What is field mapping in Dynamics 365?

A simple but powerful feature that can transform your data management process, field mapping in Dynamics 365 is something every user should integrate into their workflow. In essence, it’s a mechanism that maps one field to another, allowing data to be automatically copied between corresponding records — saving time, reducing errors, and improving efficiency.

What Is Field Mapping In Dynamics 365?

Field mapping in Dynamics 365 acts like a smart copying function. Imagine creating a new contact record for an existing employee or a new sales opportunity for an existing lead. Normally, you’d need to manually re-enter the same data across multiple records — a tedious and error-prone process. With field mapping Dynamics 365, this can all be automated.

You simply define a relationship between two sets of records, select which fields to map, and the data is copied directly from one record to another. The result? Faster data entry, consistent information, and far fewer manual errors.

This feature doesn’t just save time — it ensures your CRM remains accurate and reliable. When information in the source record is correct and up to date, it remains consistent across all related records. No mismatched data, no duplication issues, and no wasted effort.

Understanding Entity Relationships in Dynamics 365

To fully leverage field mapping in Dynamics 365, it’s essential to understand the types of entity relationships available:

1. 1:N (One-to-Many) – A single record in a primary entity can be linked to multiple records in a related entity through a lookup field.
2. N:1 (Many-to-One) – The reverse of 1:N. A related (child) entity contains a lookup reference to a single record in a primary (parent) entity.
3. N:N (Many-to-Many) – Both entities can have multiple related records, connected through a special intersect or relationship entity.

These relationships form the backbone of field mapping Dynamics 365, allowing information to flow seamlessly across entities while maintaining data structure and hierarchy.

How To Create Or Edit Field Mapping In Dynamics 365?

Setting up field mapping is quite a straightforward process.

1. In your Power App solution, select the Solution and the Entity you want to work on. Then, select Relationships.

2. Once you get into the Relationships parameters, you select New Relationship and you select One-to-Many.

3. Choose the Related Entity.

4. Save your relationship by clicking on Done and then, on Save the entity.

Activating Advanced Relationship Behaviors

When creating one-to-many and many-to-many relationships, you can set advanced behaviors. These options refer to as cascading behaviors because they cascade down the hierarchy of related entities. You can choose between one of the following standard behaviors:

• Referential, Remove Link: in this type of behavior, you can navigate to any related records, but actions taken on one will not affect the other.
• Referential, Restrict Delete: In a referential, restrict delete relationship between two entities, you can navigate to any related records. Actions taken on the parent record will not be applied to the child record, but the parent record cannot be deleted while the child record exists. This is useful if you do not want child records to become orphaned. This forces the user to delete all of the children before deleting the parent.

• Parental: In a parental relationship between two entities, any action taken on a record of the parent entity is also taken on any child entity records that are related to the parent entity record.
• Custom: In a custom relationship between two entities, you select the behavior associated with each of a set of possible actions.

What Are The Field Mapping Rules in Dynamics 365?

Though the process of creating and editing field mappings isn’t too complicated, there are a few reasons that the process might not always work exactly how you want it to. To avoid or troubleshoot any problems that arise, here are some important rules to bear in mind when you’re setting up a field mapping in Dynamics 365.

• Field types must match.

The data type in the Source field has to be the same as the data type in the Target field. For example, if the data from the field in your parent record is of the type “Option Set”, or “Whole Number”, this must also be the data type for the corresponding field in the child record. When copying something like contact information, this usually isn’t an issue, but do make sure to check that the field types are the same if you are facing any difficulties.

• The target field length should not exceed the source field length

This is something else to be aware of when field mapping. If the text field in the parent record is of a different length than the corresponding text field in the child record, the mapping might not work properly.

• Field mapping is just copying data

Another important thing to bear in mind is that the field mapping function simply copies data from Source to Target, at the time that the mapping is created. It doesn’t synchronize one field to another! If the data in the parent record is changed, the corresponding field in the child record will remain unchanged, and vice versa. So if a customer’s contact address is changed in one record, for example, remember that you will need to go back and create a new field mapping if you want the corresponding records to be updated.

Can Field Mapping Be Generated Automatically?

Yes, it can! Instead of creating each field mapping manually, you can get Dynamics 365 to automatically set mappings up according to some basic commonalities between fields. This is something that can be very useful when you’re setting up mappings for custom entities, but do be careful when you’re doing it with system entities.

When you’re viewing the Mappings list, after locating a relationship and selecting Mappings, you can select Generate Mappings from the More Actions menu. This provides you with suggested field mappings, based on fields that have similar names and data types. These will replace all existing mappings.

This is a great option when you’re using custom entities, as it saves you the time of setting up each field mapping, and you can easily delete any mappings that you don’t want. With system entities, however, it’s possible that you might lose important expected mappings.

How Can I Learn More About Field Mapping And Dynamics 365?

Field mapping is a technique that will become indispensable if you’re regularly carrying out tasks that involve updating of large amounts of customer or client data, or regularly creating new records from existing ones. Drastically cutting down on redundant data entry, it’s one of the most effective ways to save time when entering data, and it vastly improves the accuracy of the information that you’re recording.

Streamlining your workflow and guaranteeing improved data integrity, field mapping is just one example of the many incredibly useful features that the Dynamics 365 CRM software offers. Regardless of the size or type of operation that you’re running, a CRM solution can completely revolutionize the way you work, offering tools and information to improve performance at all levels.

At Gestisoft, we provide powerful CRM software solutions that offer custom implementations of Microsoft Dynamics 365 and other CRM products. Our custom products are tailored to your goals, and adapted to the specific needs of your business or project. Based in Canada, we’ve been helping firms of all sizes across Canada since 1997. Our solutions and services improve quality of customer service, marketing efficiency, and sales performance. We also offer technical demos of the leading CRM products, and consultation services for those who are in the market for a CRM solution. Do not hesitate to contact us if you need more information or want to implement a CRM software in your business.