How-to Create Advanced Finds & Views in Microsoft Dynamics CRM

Transcription

1 How-to Create Advanced Finds & Views in Microsoft Dynamics CRM An I.B.I.S., Inc. Whitepaper by The I.B.I.S., Inc. CRM Team

2 Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 Introduction 1 Advanced Find and Views 2 Where to Find It 2 How to Use It 3 Conclusion 18 About I.B.I.S., Inc. 19

3 1 Introduction What good is the data in your Dynamics CRM system if you cannot access it quickly and format it properly for easy user consumption? Probably not much good. As a repository for mounds and mounds of data, Microsoft Dynamics CRM is home to a wealth of information about your organization. From sales data to marketing effort analysis and even to customer care feedback, forms and integrations native to Dynamics CRM help you capture the most important data points so that you can turn all those rows of information into crucial and actionable insight. So, if the information is in there, how do we get it out? Well, one of the best features of Dynamics CRM is here to your rescue - Advanced Find and Saved Views

4 2 Advanced Find and Views Where to Find It In Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2015, the navigation bar gives you an Advanced Find icon that is available no matter on what page of the application you are. If you click this icon from your CRM homepage, a brand new Advanced Find search window will appear for your use.

5 3 However, if you click that same icon while already on an Entity View page, the Advanced Find window that appears will actually already have the filters of that current View in place, a handy feature if you just need to modify an existing View to include more or different results. How to Use It 1. In the Advanced Find window, the first place to start is the Look for drop-down. Here is where you begin telling CRM what data you need, and from this field you can select any Entity in the system, including custom Entities built specially for your environment. If you d like a starting point that isn t right on the ground, either pull up Advanced Find from an Entity View page or simply use the Use Saved View drop-down to select a View that already exists for the Entity selected in the Look for drop-down.

6 4 2. After making an Entity selection, the drop-down where you begin entering your Query line is automatically filtered to fields of that Entity or fields of Related Entities.

7 5 3. After choosing a field to search on, the operator drop-down will become available. This operator, or comparison, drop-down field will automatically be filtered based on the field you are searching. In this example, the searched on field is Project Manager field of the Account Entity. So, the operators are text-related. To search on a number field like No. of Employees, for example, the list of operators is different and particular to that data type. Based on the field and operator selections, you can then specify to the Advanced Find which value(s) in particular to search on for that field. Here, we are searching for Accounts where the Number of Employees is greater than 200.

8 6 4. We could stop here, but what if you want to add other search criteria to your Advanced Find? The Advanced Find tool is progressive enough to enable you to include multiple search criteria in a single find. How do we do it? There are two option to address it. You can choose to group your multiple criteria with the AND condition or the OR condition. The difference is quite simple; let s use an example to take a look. Let s first say we want to find Accounts with over 200 employees or Accounts in the state of Alabama. Go to the Query line directly below the No. of Employees filter and add a line for Accounts where the State/Province of Address 1 is equal to Alabama. 5. This next part is a little more difficult. To the left of the No. of Employees Query line, click the down chevron and then click Select Row.

9 7 Then, do the same thing for the Address State Query line so that the end result is both lines being selected.

10 8 From there it s as easy as clicking Group OR in the Query group of the ADVANCED FIND tab.

11 9 The two Query lines are now grouped together so that CRM will return all Accounts where the Number of Employees is greater than 200 or the Account s State is Alabama. To see Accounts meeting these criteria, simply click Results in the Show group of the ADVANCED FIND tab and, voila! Here is a list of all Accounts that either employ over 200 individuals or are located in the state of Alabama.

12 10 6. This information is good, but now let s try out the AND operator. Let s click the ADVANCED FIND tab so that we can return to the Query lines and make some changes. Click the OR down chevron, and CRM gives you the option to change the grouping to AND.

13 11 After changing the grouping from OR to AND, click Results again and A much smaller data set appears because the Accounts must now match both of the criteria, not just one or the other.

14 12 7. Let s now run through how we can include different information in this result set. We are filtering on Accounts in Alabama with more than 200 employees, but the final output doesn t have the employee count included or the city in Alabama where these Accounts are located. Back on the ADVANCED FIND tab, in the View group, click Edit Columns. Let s first clean up what we have already. Right now the MAL List and SIC Code for each Account is included. For purposes of this Advanced Find, that information doesn t apply, so go ahead and remove those columns. To do so, select the column heading and then simply click Remove.

15 13 When the dialog box appears, asking Do you really want to remove this column? click the OK button. The MAL List column is no longer there and now let s take the same steps to remove the SIC Code column.

16 14 Once the irrelevant columns are out of the way, we can add the columns of interest. To do so, click Add Columns. Now you can pick and choose all the fields you want to see in the results of the Advanced Find. Select City and No. of Employees and then click the OK button.

17 15 By default, the newly added columns are on the far right of the results. To reorder the columns, simply make a column selection and then use the left and right arrows in the Common Tasks pane to get everything ordered as you want. Once everything is set, click the OK button on the Edit Columns window and then click Results in the Show group of the ADVANCED FIND tab.

18 16 And just like that, you are seeing the City and Number of Employees for all Accounts in Alabama with over 200 employees! 8. Now, one of the final things you might want to do with an Advanced Find is save it for future reference and use. To do that, click back on the ADVANCED FIND tab and click Save As in the View group.

19 17 Give the new View a Name and then click Save.

20 18 Conclusion That concludes the quick introduction to the basics of Advanced Find in Dynamics CRM The Views you build through Advanced Find can be leveraged not just for lists but also charts and dashboards, making Advanced Find the starting point for almost all data visualization in Dynamics CRM. Whether you keep your queries simple or complex, Advanced Find can get you nearly anywhere you want to be. Microsoft Dynamics CRM is a strong platform for driving and measuring business processes associated with sales, customer service and marketing functions right out of the box. The how-to tips shared in this paper are applicable to any user getting acquainted with Dynamics CRM. For more information on technical tips, check out our other papers found here. For more best use and best practices information call I.B.I.S., Inc

21 19 About I.B.I.S., Inc. Founded in 1989, I.B.I.S., Inc. provides business solutions which enable companies with complex supply chain requirements to maximize their business success. Through a Strategic Developer Partner relationship with Microsoft, the company provides world-class solutions for enterprise resource planning (ERP), customer relationship management (CRM), business intelligence (BI), and application development. I.B.I.S., Inc. specialties include Microsoft Dynamics AX and CRM solutions focused on the supply chain needs of distribution, manufacturing, and retail industries. I.B.I.S., Inc. is a two-time winner of Microsoft Dynamics Outstanding Partner of the United States Award, a Worldwide Finalist for the Microsoft Dynamics AX Partner of the Year, Dynamics Distribution Partner of the Year, a Microsoft Partner with Four Gold Competencies (ERP, CRM, Business Intelligence, ISV), and a ten-time Microsoft Dynamics Inner Circle Partner. In addition, I.B.I.S., Inc. is among the very select few companies that are Microsoft Dynamics Global Independent Software Vendors for Dynamics AX and CRM.