Dynamics Community Forum Thread Details

Real-time Marketing: Per-record reminders when logic is on a child table

Hi everyone,

I’m looking for advice on the best architecture in Dynamics 365 Real-time Marketing for reminders that must be sent per record in a custom Dataverse child table, while segments/journeys are Contact-based.

Scenario (generic)

Standard table: Contact
Custom child table: Application (many-to-one from Application → Contact)
- A Contact can have multiple Application row
Each Application row contains:
- StatusCode (examples: Accepted, ConditionalAccepted, Confirmed, Cancelled)
- DecisionDeadline (date)
- EarlyReminderSent (Yes/No) + EarlyReminderSentOn (datetime)
- FinalReminderSent (Yes/No) + FinalReminderSentOn (datetime)

Requirement

Send two reminders:
1. Early reminder sometime before the deadline (e.g., next month / within N days)
2. Final reminder ~7 days before the deadlin
This must be done per Application row (not per contact), because a contact may have multiple concurrent applications and each one must be tracked independently (flags stored on Application).

Constraint

Real-time Marketing segments can only target Contact/Lead, not the custom Application table.
Therefore, a segment-based journey runs at the Contact level.
But the decision/flags are at the Application level.

Approaches I’m considering

Option A — Contact-based segments/journeys + Power Automate resolves child rows

Contact segment identifies contacts who have at least one eligible Application
Journey sends reminder email
Journey calls a custom trigger passing Contact context
Power Automate:
- queries eligible Application rows for the contact
- updates flags on the correct row(s)
Concern: If multiple Application rows are eligible, the journey email content may be ambiguous unless the flow determines the “right” row, or sends multiple emails.

Option B — Power Automate drives per-Application runs + trigger-based journeys

Scheduled Power Automate queries the Application table for eligible rows
For each eligible Application row, Power Automate triggers a custom-trigger journey, passing:
- ApplicationId
- Contact reference
- optionally DecisionDeadline / ProgramName for personalizatio
Journey sends email and then triggers another action/flow to mark that specific Application row as “sent”
More moving parts, but fully per-record accurate.

Question

What is the recommended / supported best practice to ensure reminders are per child record, given that segments/journeys are Contact-only?

Keep journeys contact-based and resolve child records in Power Automate?
Or let Power Automate be the driver and use trigger-based journeys per child record?

Any guidance or patterns from real implementations would be appreciated.

Thanks!

Categories:

Dynamics 365 Customer Insights - Data

Outbound to Real-Time Transition

Microsoft Dynamics CRM

Dynamics 365 Customer Insights - Journeys

Best Practice for Per-Record Reminders in Real-time Marketing

Option A — Contact-based Journeys + Power Automate

Segment identifies Contacts with at least one eligible Application.
Journey sends email and triggers Power Automate to update Application flags.
Limitation: If multiple Applications are eligible, personalization becomes ambiguous. Works only if a single email per Contact is acceptable.

Option B — Power Automate + Trigger-Based Journeys (Recommended)

Scheduled Power Automate queries Application table for eligible rows.
For each Application row:
- Trigger a custom event in Real-time Marketing with ApplicationId, ContactId, and personalization fields.
- Journey sends a personalized email for that specific Application.
- Update flags (EarlyReminderSent, FinalReminderSent) after sending

Benefits: Accurate per-record reminders, clear personalization, scalable, and compliant.

The Bottom line:
If reminders must be specific to each Application, use Power Automate to drive per-record triggers and start custom-event journeys. Contact-based journeys are only suitable for generalized messages.

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