In Dynamics 365, Sometimes Custom is the Way to Go

Microsoft Dynamics 365 (CRM) has a terrific variety of Out-of-the-Box ways to capture important information for your organization. Configuration to capture needed information can often include simply adding Out-of-the-Box fields to a form.

On occasion, however, it might make sense to create a custom field even when an out-of-the-box field appears to be available.

Let’s look at an example.

From time-to-time you may have a situation that requires capturing multiple addresses directly on the lead, account, and contact forms, and you need to identify address types that are unique to your business (the “Address” entity in your case just isn’t a practical option for the users).

You could use the standard “Address Type” option set fields and add or change the existing options.  But, these fields are field level option sets, which means you will have to make the same changes across all addresses and entities involved.  And if a new address type is needed in the future, you will need to add this address type to each field’s option set and ensure the values align from the lead to accounts/contacts.

An alternate solution is to create custom address type fields that utilize a global option set.  It may take a few more minutes to set up initially, but long term the convenience and reduced risk of issues make it worthwhile.

Here are the steps you could follow:

• Mark the Out-of-the-Box fields so they are not mistakenly used in views, queries, etc. Since you can’t delete system fields, we will add an “x” to the beginning of the Display Name and set the Searchable option to “No”.

• Create a global option set for Address Type that contains the values your organization needs. Navigate to Settings > Customizations > Customize the System > Option Sets.  Click “New” and create the new global option set.

• Finally, create the individual Address Type fields for Leads, Accounts, and Contacts. The field configuration would look similar to the following.

As with many things in Microsoft Dynamics 365 (CRM), there can be many ways to accomplish the same result.  Capturing address types is one of those, and your solution may have different requirements or priorities. This is an example of using the flexibility of Dynamics 365 (CRM) to set things up for potential future needs.

For more tips and tricks that will make you more efficient and proficient in Microsoft Dynamics 365 (CRM) visit our Blog Archive to access more or sign up for our next (free) Microsoft Dynamics 365 User Group Webinar.

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