Many times, we feel like why I can’t access D365 CRM Database directly from MS SQL Server, so here is my blog that will guide you on how you can connect D365 CRM CDS Database using MS SQL Server Steps to enable D365 CRM CDS Database to make it connect from MS SQL Server: Login to https://admin.powerplatform.microsoft.com/ using administrator credentials. In Environment section, click on your environment for which you want to enable D365 CRM CDS for MS SQL Server. (In my case I am clicking on DemoEnvironment as shown below.) When Environment opens click on settings in header. Settings page will open, Click on Product and then click on Features. When features Page opens enable TDS Endpoint (Preview) and click save. Now, we have successfully enabled D365 CRM CDS to connect it from MS SQL Server. Steps to Connect CDS Database from MS SQL Server: Open MS SQL Server. In connect to SQL Server Window enter Server name (It will be your D365 CRM URL) followed by comma and Port Number (5558) e.g. of server name yourdomain.crm.dynamics.com,5558. Select Authentication as Azure Active Directory – Password. Enter Username: Your admin user id e.g. admin@xyz.com Enter Password: (Your Login password) ******** Click Connect. Now, you have successfully connected to D365 CRM DB. Write a select query and test if it’s working.

Very easy tweak but this will save loads of your time. One of the most important asks by Salespeople is perhaps this – “Add multiple Products on Opportunity at once!“ Here’s how you can do this – Classic Experience In current/classic experience, if you open Opportunity Lines and go on to add a Product as below – It’ll either open in a New form.This isn’t intuitive. You definitely need better experience. Enhanced Experience In System Settings, under Sales, you’ll need to enable the Adding Products to Yes. This will enable the enhanced experience. Now, when you click on Add Products in the Opportunity’s Product Line Items tab, you’ll see a Quick Create Form like form on which you can Add Multiple Products in one go. And then go to + Add products Now, a Quick Create form will appear on which you can select multiple products Now, when you click on any + sign in blue, you can directly enter what quantity you want to add. Also, if you go to the Selected section which indicated how many unique products you’ve added, you’ll be able to remove the added Products in case you don’t want them and then Delete the same if needed. Now, let’s say I have this finally and when I click on Add to Opportunity, they get added as Opportunity Lines And they appear as belowHope this helps!!

