Welcome to Day 4 of our Dynamics 365 CRM Fundamentals course! In today’s session, we’ll unlock one of the most important superpowers of Dynamics 365: form and field customization — all without writing a single line of code.

This is what makes Dynamics 365 so powerful for businesses: you can tailor your CRM interface and database to match your unique needs, processes, and teams.

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🎯 Why Customize Forms and Fields?

By default, Dynamics CRM provides basic fields like First Name, Last Name, Phone, Email, etc. But every business is different — you may want to capture:

• 🧾 Industry type for a customer
• 📅 Preferred appointment date
• ⭐ Customer rating (1–5)
• 📍 Geo region or sales zone
• 🛠 Product interests or service categories

That’s where custom fields and tailored forms come in.

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🔧 Where Do Customizations Happen?

All customizations for tables (entities), forms, fields, and logic are done in the Power Apps Maker Portal:

1. Visit https://make.powerapps.com
2. Select your trial environment (if it’s not already selected)
3. Click Dataverse → Tables
4. Choose the table you want to customize (e.g., Contact, Lead, Opportunity)

Inside a table, you can modify:

• Columns – Data fields like “Industry Type”
• Forms – How data entry looks and feels
• Views – Lists and filters used across the CRM

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🧱 Step-by-Step: Create a Custom Field

Let’s create a new field for the Contact table: “Preferred Contact Time”.

1. In Power Apps, go to Dataverse → Tables → Contact
2. Select Columns → Click + New column
3. Enter:
   • Display Name: Preferred Contact Time
   • Name: preferredcontacttime
   • Data Type: Choice
4. Define Choices:
   • Morning (9 AM – 12 PM)
   • Afternoon (12 PM – 4 PM)
   • Evening (4 PM – 8 PM)
5. Save the column

This field is now part of your Contact table — ready to be added to forms!

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🖼️ Step-by-Step: Add Field to the Form

1. In the same Contact table, go to Forms
2. Select the main form: “Contact (Main)”
3. Drag and drop the Preferred Contact Time field onto the form canvas
4. You can place it in a section like “Details” or create a new tab called “Preferences”
5. Click Save and then Publish

Go back to Sales Hub → Contacts → Open any record → You’ll now see your new field on the form!

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🧠 Types of Fields You Can Create

Field Type	Use Case
Text	Customer notes, reference IDs, comments
Choice (Dropdown)	Industry, Region, Priority, Rating
Two Options (Yes/No)	Subscribed to newsletter?
Date & Time	Preferred appointment, subscription expiry
Number / Currency	Customer budget, estimated revenue
Lookup	Relate a Contact to another table (e.g., Salesperson)

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💼 Real-World Example: Customizing for a Real Estate Agency

If you’re managing property inquiries, you might customize the Lead table like this:

• Interested Property Type – Choice (Villa, Apartment, Land)
• Budget Range – Currency field
• Ready to Buy? – Two Options (Yes/No)
• Follow-Up Date – Date field

These fields can be added to both forms and views, helping agents prioritize hot leads and follow up on time.

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⚙️ Add Logic with Business Rules (No Code!)

Once you have custom fields, you can apply conditional logic using Business Rules — another no-code tool in Dynamics 365.

Example: Show a field only when another field has a value

Let’s say:

– If “Ready to Buy?” = Yes, then show the “Follow-Up Date” field
– If not, keep it hidden

Steps:

1. Go to the Contact table → Business Rules → + New Business Rule
2. Set condition: If Ready to Buy = Yes
3. Add Action: Show Follow-Up Date
4. Save and Activate

This enhances user experience and prevents cluttered forms.

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📊 Bonus: Update Views to See Your New Fields

Forms are for entering data. Views are for seeing data in tables/lists.

1. Go to Contact → Views
2. Edit the “Active Contacts” view
3. Add columns like “Preferred Contact Time” or “Ready to Buy?”
4. Reorder columns and Save

Now users can filter or sort by your custom fields directly from the grid.

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📘 What’s Next in Day 6?

In Day 6, we’ll explore how to build Dashboards and Charts using the data we’ve been customizing:

• Create personal and system dashboards
• Use pie, bar, funnel, and timeline charts
• Track sales performance, lead quality, or follow-up status

Dashboards are where your data turns into actionable insights. Get ready to visualize your CRM!

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💬 Let’s Chat!

Have you customized your CRM forms yet? What kinds of fields do your teams need? Drop your examples or questions in the comments — I’d love to hear how you’re using custom fields in real-life scenarios.

👉 Join me in Day 5 — we’re turning CRM data into beautiful dashboards!