Best Scheme for Using Proper Entities

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Posted on by crham

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Newbie here. Looking to move to Dynamics but can't figure out if our data will map properly.

We do mostly residential service so we have the following:

Accounts = households, vendors, competitors, etc.

Contacts = individuals of the household

Locations = residence/s of the household where we work and the main record to store all work orders, time logs, invoices, documentation, etc.

The only way I can figure it is to make locations as accounts that are children of the household account, but I'm not sure it that will fully work because we have many scenarios that need to be handled as follows:

household divorces so one contact now moves away from the existing household account and we would need to create a new household and location

household sells residence so we want all history maintained but new owners need new account and contacts and then the location moves to the new household

two household accounts are siblings or otherwise related and now a new location is added that both need to be linked to

household has a location but also owns a business which is a separate account with its own locations but contact needs to be linked to both it and their own household account

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crham 378 on at

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RE: Best Scheme for Using Proper Entities

Hopefully this image successfully shows my very concern with FLs. ...that it's basically a "global" item. I only created two customer accounts each with a "Main Residence" location assigned and one with a Ranch location as well. Then I went to create a Work Order. I first selected a customer, and then went to FL field and hit search...and it brought up all FL records. If I had 1000 Customers each with a Main Residence location then this would be a nightmare.

drive.google.com/.../view
Al Iggs on at

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RE: Best Scheme for Using Proper Entities

You're welcome. I would just give it a try and key in some records.

--- works as the backbone of the company delivering service to customers: I would say the backbone is a combination of account, asset and FL

--- stores a physical address for directions: Work order gets this from the FL, if not present then from the account.

--- is the reference point and the first thing that is selected when a customer requests service (choose which residence needs service) Depends on your navigation, you could start from the account and then create a WO. Or directly create the WO and pick the account.

--- allows work orders to be created to define the work requested and parts the technician should take for said service  The work order has an account, the lookup presents the FLs of this account. Parts by default populated from incident type template.

--- stores all assets added to the residence once invoices from the work orders are completed  Associate the asset to the service account (who owns the asset) and the FL (where is it)

--- allows hundreds of assets to be associated, each of which is associated with different groups of asset types There are customers with 100,000s of assets

- stores the primary data to work from for each customer account Yes

--- the history of all activity for this residence can be reviewed easily by looking at all its work orders and all communications (internal such as email and MS Teams, and external such as email and texts) regarding each work order  You can see the history from an account angle, a FL angle, an asset angle

--- workflows can be created by tagging this customer account based on assets or asset types that their residences have Yes - Power Automate
crham 378 on at

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RE: Best Scheme for Using Proper Entities

Thank you for your help thus far. I appreciate your willingness and time.

My concern may stem from my ignorance on FL. I will be reading up on them more this weekend.

The way you have described FL sounds like it might be too granular of a container.

We need a container that

- works as the backbone of the company delivering service to customers

--- stores a physical address for directions

--- is the reference point and the first thing that is selected when a customer requests service (choose which residence needs service)

--- allows work orders to be created to define the work requested and parts the technician should take for said service

--- stores all assets added to the residence once invoices from the work orders are completed

--- allows hundreds of assets to be associated, each of which is associated with different groups of asset types

- stores the primary data to work from for each customer account

--- the history of all activity for this residence can be reviewed easily by looking at all its work orders and all communications (internal such as email and MS Teams, and external such as email and texts) regarding each work order

--- workflows can be created by tagging this customer account based on assets or asset types that their residences have
Al Iggs on at

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RE: Best Scheme for Using Proper Entities

Still hoping someone chimes in to provide additional suggestions... :-)

Create a FL similar to your current "location". Give it an address. No need to build hierarchies, but you can. If the account has 2 or 3 residences, create these as separate FLs or as a hierarchical FL, whatever fits better.

When they call, create a work order for this service account and select from the pre-filtered FLs. The work order inherits the address and geo data from the FL. Optionally, link the work order to a customer asset.

When the ownership changes, associate the FL to the new account, the history remains with the FL and the customer asset.

I think this would cover all of your above requirements, but you seem to be in doubt. What am I missing?
crham 378 on at

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RE: Best Scheme for Using Proper Entities

Remember, we are looking to port a system over to Dynamics. It's not in Dynamics yet.

In the current system a "location" is a residence for that Account. If they have 2 or 3, etc. residences then they have multiple locations. When they call for service we identify which house (location) they are requesting service for and we create a service order for that house. The tasks created for that service order shows the address for the technician, etc.

We're not trying to identify a building of a campus or a floor of a building or a room on a floor (although that's nice that you can).

So I guess I need to find out if in Dynamics:

1. Can you create a work order for a Location

2. Is a Location too granular for this need? i.e. assumes it's for a room only or small area rather than full house with lots of rooms and lots of systems and lots of assets.
Al Iggs on at

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RE: Best Scheme for Using Proper Entities

When you create a work order for such a "location", do you also utilize the customer asset, i.e. specify the affected equipment in that location?

Why would the functional location not work? It represents the office/building structure and keeps track of the history. Even if the customer changes, you can still navigate to the desired FL level and see a history of previous work orders. Moving the history to another account would not be correct in my opinion, as it creates an association that doesn't reflect the actual situation. You would also see the history on the asset, regardless of who the customer was during that time period.
crham 378 on at

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RE: Best Scheme for Using Proper Entities

Thanks for the response and that is some exciting stuff I did not know about but it doesn't answer my question.

I probably didn't explain it well. For us "Locations" represents each residence/office the customer asks us to work in. It needs to be the main container that we create work orders from, and therefore schedule technicians, track time, and invoice but also keep a complete history on. If that location (aka residence for example) changes hands by a sale for example then all that history needs to stay intact but we would move it to the new customer (account).

I'd like to get input on how best to store each location. It seems illogical to me but the only way I see it working with MS Dynamics out of the box is by making each location an account and putting it as a child account under the household account.

...or are there better ways to do it?
Al Iggs on at

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RE: Best Scheme for Using Proper Entities

Have a look at functional locations that allow you to separate owning parties from location data. Functional locations can be setup standalone and are then associated to 1..n accounts.

Docs: docs.microsoft.com/.../assets-functional-location

Blog: cloudblogs.microsoft.com/.../

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