Prefill Name when Create New from Lookup Dynamics CRM 2013

In Dynamics CRM 2013 one of the new subtle features introduced is that when you click the ‘+ New’ button on a lookup field, the text you had entered is automatically pulled into the new record. This is particularly useful when searching for a contact for example, and electing to create them as a new record when realising they don’t exist.

Let’s take a look at how it works. Here we have a Contact record, and we’re trying to enter “Frosty’s Ice Cream Store” as the Company Name. After entering the name to perform a search, it has returned no results.



I can now click on ‘+ New’ to pop open a new account form, with the name already filled in. Note that if you’re doing this with a contact lookup, the entire search term will be put into the ‘Last Name’ field.



You can now enter some basic information about the account, or just click ‘Save’ to quickly create and close the account form, and associate it with the contact.

This saves a lot of effort, and works with any lookups in the system.