In this post, I will talk about the importance of the Cash Position Report for any Professional Services Organization.  The Cash Position is your current and forecasted ‘Cash in Hand’. The importance of having Cash in your bank account cannot be emphasized enough. It is important to understand the difference between Cash Flow and Cash in Hand as they are not the same. An organization can have a solid cash flow (which is revenue tied up in Receivables), but without money in the bank, it cannot operate. Let me go into this further as it’s the foundation of our conversation here.  For any Professional Services organization, anywhere from 60 to 80% of the Monthly expenses are tied to Employee salaries. Paying salaries on time, every month is key to the organization’s credibility. Salaries need to happen on time, month after month, irrespective of your cash flow. They require cash on hand. In addition, any business planning, from HR Activities (a team lunch, an offsite meet) to Investing in the organization’s growth (new areas of business, developing expertise) also requires cash on hand.  One more topic that I need to mention is the current pandemic. Many Projects are delayed, cancelled or on hold. From a business standpoint, this kind of unforeseen event can put a tremendous strain on its ability to continue operations. But while the current pandemic is an extreme scenario, businesses constantly face challenges as we operate on a global level (2004 Tsunami, 2008 Financial Meltdown are some recently examples). Cash on Hand can mean the difference between survival and going out of business.  So we see that Cash on Hand is a Key Metric and hence should be reviewed regularly, ideally during a scheduled Management meeting on a recurring basis. At CloudFronts, we do this review every Monday morning. Our two and a half hour Monday morning Management meetings are literally run by numbers. Some of the Key Reports we review are Project Overview Report, Team Billable & Non-Billable Allocation Report, Support Metrics, Sales Pipeline, Outstanding Accounts Receivable Report, Forecasted AR Report, Cash Position Report. Each one of these is a PowerBI Report embedded into our Microsoft Teams Leadership Team Group.  So what is the Cash Position Report? I will start with a simple equation and then delve into the details –   Cash Position = Cash + AR – AP + Projected AR Now let’s walk through each of the Items in there and how we get that data – Cash on Hand – This is what is in your Bank Account when you run this Report (our report is updated every Monday morning before our weekly Management Meeting). We manually enter this data into the Report.  AR – AR is your Accounts Receivable which includes all Customer Invoices that are due this month and have not yet been paid. This includes overdue invoices carried forward from the previous month as well. If an Invoice is Paid, then it goes into Cash on Hand. Our AR data comes from Dynamics 365 PSA Contract Invoicing Schedule for both Fixed Bid and Time & Materials Projects. Our Contract Invoicing Schedule is the Single source of truth for all our Project Services Invoicing.  AP – AP is all Payables this month, including Salaries. It comes from our Accounting System which is currently QuickBooks Online.  Projected AR – Projected Accounts Receivable are any Invoices that we will generate this month and that will be due this month. This data also becomes from our Contract Invoicing Schedule. For Fixed Bid, this is based on the Contract Billing Milestones and for Time & Materials, this data comes from the Team Member Allocations.  At the top of the Report, you will see that the report is month wise. Hence as you move into the future months, you have less visibility into AR data, but rely on your Projected AR data. As you move into a month, the Projected AR starts becoming AR, which then becomes cash on hand and typically by the end of the month, Projected AR should be zero.  This Report gives the Management Team a clear visibility of the company’s Cash Position over a period of time. For us, we are looking at six months into the future, but organizations can easily set this up for longer periods. By reviewing it regularly, in a scheduled meeting, you ensure there are no surprises and you have time to react well in advance.  The benefits of such a report are further amplified when you consider its impact on our behaviour. During the pandemic, our No.1 priority has been to ensure we are a stable organization with the ability to operate through this pandemic. This report can give you that stability and allow you to stay productive and impact your team with a positive state of mind.  If you are keen on understanding more about our Internal Systems that keep us running and growing, our Internal Systems page is a wonderful resource – https://www.cloudfronts.in/our-internal-systems/ CloudFronts is one of the leading Microsoft Partners globally on implementing Professional Services Automation on the Microsoft Dynamics 365 Platform. You can reach me on LinkedIn for any questions/queries or email me at ashah@cloudfronts.com

Introduction : This Blog will explain about Saving PDF documents directly to SharePoint in a Single Click and this is available for entities listed below only Account Contact Opportunity Lead Quote Order Invoice   Steps to enable Entities for PDF generation: Note : Before starting make sure wave 1 2020 feature is enable in Sandbox. Go to Sales hub -> App settings -> and Convert to PDF.  2. Click on Manage -> Enable entities and save. PDF Creation: Once we have enabled entities,  “Create PDF” button will be enabled as shown below : 2. When you click on Document , option will be shown to save the document in SharePoint. If we want to save the Document , Click on Save. Else Document will be downloaded. 3. We can view the saved Document by browsing to Related>>Documents in Dynamic CRM. Also we can view the Documents in the SharePoint. Conclusion : This feature will be helpful for Sales Team to increase Productivity.

Introduction: Creating a Connection is one of the first Steps during integration of data. While performing Integration with AX or more specifically Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations create a connection using the following steps. Step 1: Right Click on Connection Managers and click on New Connection Manager. Choose the Dynamics CRM option. Step 2: Choose the SOAP 2011 Option for Service Endpoint option. Step 3: Choose the Online Federation for Authentication Type option. Step 4: In the CRM Discovery Option copy the endpoint address from Settings > Customizations > Developer Resources > Copy Endpoint Address. Step 5: Paste this in CRM Discovery Section. Enter the Username and Password of your CRM account. Step 6: Choose the required organization from the dropdown. Step 7: Click on Test Connection and then OK after successful testing. Conclusion: Thus we have successfully created a connection with Dynamics CRM and we can now Integrate data using it a source /destination.

