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Power Apps - Microsoft Dataverse
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Linking Contacts to Accounts during CDS Dataflow Import

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Posted on by 38

Hi,

 

I am trying to import a List of Employers (Account) and Employees (Contact) into CDS from an SQL Database.

 

I want to link the contacts to their account during the import process and note that there is a 'ParentCusomer ID' field available for mapping however when I attempt to use either the previously imported Account Name or Account GUID the data flow returns an error.

 

Is there a way to accomplish the linking of contacts to accounts during a data flow import?

 

Thanks in advance

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  • takolota1 Profile Picture
    4,863 Super User 2025 Season 1 on at
    Re: Linking Contacts to Accounts during CDS Dataflow Import

    Hello,

    Anyone looking to connect contacts to accounts in Dataverse can also do it in Power automate if you use the formatting described in this thread: https://powerusers.microsoft.com/t5/Building-Flows/How-to-fill-Owner-ID-of-quot-Create-new-row-quot-from-Get-User/td-p/832994

    In the Company Name field you must use /accounts(AccountID)

  • RautenH Profile Picture
    8 on at
    Re: Linking Contacts to Accounts during CDS Dataflow Import

    @Drrickryp , thanks, you saved me a ton of time and head ache with this hint! Worked like a charm using the Data Import Wizard to do the initial bulk upload of our CRM data. 

  • AInglis Profile Picture
    38 on at
    Re: Linking Contacts to Accounts during CDS Dataflow Import

    @v-xida-msft  As suggested I have opened an Idea Post here

     

    @Drrickryp  Thanks for the suggestion, I will look into this option.

    However from a quick look it lacks the ability to directly connect to an SQL datasource and can't be scheduled, which would make it very manual to use for keeping my CDS contacts up to date once the initial import is performed.

     

  • Drrickryp Profile Picture
    Super User 2024 Season 1 on at
    Re: Linking Contacts to Accounts during CDS Dataflow Import

    Hi @AInglis 

    Don't despair, despite what was posted above, it may not be possible to do it in the Dataflow.  However, it can be done using the Dynamics 365 import wizard. These settings can be found in the Power Platform Admin center by going to Environments > [select an environment] > Settings > Data management > Data import wizard.  Please see https://crmbook.powerobjects.com/basics/data-management-in-microsoft-dynamics-crm/importing-data-in-microsoft-dynamics-crm/the-data-import-wizard-in-dynamics-crm/ and  https://devblogs.microsoft.com/premier-developer/how-to-import-related-data-into-dynamics-365/

    There are a number of good blog posts regarding the use of this wizard and I can report that I have successfully imported data  from thousands of records into CDS using it. The key is to use a Lookup field in the map.  It took some experimentation to finally get it right.  There is another useful Bulk delete option in Data management and part of the Import wizard allows you to edit the failures and reimport them. Note that there is a limitation on the number of records that can be imported. The documentation suggests limiting the number to 20k at a time. The maximum file size for .zip files is 32MB and 8MB for the other formats.

  • v-xida-msft Profile Picture
    on at
    Re: Linking Contacts to Accounts during CDS Dataflow Import

    Hi @AInglis ,

    Do you want to link the Contacts Entity and Accounts Entity during importing data from SQL Table into CDS Entity using Dataflow?

     

    If you want to link the Contacts Entity and Accounts Entity during importing data from SQL Table into CDS Entity using Dataflow, I afraid that there is no way to achieve your needs in PowerApps currently.

     

    If you would like this feature to be added in PowerApps, please submit an idea to PowerApps Ideas Forum:

    https://powerusers.microsoft.com/t5/PowerApps-Ideas/idb-p/PowerAppsIdeas

     

    Best regards,

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