Do you ever wake up in the middle of the night and need to use the bathroom? You get out of bed and start walking toward it without turning on a single light or even brushing against the door frames because you're so familiar with your home's layout. Imagine having that same level of comfort in the business systems you use every day!
Dynamics 365 Sales is a powerful tool for Salespeople. Still, if you've never been given a full tour of the functions Dynamics 365 Sales is capable of, then you're most likely unaware of capabilities that are not part of your day-to-day, leading to unnecessary clicks or relying on the processes you were taught to just "get it done."
Well, here is an opportunity to follow along on a tour of Dynamics 365 Sales so you can start familiarizing yourself with all the shortcuts and additional capabilities you can use to hopefully improve processes you have been doing the long way, the manual way, or maybe even not doing at all.
Security roles and permissions
Depending on , some buttons may be visible to you while others are not. It's important to keep in mind the following:
- The buttons discussed in this blog are system defaults; however, buttons visible to you may be unique to your application or could be in a different location.
- The security role you are assigned determines which buttons you can see.
- You can create custom button functions based on your needs.
If you have any questions about your security role, be sure to contact your system administrator for clarification.
Now, let's get into the systems tour!
Exploring your system's buttons
Basic shortcuts
First off, there are a few relatively basic shortcuts that are still important to be aware of. Such as:
- Share Buttons
- Pin & Unpin Tabs
- Toolbar Buttons
- Settings
- Quick Create
- Copilot
The share, pin/unpin, settings, quick create, and Copilot buttons in the Dynamics 365 Sales system
All of these can be useful for speeding up your workflow and collaborating with team members. Share information with team members, navigate to pages in your system faster by pinning them, or personalize your system in the settings.
The quick create button lets you create a new case, account, lead, and more from any page you are on with just a click. Avoid additional clicks and multiple pages to create a new record; just click the "+" icon at the top of your toolbar to get started.
The Copilot button operates as your AI assistant while you are in Dynamics 365 CRM apps. You can ask it to find records, give you account summaries, and more.
Action-performing field buttons: Email, phone, and website
Now that we've taken care of the quick, basic shortcuts, let's get into some of the other abilities you may not be as familiar with, like the email, phone, and website buttons. Some fields include buttons that automatically perform an action related to that field. For instance, click the button next to the email address on a contact record, and a new window in your default email application will open with the client's email address already entered and ready to send. The phone icon lets you automatically call that number from Microsoft Teams when you click it. You can also jump straight to their website by clicking the internet icon.
Activate and deactivate records
Every so often, a contact will leave their job, a client will part ways with you, or a prospect will go cold or be lost. You might be tempted to delete these records using the delete button on the top ribbon; however, doing so would lose historical context for related records and future interactions with that person or company. Because you may engage with these people or this company in the future, you don’t want to lose all their data!
So, we suggest that, as a best practice, you never delete records.
Instead of deleting, use the activate/deactivate buttons to preserve all your old data and records while clearing that account from your active views, essentially archiving it. The button is also available in your top navigation ribbon and is one and the same—once you click “Deactivate,” you will see a lock icon at the top of your screen indicating that the record is deactivated, and that same button will shift to “Activate.”
While a record is deactivated, you can still jump in and view its information whenever you need to, but it cannot be modified and will not appear in lists that filter for “Active” records.
Create and run flows
Did you know you can connect Power Automate to Dynamics 365 CRM to run workflows straight from your system? These flows can be used for various purposes, such as sending notifications, updating records, and more.
For instance, if you want to be notified every time a new lead is created so you can get straight to work researching and connecting with that lead, you can have your admin set up a flow in Dynamics 365 CRM that sends you an email notification.
This connection can give your company tons of flexibility to create buttons that are most useful to you and your team. You can manage or run your flows by selecting the ellipsis in the top-right corner of your form. Keep in mind that additional licensing may be required to create and run flows. Creating flows is usually limited to administrators, and if you don’t see this Flow option, your company may have removed this capability from your view.
Related records
A business relationship and process includes lots of constantly moving parts, so keeping track of which opportunity came from what lead or which contacts are associated with an account gets busy fast. The "Related" tab is essentially your tool for untying knots and understanding the relationships between records. Plus, you have an easy way to quickly navigate to those records straight from your current one.
To see related records, locate the dropdown “Related” caret under the record name. Click it to see all record types with established relationships to your current one you’re on. In this example, the Account “Craft or Dye” has related Lead, Opportunity, and Case records, to name a few!
Assign & mass edit
Continuing to work on and nurture the lead, even if a team member is out of the office for vacation, sabbatical, travel, parental/sick leave, or any other reason, is crucial to ensure the lead does not fizzle out.
You can assign or reassign records within any list view using the mass-assign shortcut. This ability keeps ownership of tasks and accounts clear and re-assigning simple, rather than needing to go into each record one by one and make the necessary adjustments. In the list view, select the records you want to reassign, then select "Assign."
It's good to keep in mind that, depending on your settings, once you change a record's ownership, any child records connected to it will also reflect the change. In addition, not every team member will have the permissions to reassign records (individually or in masse). Usually, this capability is provided to managers, team leads, and admins.
You can even take it a step further by mass-editing multiple records all at once.
In the same record list view, select the Edit button at the top of the page to open a window that lets you edit a specific field for all your selected records. This must be done with caution; if you enter information incorrectly, you risk overwriting data or setting it incorrectly for a large group of accounts.
Record set navigator
The Record Set Navigator button opens a window that displays the current form you're on and lets you scroll through other forms to edit. This is useful when you are clicked into a record and realize you want to adjust a separate form that you may have worked on a few minutes or hours ago. You can think of it like showing you a bunch of open tabs you can click into and pick up where you left off.
Timeline filter
You are certainly already familiar with the in your Dynamics 365 CRM records. This timeline gives you a more complete view of all the interactions with your leads, opportunities, and customers, whether it is an email, phone call, or other important touchpoints, but it can be difficult to navigate if you've had ongoing communication. Things get buried, and you end up digging through tons of information that you don't necessarily need just to find the one email you're looking for.
To help unbury what you need, you can use the filter button to sift through all the clutter. Sort by posts, emails, case resolutions, phone calls, tasks, and more to easily find the information you're looking for. You can also add activities to the timeline if you know important information is missing or should be included, such as notes.
Views
Lastly, when it comes to the different shortcuts you can use when , there are tons, including:
- View Selector
- Edit Columns
- Edit Filter
- Share Views
- Visualize this View
- Hide Views
The View Selector lets you change the view of your system to show items such as your active vs. inactive accounts, accounts you're assigned to, and customizable views you create. You can then edit your visible columns in those views to show the most important information you need for each record before needing to click in for a deeper look. Similar to the filter button in the timeline, you also have a filter for your views to help you sort through information and find what you need quickly.
When you have a custom view that you know you will come back to, save it so you can easily return to pick up where you left off—no need to spend time reconfiguring. You can even share your created view with other team members so they can use it as a great starting point for their tasks.
Navigating Dynamics 365 Sales is pretty intuitive, but with some background on and , you will have an easier time completing your daily tasks. Perhaps there are even a few buttons and functions you didn’t know you had that you can now start taking advantage of!
If you have any other questions, don't hesitate to connect with our team!