If you are new to this topic, I suggest you read my previous post where we discuss the behavior of parent account field in detail.

So far, we had created our “Child Accounts” sub grid under the main account form in dynamics.

Now, our relationship manager Dave needs to get the total number of child accounts for a parent account. Let’s see how we can do this.

Use roll up fields in dynamics

All we have to do is create a roll up field that will get the count of all active child accounts of an account. Sounds complicated? It’s actually really simple!

Let’s begin:

1. Go to https://make.powerapps.com/ select the environment
2. Go to Data > Entities and select Account
3. Click “Add field” and add ” Number of Child Accounts” whole number field
4. Under “Calculated of Rollup” select “Rollup”

5. This will require you to save the current entity. Go ahead and click “Save”.

6. Another window will open with rollup configuration screen.

Let’s discuss each of these options.

Use Hierarchy – From our previous post, we know that parent account has a hierarchical relationship with the child accounts. Therefore, let’s select “Yes”. The system will now show the actual relationship.

We can also set the filter to only count active child accounts.

No need to configure related entity as we are using the hierarchy.

Now, we need to configure the aggregation as “Count” of “Accounts”

7. Now let’s go ahead and add this field to accounts form.

8. Save and publish customization.

Important – Note that roll up calculation is a time consuming task and therefore, will not be executed as soon as you publish the new field. This will be scheduled normally during midnight.

Until this job is completed, you will not see the count on child accounts in the field.

However, this job can be manually triggered as well.

Go to “Advanced Settings” > System Jobs. You will see the specific rollup job.

Select the job > Select “Resume” from the “More Actions” drop down.

Submit the job by clicking OK

Once the job is completed, you should be able to see the number of child accounts field with the updated numbers.

Cool right? now Dave can use this field to create marketing segments, views and execute targeted marketing campaigns.

You can even create rollups for non hierarchical relationships. All you have to do is set hierarchy as “No” and then select the specific entity from the “Related Entity” dropdown. Here are a few useful rollups for a relationship manager.

• Active cases for an account
• Open opportunities for an account
• Number of contacts for an account

You should now be able to practice different scenarios and explore how to use rollups effectively for enhanced user experience.

Happy Learning!

Categories: Dynamics 365

Tags: D365CRM, Parent-Child, Relationship