Configure a field that appears in 'Contacts' to appear in 'Accounts'

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Posted on by Community Member Microsoft Employee

Hi All,

I have a field within 'Contacts' called 'Parentcustomerid' which essentially shows the Company name that the contact is associated with. Its a searchable field that does not allow duplicate Company names and works great.

However,

When I go into 'Accounts' the 'Parentcustomerid' field is not available and instead there is a free type 'Company Name' field which is resulting in users creating duplicate company names each time they add a contact.

What do I need to do in order to make this 'Parencustomerid' field to also appear within 'Accounts' so that users can search for the parent company name and not end up creating duplicates?

Thank you!

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Community Member Microsoft Employee on at

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RE: Configure a field that appears in 'Contacts' to appear in 'Accounts'

Thanks for the help and reply Aric, it helps me.

In accounts the 'Account Name' field has a little magnifying glass next to it so that you can search for existing accounts.

This does not seem to appear within the contacts 'Account Name' field but instead it is replaced with a text box. Why is it not the same field as that which appears in the Accounts with the small magnifying glass? Surely would make things easier and more consistent? What does the free text field allow you to that the magnifying glass option does not? I am struggling to see why? :)

Thank you agian
Aric Levin 30,188 on at

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RE: Configure a field that appears in 'Contacts' to appear in 'Accounts'

The ParentCustomerId field in the Contract entity is linked to the parent customer which can either be a contact or account. Not sure what you mean by not allowing duplicates, because you can enter new Customers from the lookup for directly.

The Account entity does not have a Parent Customer Id field, because there is a different type of relationship. It does have a Parent Account field which is the parent field of that account so that you can create hierarchies in accounts.

In order to prevent users from creating duplicate account your can create a Duplicate Detection Rule on the Account entity.

Navigate to Settings -> Data Management, and in there click on Duplicate Detection Rules

Usually you will already see a rule there by the name of Accounts with the same Account Name, but it is likely to be Unpublished. If that is the case, you can publish the rule, and that should take care of your users creating duplicate accounts.

If the rule is not there, simply create a new rule for Accounts with the same Account Name.

In the Rule Criteria select Account from the Base and Matching record types

In the query area below select Account Name (Field) and Exact Match (Criteria)

Hope this helps.
ashlega 34,475 on at

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RE: Configure a field that appears in 'Contacts' to appear in 'Accounts'

Hi Wayne,

parentcustomerid on the contacts IS an account. Dynamics does not have the kind of functionality you are probably looking for.. as in, when creating a new record, you can't expect Dynamics to simply open an existing record as you start typing in the "keyword".

The difference between contacts and accounts is that "parentcustomerid" in the contact entity is a lookup to an account entity - it's not just the name of the account. However, in the account entity, that "name" field is an actual name (text).

From a different standpoint.. when in the contact records, you can choose a different parentcustomerid. But you cannot modify any of the company-specific fields (you have to click on the company name, and, then, you will be able to update company fields.

When in the account record, you can actually modify those fields. So that "company name"/"account name" field has to be a text field there.
Community Member Microsoft Employee on at

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RE: Configure a field that appears in 'Contacts' to appear in 'Accounts'

Thanks Vlad. That's helped.

Why don't they simply allow you to use 'parentcustomerid' from contacts to appear and be used in accounts?
Community Member Microsoft Employee on at

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RE: Configure a field that appears in 'Contacts' to appear in 'Accounts'

Hi!

I guess you could solve this with duplicate detection rule for Company Name field of account entity.

Hope this helps

Vlad

dynamicalabs.com

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Community Member Microsoft Employee on at

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RE: Configure a field that appears in 'Contacts' to appear in 'Accounts'

Thanks For reply Alex.

This works great if for example we receive a business card as we would typically just add a new contact and search for an existing company name. However, if we want to add a new account it only displays a free type text box and so there is still a risk of entering a duplicate. Is it not possible to get a searchable box to replace the free type text box for company name?

Thanks again for all your help
ashlega 34,475 on at

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RE: Configure a field that appears in 'Contacts' to appear in 'Accounts'

Hi Wayne,

Company Name is a "display name" for the parentcustomerid field. Basically, it's the same field.

However, when on the account screen, it's a bit too late to worry about Parentcustomerid (since that's a field on the contact entity).

Your users just need to start selecting existing accounts into the Company Name when creating contacts (instead of clicking "new" in that dropdown every time).