web
You’re offline. This is a read only version of the page.
close
Skip to main content
Community site session details

Community site session details

Session Id :
Dynamics 365 Community / Forums / Small and medium business | Business Central, N... / What is the Difference...
Small and medium business | Business Central, N...
Suggested answer

What is the Differences between Connections and Relatioships in Microsoft Dynamics 365

(0) ShareShare
ReportReport
Posted on by Community Member

Hi. Any help / advice appreciated.

Could someone please summarise the difference between "Connections" and "Relationships" in dynamics 365.

Also it would be great if practical examples of where both are used in business could be given.

The purpose for which I am exploring this is to link "Accounts to Accounts" or Accounts to Contacts" or "Contacts to Contact's" where I have identified a relationship that may be beneficial to me from a sales perspective in the future. Any help or advice is much appreciated. 

I am trying to establish which "Connections or Relationships" is most appropriate for what I am trying to do

Thanks for your help

Kevin

Categories:
Dynamics 365 Business Central
I have the same question (0)
  • Community Member Profile Picture
    Community Member on at
    RE: What is the Differences between Connections and Relatioships in Microsoft Dynamics 365

    Hi Jayachandran,

    That was very helpful.

    Thank you very much.

    Regards,

    Kevin

  • Suggested answer
    Community Member Profile Picture
    Community Member on at
    RE: What is the Differences between Connections and Relatioships in Microsoft Dynamics 365

    In Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement (on-premises), you can create and view the relationships between records for many entities using Connect. Connections enable you to easily associate users, contacts, quotes, sales orders, and many other entity records with each other. When you open a record and select Connections, you can view all of the connections between it and other records.

    When you create a connection, you assign it a role. There are many different roles you can use to identify your connections, such as Account Manager or Colleague. Connection roles define how records are related to you, to your organization, or to one another, such as manager to employee. There are three types of connection roles: business, family, and social. Your system administrator can add new connection roles.

    docs.microsoft.com/.../create-connections-view-relationships-between-records

    Decide whether to use entity relationships or connections

    Entity relationships are metadata that make changes to the database. These relationships allow for queries to retrieve related data very efficiently. Use entity relationships to define formal relationships that define the entity or that most records can use. For example, an opportunity without a potential customer wouldn’t be very useful. The Opportunity entity also has a N:N relationship with the Competitor entity. This allows for multiple competitors to be added to the opportunity. You may want to capture this data and create a report that shows the competitors.

    There are other less formal kinds of relationships between records that are called connections. For example, it may be useful to know if two contacts are married, or perhaps they are friends outside of work, or perhaps a contact used to work for another account. Most businesses won’t generate reports using this kind of information or require that it is entered, so it’s probably not worthwhile to create entity relationships.

    docs.microsoft.com/.../create-edit-entity-relationships

  • Community Member Profile Picture
    Community Member on at
    RE: What is the Differences between Connections and Relatioships in Microsoft Dynamics 365

    I think you should ask this in another forum

    https://community.dynamics.com/365/sales

Under review

Thank you for your reply! To ensure a great experience for everyone, your content is awaiting approval by our Community Managers. Please check back later.

Helpful resources

News and Announcements

Join experts in person to explore low code and AI agents at the Power Platform Community Conference sponsored by Microsoft

Quick Links

Responsible AI policies

As AI tools become more common, we’re introducing a Responsible AI Use…

Abhilash Warrier – Community Spotlight

We are honored to recognize Abhilash Warrier as our Community Spotlight honoree for…

Congratulations to the September Top 10 Community Leaders!

These are the community rock stars!

Leaderboard > Small and medium business | Business Central, NAV, RMS

#1
Nimsara Jayathilaka. Profile Picture

Nimsara Jayathilaka. 4,220

#2
Rishabh Kanaskar Profile Picture

Rishabh Kanaskar 3,958

#3
Sumit Singh Profile Picture

Sumit Singh 2,961

Last 30 days Overall leaderboard

Featured topics

Product updates

Dynamics 365 release plans