Introduction In this blog we will take a look at how we can add an custom HTML web resource in your customer engagement app. There have been client requirements where there was a need to add custom UI to handle some additional functionality, let see how this can be achieved. Implementation Step 1 : Firstly we create an HTML web resource, and we add the required code in it. For this demonstration i have used bootstrap to create an responsive page. You can view the entire code for the HTML here Below shown is how the HTML file looks.   Step 2 : Now to add this in our app in Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement, navigate to your app and open the editor pane as shown below In the above shown pic add a new subarea and add the required name, here we have kept it as Safety Inspection Map and in the properties tab we add the Type as Web Resource and URL is the HTML web resource that we have already pubished Now click on Save and Close at the top right corner and then click the Publish option. Once this is done navigate to your app in Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement to view the newly added web resource. Below show is the how the customization looks like in the unified interface. Hope this helped!    

Introduction: This blog explains how to create folders in SharePoint when new record is created in D365 CE. Use Case: When new account is created in D365 CE create “Contact Documents” and “Documents” folders in SharePoint. Pre-Requisites: D365 CE SharePoint Online Microsoft Flow Steps to be followed: Sign in to the Microsoft flow. https://flow.microsoft.com/en-us/ Go to My flows -> “+New”-> “+Automated-from blank” 3. Select “When a record is created” trigger and click on create. 4. Select “Organization Name” and “Entity Name”. 5. Click on “+New Step” and select “Compose” Action. 6.   a. Add “Account Name” from Dynamics Content in Input. b.  Add underscore “_” c. Click on Expression enter below formula: toUpper(replace(triggerBody()?[‘accountid’],’-‘,”)) d. Compose should look like below: 7. Now we will create “Main folder in SharePoint” for this account. 8. Click on “+New step” and select “Send an HTTP request to SharePoint” Action. 9. Enter below details: Site Address: Select the site address from the list. Method: POST Uri: _api/Web/GetFolderByServerRelativeUrl(‘account/Output of Compose‘)/Folders Headers: Content-Type application/json;odata=verbose Accept application/json;odata=verbose Body: { ‘__metadata’: { ‘type’: ‘SP.Folder’ }, ‘ServerRelativeUrl’:’account/ Output of Compose‘} 10. Now we will create sub folders inside the main folder. 11. Click on “+New step” and select “Send an HTTP request to SharePoint” Action. 12. Enter below details: Site Address: Select the site address from the list. Method: POST Uri: _api/Web/GetFolderByServerRelativeUrl(‘account/Output of Compose/Contact Documents‘)/Folders Headers: Content-Type application/json;odata=verbose Accept application/json;odata=verbose Body: { ‘__metadata’: { ‘type’: ‘SP.Folder’ }, ‘ServerRelativeUrl’:’account/ Output of Compose/Contact Documents‘} NOTE: “Contact Documents” is the sub folder which we want to create in main folder. 13.  Repeat “step no 12” to create “Documents” folders. Uri: _api/Web/GetFolderByServerRelativeUrl(‘account/Output of Compose/ Documents‘)/Folders Body: { ‘__metadata’: { ‘type’: ‘SP.Folder’ }, ‘ServerRelativeUrl’:’account/ Output of Compose/ Documents‘} NOTE: “Documents” is the sub folder which we want to create in main folder. Complete Flow: Testing Flow Create new account record in D365 CE. Check Documents in SharePoint. 

Introduction In this blog we will look at how we can add the lookup functionality of dynamics 365 Customer Engagement in our HTML web resource. Implementation Step 1 : We have already added a web resource in our app, you can refer to my blog on  “ADD HTML page in Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement Apps”. Below is the screenshot of how it looks like Step 2: Here we have a project field, and every time the Project button is clicked the select Project form opens up as shown in the below image. Please note that the Project entity we are using is a custom entity and not the Out of Box project entity Step 3 : When the Project is selected from this and the Add option is clicked, the name of the project will be shown in the “Select Project” field on the HTML web resource. Step 4: The HTML code for this is here.  In the HTML code there is a reference to an external JavaScript file which handles the logic to open the lookup tab and set the name of selected project as seen previously. You can find the JavaScript code here Note: In the referenced HTML code, for the Layout button we have added an “on Click” event which is not present in the referenced JavaScript code.  So while using the referenced code, please make sure you remove that reference from the HTML or add another function that you would like to call. Below shown in the code snippet that needs to be modified <input class=”form-control” id=”selectedProjectRelatedLayout” type=”text” placeholder=”Select Layout” readonly=””> 2.  In HTML file we have also added the reference to a JavaScript file which we have added as a JavaScript web resource in Dynamics 365 CE.  You will need to modify this reference  based on the web resource structure in Dynamics 365 CE. <!– Below mentioned are the CRM Reference files based on the hierarchy of Webresources created, the bottom two references will change according to your folder structure for Webresources in CRM–> <script src=”../../../../ClientGlobalContext.js.aspx” type=”text/javascript”></script> <script src=”../BusinessLayer/SafetyInspectionCustomization.js” type=”text/javascript”></script> Hope this helped!

