Displaying Related Records from the Microsoft CRM User Record

The Microsoft CRM user record can be very useful. It stores all contact information, job titles, manager hierarchy, etc. It can in effect take the place of a company phone list, since users (if they have read access) can easily retrieve that information from CRM.

What if you also want to utilize it as a centralized location to view all opportunities, accounts, or contacts that are assigned to a user? One hitch is that since the User record is related to all system entities, the navigation bar links for system entities are not displayed on the User record navigation bar.

Fortunately, all hope is not lost, there is a work around with Microsoft CRM 4.0. For example, here's how you would add a side tab showing all opportunities assigned to a user when you look at their user record:

Step 1: Create a new many-to-one relationship between the Opportunity entity and the User entity. Call the attribute display name whatever you want (just not owner)—I called in Salesperson in this example. We are not going to display this attribute on the Opportunity form.

 

Now you will see a side tab on the User form for Opportunities; however, when you click on it, you will see that it is empty. Next, we're going to do some workflow magic to tie it all together.

Step 2: create a new workflow for the Opportunity entity. We want this workflow to run every time that an account is created or assigned, so check the checkboxes next to "Record is Created" and "Record is Assigned." We are also going to have to manually apply this rule to any existing opportunities so they are included in the navigation bar link, so also check "On Demand."

 

Step 3: On the bottom step control pane, insert a step to update the entity. Click the View Properties hyperlink to bring up the Opportunity form template. Since we are not displaying the Salesperson lookup on the form, we will find it on the "Additional Fields" tab of the form.

Step 4: Select the Salesperson lookup form, and using the form assistant, select the Opportunity Owner under Look For, click Add, then OK.

Click "Save and Close" and go back to the workflow creation wizard. Save your workflow, then publish the workflow. Now any time an opportunity is created or assigned, it will be reflected in the Opportunity Navigation Bar link for the owner's user record.

Step 5: To make all open Opportunities display from their owner's User record, we will need to apply this rule to all open opportunities. To do so, Click on the link for Opportunities from the CRM Sales are of the Wunderbar, and select all opportunities on the page (you can click the checkbox in the upper left corner to quickly select all.

Click the "Run Workflow" button at the top of the screen, and select your newly published workflow and run it. Repeat this step for all pages in the view.

Now when you go to a user record and click opportunities, you will see a full list of active opportunities associated with the user record.

You can apply this solution to any other entity, such as contacts or accounts.