Microsoft Dynamics 365 accounts sync

Front’s Microsoft Dynamics 365 sync feature allows you to automatically sync accounts from Dynamics 365 into Front. After you’ve synced accounts into Front, your team will be able to:

• Access helpful account information in your inboxes

• Automatically assign and route conversations in Front using account data from Dynamics 365

• View analytics in Front based on accounts from Dynamics 365

Front only supports cloud-based instances of Dynamics 365. Self-hosted instances of Dynamics 365 are not currently supported.

• Accounts are synced one-way from Dynamics 365 to Front

• You can sync all accounts from Dynamics 365, or pick a user-created view that contains the accounts you want to sync

• Accounts are automatically synced every 24 hours to keep data up to date, but you can manually trigger a re-sync at any time by opening the Dynamics 365 sync modal in Front

• Field mapping allows you to control which account fields will be synced from Dynamics 365 to Front

• You must be a workspace or company admin in Front to set up the accounts sync

• We currently only support syncing from personal views (vs. system views or public views)

Step 1

Click the Contacts icon on the top left corner and select Accounts in the left sidebar to access the Accounts Manager in Front.

Step 2

Click the Import button at the top right, then select from Dynamics 365 to open the Dynamics 365 sync modal.

Step 3

In the Your Dynamics 365 URL field, paste the web browser URL provided when you are logged into Dynamics 365. Click Log in to Dynamics 365 to connect your Dynamics 365 account. Dynamics 365 administrator permissions are required.

Step 4

Select the accounts you’d like to sync. You can sync all active accounts or pick a specific Dynamics 365 list view you’ve created.

Note: Front supports syncing a maximum of 150k accounts.

Step 5

Select the account fields you’d like to sync from Dynamics 365. Then choose the Front account custom fields they should be mapped to.

If you have multiple accounts with the same name, Front will merge duplicate accounts based on domain then name by default. If you want to import multiple accounts with the same name, check the box next to Allow duplicate names for accounts.

Optional: Click Preview to see a preview of what your synced account data will look like in Front, and make any necessary adjustments.

Step 6

Click Sync accounts to start syncing your accounts. You can edit or pause the sync at any time from the sync settings.

Step 7

After you’ve set up the sync, you’ll see accounts from Dynamics 365 appear in the Accounts Manager. If you click on an account you’ve synced from Dynamics 365, you’ll see a banner indicating when the last sync occurred.

If you hover over account fields synced from Dynamics 365, you’ll see an option to Edit in Dynamics 365. This ensures your account data remains consistent between Front and Dynamics 365.

The Dynamics 365 sync does not sync contacts directly from Dynamics 365 to Front. There are a few options for linking contacts to the correct accounts:

• If you add an Email Domain field in the sync field mapping, Front will use that email domain to automatically associate contacts with a matching email to the account. 

• You can manually add contacts to an account from the “Contacts” section on an Account

• The API can be used to add contacts to a specific account programmatically 

• You can upload a CSV with contacts and add an accountName column to link them to the correct account

The following table shows the compatibility of fields from Dynamics 365 with Front account fields. Scroll to the right to see the full table.

When an account from Dynamics 365 is synced to an account in Front, a link is established by setting the externalId property on the Front account equal to the Dynamics account ID.

When an account from Dynamics 365 is being synced to Front, a matching account in Front is found by the following logic:

• If an existing Front account is found with the externalId property equal to this Dynamics 365 account’s ID, the existing Front account is updated

• If the Dynamics 365 account has not yet been linked to an existing account in Front, Front will search for an existing account with at least one of the same email domains as the Dynamics 365 account. This search is only performed if the user has mapped an email domain field in the sync settings.

  • If an existing Front account is found and that account is not already linked to a Dynamics 365 account, the Front account is updated and linked to the Dynamics 365 account

  • If an existing Front account is found but it’s already linked to an existing account A, we skip syncing Dynamics 365 account B and log an error (ex. “Acme was not synced from Dynamics 365 because the Front account with a matching domain is already linked to a different account.”)

• If no existing account with matching domains is found:

  • If Allow duplicate names for accounts is checked, Front will create a new account in Front and link it to the Dynamics 365 account.

  • If Allow duplicate names for accounts is unchecked, Front will search for existing accounts that have the same case insensitive name as the Dynamics 365 account. If no existing account with the same case insensitive name is found, Front will create a new account in Front and link it to the Dynamics 365 account.

Note that if an account is deleted in Dynamics 365, the account will stop syncing to Front but the Front account will not be deleted.

If Front encounters errors while syncing account data, the user that triggered the sync will receive an email notification. Errors can be viewed from the Dynamics 365 sync settings modal.

Common error types and how to resolve them:

Accounts synced through the Dynamics 365 sync in Front are accessible through the Front API. Each synced account will have the externalId property set to the ID of the Dynamics 365 account it’s linked to.

Check that API Permissions are enabled for your account

The Dynamics 365 user account you're connecting to Front must have the API Enabled permission. To enable API permissions as an admin:

1. Open the Dynamics 365 Business Central Administration tool. 

2. Expand the OData Services tab, and select the Enable OData Services checkbox.

3. Select the Enable API Services checkbox.

Ensure that the Front connected app is not blocked

As a Dynamics 365 admin, you'll need to ensure that the Front connected app isn't being blocked by your settings in Dynamics 365. 

This feature is available on the Growth plan or above.