If you've decided to fix your SharePoint unique permissions problem by instead of manually reorganizing documents, this guide walks through exactly how to configure to do it, from choosing a deployment path to validating your rules before go-live.
This isn't a conceptual overview. It's a working sequence: the six steps you'll move through to get rule-based document distribution running in a Dynamics 365–SharePoint environment.
Step 1: Choose Your Deployment Path
Before touching configuration, decide how you'll run SharePoint Structure Creator.
- Self-hosted: runs on-premises or on your own cloud servers or virtual machines, for organizations that need infrastructure control.
- SaaS: hosted in Microsoft Azure, in either the United States or the European Union, managed through Connecting Software's portal.
Both options come with a free 15-day trial:
- To start a SaaS trial, go here: . Log in as a returning customer or fill in your details as a new customer, choose your data residence location, and place the order. You'll receive an activation link; use it to create your password and activate the free trial.
- To start a self-hosted free trial, request it here: and you will receive the download information within 24 hours.
Now let’s connect both Dynamics 365 and SharePoint using modern authentication.
Step 2: Connect to Dynamics 365 (Dataverse) and SharePoint
Before you can configure any rules, SharePoint Structure Creator needs access to both systems. Connect it to Dynamics 365 and to SharePoint using modern authentication. Confirm both connections succeed before moving on. If a connection fails, no rules will be applied, so this is the most common place to get stuck. Remeber
Step 3: Configure Your Distribution Rules
This is the most consequential decision in setup, because everything else in the setup builds on it: it determines where every document ends up.
Open SharePoint Structure Creator from the Configuration view, then you will get to the Board View where you can access the user manual, enable or disable the configuration, activate your token, and check subscription status. From the left sidebar:
- General Settings screen controls some of the most basic settings for your configuration.
- Location Name in Dynamics 365
- Suppress Lead
- Suppress Opportunity Behavior
- Support OneNote Integration
- Break Role Inheritance
- Copy Role Assignments
- Folder settings page allows you to define the structure or pattern you want the system to apply for creating folders in SharePoint. Define your naming convention using placeholders — 0 for the object's name, 1 for its ID. Remove the 1 to use the name only. You can either use a pattern or custom scripting.
- Library Settings page allows you to define the structure or pattern you want the system to apply for creating document libraries in SharePoint. Choose your rule type:
- by time period (Day and month, Day, Week, Month, Quarter, Year, and Custom)
- by record: this will create one document library per Dynamics 365 record
- by starting name characters. For starting-character rules, you can set the number of characters used, customize the resulting library name, and define a replacement character for non-alphanumeric characters.
- by starting ID characters
- Custom Script
- Site Settings page allows you to define the structure or pattern you want the system to use to resolve a SharePoint site. If the site does not exist, our software will automatically create the site based on the specified template and language.
- Site Settings page allows you to define the structure or pattern you want the system to use to resolve a SharePoint site collection.
For requirements outside these rule types, such as region or business unit, the Script Editor's custom LUA scripting is the documented path, not a dedicated built-in rule.
Step 4: Distribute Across Sites and Extend With Custom Logic
Once your core rule is defined, extend it outward:
- Site settings: create new SharePoint sites and distribute document libraries across them using the same rule types, time period, record, starting character, or ID.
- Site Collection settings: create new site collections when your structure needs to scale beyond individual sites.
- Script Editor: write custom business rules in LUA for logic the standard rule types don't cover.
NOTE: This walkthrough doesn't demonstrate a multi-tenant configuration, if that's a requirement, confirm the setup path with Connecting Software directly before assuming it works the same as the standard flow.
Step 5: Validate Before Full Rollout
The simplest method is to create test records that fall into each rule bucket, add documents to them, and check where the documents land. Before rolling out to your full environment, confirm:
- Representative records land in the expected library, site, or site collection for each rule
- Folder and library names render correctly against your naming convention
- Combined rules (if used) produce the intended hierarchy
- Projected unique permission scopes stay under Microsoft's 50,000-per-library ceiling at expected volume
- Users can still access and navigate documents normally from both Dynamics 365 and SharePoint
If you have existing documents/legacy content, decide when to run Connect Bridge to re-sort it into the new structure.
Step 6: Go Live
Once configured, SharePoint Structure Creator distributes new documents across your defined libraries, sites, and site collections automatically, going forward, helping keep any single location under when your rules are sized for your expected volume.
Documents that existed before go-live stay where they are until you re-sort them with Connect Bridge, so your original library may still be near the limit until you do.
Adjusting or Deactivating SharePoint Structure Creator Later
Configuration isn't a one-time decision. Rules can be adjusted after go-live if your document patterns or organizational needs change.
If you deactivate SharePoint Structure Creator entirely, whether temporarily or permanently, the structure already created is preserved. What stops is forward routing: new documents will no longer be distributed according to your rules and will instead go back to a single default location, until it's reactivated.
FAQs
What is the SharePoint 50,000 unique permissions limit?
It's the (items whose access differs from their parent) that SharePoint allows in a single list or library. Dynamics 365 record-level security can generate many of these, which is why large integrations hit the limit.
Do I need to install CB Dynamics 365 to SharePoint Permissions Replicator first, or can SharePoint Structure Creator run alone?
SharePoint Structure Creator works both ways, as a standalone application, or as an add-on if CB Dynamics 365 to SharePoint Permissions Replicator is already in place. Neither is a prerequisite for the other.
Can I change rules after go-live without breaking the existing structure?
Yes. Rules can be adjusted at any time. Documents and libraries created under the previous rule set remain intact; only new document routing follows the updated rule.
Does setup cause any Dynamics 365 downtime?
No downtime is required for standard configuration. SharePoint Structure Creator operates on the SharePoint side of the integration and applies going forward, without disrupting the live Dynamics 365 environment.
SaaS or self-hosted - which is faster to get running?
SaaS typically gets running faster since there's no installation involved; it's managed through Connecting Software's portal. Self-hosted takes slightly longer to deploy but gives you infrastructure control, which some regulated or on-premises-only environments require.
What happens to documents already in my library?
SharePoint Structure Creator distributes new documents. To reorganize existing documents, use , which re-sorts them into the new library structure.
If your SharePoint libraries are approaching the unique permissions limit, implementing a rule-based structure now is faster than resolving performance issues once the limit has been reached. (self-hosted or SaaS), or for a guided setup walkthrough.
The full article was originally posted on September 30, 2026, on the CRM Software Blog.
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