In this blog I am going to show you how to fix an error you get during CPOS/MPOS activation. At times you may get following error : Validation: Failed, Messages: <“Channel has not been published.”>   Solution: Step 1 Go to Channel categories and product attributes. Select your store and in Category hierarchy select channel navigation hierarchy Step 2 Then click on publish channel updates Step 3 Now go back to your device and  click on “Validate Devices for Activation.” You should not get the error message anymore. Hope this works!

You may need to add a sales representative/associate while performing a transaction on POS. For this, you need to add the particular worker to sales group and set it up as below. In this blog, I will show you the process: Step 1 Go to Sales and marketing>Commissions>Sales groups Step 2 Click on General>Sales rep Step 3 In filter type the name of the Rep and select Step 4 Next run staff job from the distribution schedule and check in download sessions if the job is run. If it remains in the available state for more than few minutes then you may need to run a batch job manually from batch jobs by changing its date and time. Check again in download sessions. It should be in an applied state. Hope this works!

Introduction While using fetch XML to retrieve records more than 5000 records and if you have multiple entities involve in it. There are chances that you will get into an infinite loop even if you have less than 5000 records. Description: We have noticed that after 9.0 if you are using the old method to retrieve more that 5000 records using the fetch xml in the script it is possible that you will get the into infilter loop. This happens due to the internal multiplication of table which gives fist and last records id same in fetch xml You need to make sure that include the header as shown in the below screen Need to make sure that you have below check condition before calling the fetch next record collection if (data[“@Microsoft.Dynamics.CRM.fetchxmlpagingcookie”] != null && data[“@Microsoft.Dynamics.CRM.morerecords”] != null && data[“@Microsoft.Dynamics.CRM.morerecords”]==true) { It has more than 1 record true only than call the next request. Conclusion Hope this helps you to solve your infinite loop issue.

There are tons of CPA software solutions that CPAs, accounting firms and other business professionals use to simplify their complex tasks. However, when it comes to mid-sized CPA firms, the only technology that will streamline processes in a good way is Dynamics 365 for Project Service Automation (PSA). It is well-known that PSA is one of the most trustworthy and best CPA software solutions designed and developed by Microsoft. More than a utility software, it is more like a CPA Firms practice management software. Let me take you through an example of how U.S. based CPA Firm BPM is leveraging PSA to streamline their sales process and enhance their internal operations. About BPM Certified Public Accounting Firm: BPM is one of the largest California-based public accounting and advisory firms. Ranking amongst the 50 major firms in the US, they have offices across Oregon, Hong Kong, and the Cayman Islands. They serve a range of sectors from financial services, technology, life science and consumer business to real estate, non-profits, wine, and craft beverages. You can read more about BPM at https://www.bpmcpa.com/. Business Requirement: BPM wanted a solution that would streamline their sales processes and make customization and enhancements in their existing D365 for PSA for greater capability. Solution Delivered: CloudFronts commenced its professional journey with BPMC in December 2017 and continue to work with them. We worked with them every single day to cater to their existing Dynamics 365 for Project Service Automation capabilities. The team rectifies and modify their reports, along with adding functionality to their existing PSA deployment. Further, the team had a review of the critical entities within the Sales module of Dynamics 365 and customized them as per the client requirements and specific business needs. Till date, the CloudFronts team is working with them to upgrade their D365 environments from v8.2 to v9. SSRS report was developed for Managers to view the availability of Team and their allocations on different Projects. Key Technologies 1.       Dynamics 365 Sales 2.       Dynamics 365 for PSA (Project Service Automation) 3.       SSRS Reporting Post Go Live: BPM went live with the project on 20 July 2018. With the ongoing support and maintenance of Dynamics 365 for PSA provided by CloudFronts, the BPMC team is now able to deliver projects on time without any obstructions while increasing employee productivity tremendously. By leveraging the enhanced capabilities of D365 Sales module, the BPMC team is now able to provide a robust end-end overview of the streamlined sales process thus increasing productivity and get actionable insights. Professional Services Automation software offers CPA’s digital tools they need to streamline and standardize their project accounting activities, even though each project is distinctly different from all the others. Fundamentally, every CPA firm is a business that sells the services of accounting, so mastering its business practices is key to its success. Several PMI studies reveal that adopting a standardized, structured approach to operations and practices was the strongest indicator of corporate success. Want to know how we can prove beneficial to you? Contact us now for free consultation and demo here. https://www.cloudfronts.com/contact-us/    

