Working with Microsoft Dynamics(TM) CRM 3.0

We explained how to set up and configure entity views in Chapter 5, "Forms and Views," but we want to emphasize that you can use entity views in conjunction with the Advanced Find feature as an entry-level reporting and analysis tool. Entity views and the Advanced Find feature offer the following reporting benefits:

• Users of all skill levels can set up and configure views by using the Advanced Find feature, but Advanced Find also offers powerful query features such as Group AND and Group OR that more sophisticated report writers will want.

• Users can save any views that they create using the Advanced Find feature so they can quickly run that report later.

• By default, only the user who creates an Advanced Find view can access it. However, Microsoft CRM allows you to share Advanced Find views with other users or with a team. Therefore, you can explicitly control access to a view so that only a select group of users has access.

• Entity system views (but not saved Advanced Find views) can be imported or exported along with the other system customizations.

• Users can sort the records in their views in ascending or descending order by clicking the column headers.

• Users can export the records in their views to Excel, and they can create dynamic worksheets that link to the Microsoft CRM database.

However, using entity views for reporting and analysis involves the following restrictions:

• Although you can query on attributes of related entities, you cannot display columns of related entities in your view. For example, you cannot display columns from the Contact entity in an Opportunity view, but you can use columns from Contact as part of the view filter criteria.

• You have very little control over output formatting because Microsoft CRM displays the data in a grid. You can't include charts, graphs, or subtotals when using views, but of course you can export the view data to Excel for further analysis.

• You can't schedule reports or deliver them via e-mail when using views.

Remember, although Microsoft CRM doesn't refer to entity views and the Advanced Find feature as reports, they're still powerful reporting and analysis tools.