Introduction: Converting Date/Time values according to a time zone is quite challenging task in SSRS Reporting. For D365 CRM online we can achieve this using CDate Function. I will demonstrate how to use CDate function with a dynamic time-zone parameter. Step 1: Add this reference to the report properties: Click on “References” and then click on “Add” button under “Add or remove assemblies”. Browse the following file from your BIDS folder. Microsoft.Crm.Reporting.RdlHelper, Version=9.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35 Click on Ok button to save the changes. Step 2: Create the parameter in the report data section in the “Parameters” folder as shown below: In the “Default Values” section check the click on “Add” Button. Enter the User Time Zone in the Formula and click on OK to Save the Changes. Step 3: To use this functionality is simply as follows: DateValue(CDate(Microsoft.Crm.Reporting.RdlHelper.DateTimeUtility.ConvertUtcToLocalTime(Fields!msdyn_dateValue.Value, Parameters!CRM_UserTimeZoneName.Value))) Example: If the Expression or Formula is as follow: Last 30 =WeekdayName(Weekday(DateSerial(Year(Fields!msdyn_dateValue.Value), Month(Fields!msdyn_dateValue.Value),”1″).AddMonths(1).AddDays(-30))) The Replace it with: Last 30= WeekdayName(Weekday(DateSerial(Year(DateValue(CDate(Microsoft.Crm.Reporting.RdlHelper.DateTimeUtility.ConvertUtcToLocalTime(Fields!msdyn_dateValue.Value, Parameters!CRM_UserTimeZoneName.Value)))), Month(DateValue(CDate(Microsoft.Crm.Reporting.RdlHelper.DateTimeUtility.ConvertUtcToLocalTime(Fields!msdyn_dateValue.Value, Parameters!CRM_UserTimeZoneName.Value)))),”1″).AddMonths(1).AddDays(-30))) Note: This is an easy way of dynamically converting a time zone from UTC to the user’s local time using CRM Online. We have to replace all the formulae which contain the DateTime field value which is retrieved directly from FetchXML with the above mentioned Function to avoid issues in SSRS reports due to Time Zone Conversion.

Part 1/4: Using FOR EACH Loop with KingswaySoft Connector for CRM Invoice Integration. Introduction: The SSIS ForEach Loop container will repeat the control flow task for N number of times, which is similar to Foreach loop in any programming language. This concept can be used for Integration of Header and Lines concept like Invoice. Our Scenario: For demonstration purpose, we will consider an Invoice Integration Map for Integration of Invoice and Invoice Details from SQL to Dynamics CRM. In this blog, we will use for Each Loop to Loop over all Invoices present in SQL Server DB and their respective Invoice Details. The Map for Invoice Integration after Completion will look like following after completion. Integrating Invoice Step 1: Create an execute SQL task which will count the Number of Invoices present in SQL Server DB having Ported Status marked as Zero. Create variable CNT having Data Type INT32 with initial value 0 to store the count of Invoices. Configure the following settings for the Control Flow Task. Step 2: Add a Sequence Container and double click on the green arrow to apply a condition as follows to proceed only if there are any Invoices are present in the DB else skip the Sequence Container. Step 3: Add an Execute SQL Task to store the all InvoiceNumbers in object variable. Create variable InvoiceNumbers having Data Type Object to store the InvoiceNumbers. Configure the following settings for the Control Flow Task. Step 4: Add a ForEach Loop Control Flow Task and configure it as follows to Loop over Invoices for Integration purpose. In the Collection Section select Foreach ADO Enumerator for Enumerator type and Rows in the first table as the Enumerator Mode. Create variable InvoiceNumber having Data Type String to store the InvoiceNumber for a single record to be fetched in one cycle. Configure the following settings for the Control Flow Task. Step 5: Add a DFT to Integrate Invoice Header. Note: This is the first part of the 4 part blog series. Here are others: Part 2/4: SSIS Integration Map for Invoice Header from SQL Server to Microsoft CRM Part 3/4: SSIS Integration Map for Invoice Details from SQL Server to Microsoft CRM. Part 4/4: Delete Logic for Invoice in case of Incomplete Integration of Invoice details Logic.              

Phase 2/4: SSIS Integration Map for Invoice Header from SQL Server to Microsoft CRM: The Map after Completion will look as follows. Step 1: Add an OLEDB Source and configure it as follows: Click on Parameters and configure it as follows: Step 2: Add a derived column transformation to specify the Customer Type i.e 2 which indicates that Customer type is an Account. Also, we will map the Invoice Number to name, so we will create a copy of it. There is a single PriceList for all Invoices in my case so I have hardcoding for Lookup Purpose. Step 3: Add a CRM destination Block and configure it as follows: We will use Upsert Criteria specified on Invoice Number for Integration. The fields mapped are as following. Step 4: Add the remaining blocks for Custom Error Handling as explained in the Blog in Link: https://www.cloudfronts.in/creating-custom-error-log-table-in-ssis-for-oledb-block-and-kingwaysoft-dynamics-crm-block/ Note: This is the second part of the 4 part blog series. Part 1/4: Using FOR EACH Loop with KingswaySoft Connector for CRM Invoice Integration. Part 2/4: SSIS Integration Map for Invoice Header from SQL Server to Microsoft CRM. Part 3/4: SSIS Integration Map for Invoice Details from SQL Server to Microsoft CRM. Part 4/4: Delete Logic for Invoice in case of Incomplete Integration of Invoice details Logic.  