Problem Definition: As soon I upgraded my PSA version from V2 to V3, I saw that the role field got deprecated. Not only that, it was removed from Schedule (WBS in V2). We now had the functionality to directly assign resource to the task against having assign role. The projects that got migrated from V2 to V3 were all tagged with the resource named “Auto-Developer” and were with the roles, but, was not advisable to go the deprecated way. We now as an organization, heavily dependent on our day-to-day activities had to change the way we work and had to understand and reframe the working methodology for the following things: How to take care of the tasks that we need to make it Non-Billable Where to assign roles and learn to assign Resources instead. Solution: The above problem was not an easy cake to eat. The impact went all the way to Schedule Board and we need to redesign the way we allocate on tasks, since, I started seeing duplicate tasks on schedule board, one with Role and one without Role. I had to change the view query to reflect the tasks without role and match the remaining hours to the previously assigned hours on the task. Now this became a major challenge. We had to export all the bookings from the system and delete the previous allocations on the task with role to the task without role. This would then match the remaining hours to allocate on the task. The next things I did to make the tasks be treated as Non-Billable was to add the Column in the Schedule named Category, Wherein I added a Category named “Non-Billable”. This category was made Non-Chargeable. This is the Transaction Category which can be added from SettingsàTransaction Categories. I added a Calculated Field on the Project form then to calculate the Billable Hours which excluded this Non-billable Category task to see the correct Billable estimate of the project. BI Team in your organization will now need to change the reports adjusting to the above criteria to reflect the correct data. This blog reflects my personal findings and based solely on my experience of using PSA for last 3 years. For those who are looking for a platform that can track and manage the entire procedures of sales and project managements, I would highly recommend them to try Microsoft dynamics 365 for project service automation.

In this blog article, we will see how we can create a project and deploy a dynamic 365 operations environment using Lifecycle services. Prerequisites: Azure Subscription Lifecycle Service Account Step by Step approach: Environment Setup  Azure Subscription: Login to the Azure portal using credential use below URL and buy Pay-As-You-Go subscription as LCS will consume more resource and if we choose start free option it will give error later when we deploy the VM. “https://portal.azure.com/” Once we done with the subscription go to the subscription tab and select the Access Control option and create a role select the role as the Contributor and Add a user select the user as the “Dynamic Deployment Services.” We can now login to the Lifecycle Services remember we should login in LCS using the account which has the admin access to the subscription. After login we can see the following screen. The first step in LCS is to create new project so click on (+) sign to create new project.  Once we click on (+) sign we’ll have different option the option may vary as per the version of LCS you are using, here we are setting up environment for development and learning purpose select the “Migrate, Create Solutions, and Learn” option. Enter the project details and click on the create option. All the information is related to the how you want your project settings to show and the methodology option let you select what you want to shows up on the default project information that shows up in lifecycle services so the migrate and create dynamic 365 for operation solution give you these options.  Once we click on create we’ll land to the life cycle project homepage Access the Azure subscription:- Scroll to the right and click on the project settings We are accessing the azure subscription so click on the Azure connectors options we’ll see the following screen. The first step is to authorize your organisation in the LCS click on the authorize link. Linking LCS to Azure subscription click on the Add option and set the required option make sure the subscription id is same as you have in the azure portal as we may have multiple subscription set so keep in mind to use correct subscription. Once we fill the required details click on the next. Once we click on next we’ll required to authorize the user to the subscription or we can download the certificate and upload to the azure portal by going to the Subscription > Management Certificates > Upload then upload the certificate that we have downloaded. Select the server environment region for LCS. Now we can see the azure connection in the project setting we got Azure subscription id that is showing . Deployment for the virtual machine In newly created environment go to the Project and in environment tab click on the (+) sign Once we click on (+) sign we’ll application platform option choose the latest application and platform version. Select the environment topology here we are selecting Demo environment Specify the Deploy environment setting by clicking on the Advance setting option Choose the below option and leave the other settings as default Click on the next. We can set size of the virtual machine of our choice it’s fine to keep the default settings and go ahead. Once confirm and deploy the VM deployment will start, usually deployment will take 3 hr. So, this will create the D365 Operation Environment for us. In next blog we’ll see how to setup the post deployment configuration setting for the environment

Often, one of the real-life scenarios is making time entries by either remembering what you did the whole week or looking at the Schedule Board and based on what you were booked, making each Time Entry in PSA manually. Tiresome and inefficient, right? Not any more, a cool feature let’s you just create Time Entries in PSA v3 by a single click. Now, let’s say your Bookings look like the below. I’m booked on 2 projects across the week. And now let’s see how we import these. Import Time Entries Let’s see you want to make time entries now based on you Bookings in D365. On the Time Entries scree, drop down to the arrow besides Import. Select Resource Bookings. (Obviously, like this method – you can import from Resource Assignments and Outlook Sync too! But we will keep that for some other day) Then, you can select what all Time Entries should actually make it to the records. So you can select the ones you need and leave the rest. Once you click on Import, it’s done! Time Entries are created. Works like a breeze!