are created by a System Administrator or System Customizer, and are available to everyone in the organization. Personal Dashboards are those that a User can create for themselves, and are only viewable by that User (or Users they “share” the Dashboard with), and what this blog will focus on.

Creating a Personal Dashboard

You can create a personal dashboard by going to the dashboard area of Dynamics 365, and selecting an existing Dashboard and performing a “Save As” or create a new one. You are presented with layout choices, select one and click Create.

Ever had your boss ask you to pull a report which meets a specific set of criteria or sat scratching your head trying to pull up a record, but could not recall the exact details? With Advanced Find in D365, you can find exactly what you are looking for in just seconds. Advanced Find is the most powerful and robust tool in Dynamics 365 for searching. Using intuitive, user friendly features, you can quickly create queries and search your entire D365 database with ease.

At first glance Advanced Find may appear a bit intimidating, however once you become familiar with it, you will find yourself using it all the time, and wonder how you ever worked without it.

Continue reading to learn everything you need to know to get started using Advanced Find today!

The Advanced Find button is simple to locate, no matter which screen you are on, because it is housed in the D365 navigation bar.

Once you click on the  Icon, a window like the following will appear.

Isn’t it maddening to fill out the same fields, with the same info, when creating a child record directly from its parent form? Well -- Stop Doing It! Let the system fill out those fields automatically for you, instead of eating up your own time on it!

One of the “quiet” features of Dynamics 365, that will significantly save you time and protect data integrity, is Field Mapping. The purpose of field mapping is to copy certain values (e.g. address fields) from a record to an associated record (e.g. a contact created from an account)

The following details how simple it is to create field mapping relationships.

In Customizations, locate the Account Entity, and go to the “1:N Relationships” node.

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.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) has been a growing trend in the last couple of years. Any business owner knows that your sales team is only as good as the tools and the people it employs. Dynamics CRM is the right solution for your unique business needs because your sales team is able to market and sell your goods or services efficiently and effectively.

Sales people need a way to monitor, track and record sales force automation, marketing campaigns and funnel management. Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013 focuses on 5 aspects of the sales cycle: Sales, customer care, marketing, social and technology.

Here is a list of benefits that Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013 as to offer:

• Easily configurable
• Powerful tablet applications
• Touch-optimized phone applications
• Communicate with ease (Microsoft Lync, Skype, Yammer)
• Real Time Workflow
• Enhanced business processes

At WebSan Solutions, we offer robust, integrated end-to-end software solutions for managing your business.

Natalie Williams, Marketing Coordinator, WebSan Solutions Inc., a Canadian Certified Microsoft Partner

If you have a lot of data that doesn’t quite fit into one of Dynamics CRM 2011’s existing entities, you may decide to create your own custom entity and fields to house that data of yours.  If you take this route, don’t waste your time building the entity and creating all of your fields ahead of time!  Instead, you can use CRM 2011’s Import Data Wizard, which allows you to create entities and fields on the fly as you import the data for this new entity.

After selecting the file you want to import in the Import Data Wizard, you will reach the Map Record Types step of the Wizard – here, you can select to “Create New” Dynamics CRM Record Type, which will prompt you for more information to create the new entity within the Wizard.  Next, you’ll reach the Map Fields step – here, you can dynamically create new fields for each column in your import file (or ignore fields that you don’t want to bring into CRM).  While doing so, it even defaults the Field Name to match the column header from your import file, so all you really have to do is select the type of field that it is.  And if that wasn’t enough – if you select “Option Set” as the field type, the Wizard will automatically create values for your option set based on the unique values in that column of your data file!  The only thing left to do at this point is to set any additional options on your new entity as necessary and configure the entity form that will be used to manage the data – both of which can be done through the usual customizations window.

So if you find yourself needing to create a new entity along with having to import your data into this new entity, save yourself some time by combining both steps into one using this helpful trick in the Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Import Data Wizard.

Rahim Jiwani is an Implementation Lead at WebSan Solutions Inc, a Microsoft Dynamics GP Silver Partner & 2012 Microsoft Impact Awards Finalist. Rahim can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or 416-499-1235 ext 217.