Part 3/4 SSIS Integration Map for Invoice Details from SQL Server to Microsoft CRM Step 1: Add a DFT to Integrate the Invoice Details in the Control Flow. The Map after Completion looks as follows: Step 2: Add an OLEDB Source and configure it as following: In our case we are Inner Joining Invoice and Invoice details Table based on OrderNumber and  Invoice Details and Products Table based on ProductID. This will help us to retrieve the columns which are not provided in a single Table and are required for Integration of Invoice Details. (Note: this might vary according to your scenario) Click on Parameters and configure it as follows: Step 3: Add a derived column transformation to create a unique name for Invoice Details as an upsert criteria. Step 4: Add a CRM destination Block and configure it as follows: We will use Upsert Criteria specified on Invoice Detail Unique Name for Integration of Invoice Details. The fields mapped are as following. Step 5: Add an OLE DB command transformation to update the Ported status to 1 indicating the Invoice details have been integrated. Configure it as follows: Step 6: Add the remaining blocks for Custom Error Handling as explained in the Blog in Link: https://www.cloudfronts.in/creating-custom-error-log-table-in-ssis-for-oledb-block-and-kingwaysoft-dynamics-crm-block/ Note: This is the third part of the 4 part blog series. Part 1/4: Using FOR EACH Loop with KingswaySoft Connector for CRM Invoice Integration. Part 2/4: SSIS Integration Map for Invoice Header from SQL Server to Microsoft CRM Part 3/4: SSIS Integration Map for Invoice Details from SQL Server to Microsoft CRM Part 4/4: Delete Logic for Invoice in case of Incomplete Integration of Invoice details Logic:

Part 4/4 Delete Logic for Invoice in case of Incomplete Integration of Invoice details Logic Introduction: To handle the scenario where the Invoice Details fail to get Integrated or Incomplete Integration of Invoice Lines the Invoice itself should get deleted from CRM as we don’t want to Integrate Incomplete records. Step 1: Add a DFT to Delete Invoice in the Control Flow as follows: The Map after Completion looks like the following: Step 2: In our case, we are Inner Joining Invoice and Invoice details Table based on OrderNumber and Invoice Details and Products Table based on ProductID. This will help us to retrieve the columns which are not provided in a single Table and are required for Integration of Invoice Details. Add an OLEDB Source block with the required query and configure it as follows: Click on Parameters to add a Parameter as follows: Step 3: We have a Ported field in our Data Base which set to 1 once Integrated with CRM. Add a Conditional Split Block to Split into two categories based on the sum of ported and count of ported as follows: Count of Ported = Sum of Ported This indicates that all the Invoice Header and all its Details have been Integrated Properly. In this case, we will add an OLE DB Command Block to update the status of Invoice Header to 1 as follows: Count of Ported != Sum of Ported This indicates that all the Invoice Header and all its Details have not been Integrated Properly. In this case, we will add an OLE DB Command Block to update the status of Invoice Header to 0 just as above where we update it to 1: Once the Status has been Updated we have to Delete the Faulty Invoice Record from CRM. We have performed Lookup based on Invoice Number as follows: Output: Source (SQL Server) Invoice Header- Invoice Details- Execution of Package – Destination (CRM) We can see that one Invoice is Integrated which had all proper data. The Other Invoice which failed to Integrate in some aspects has been automatically deleted from CRM. Note: This is the fourth part of the 4 part blog series. Part 1/4: Using FOR EACH Loop with KingswaySoft Connector for CRM Invoice Integration. Part 2/4: SSIS Integration Map for Invoice Header from SQL Server to Microsoft CRM Part 3/4: SSIS Integration Map for Invoice Details from SQL Server to Microsoft CRM Part 4/4: Delete Logic for Invoice in case of Incomplete Integration of Invoice details Logic