Linking Contacts to Accounts during CDS Dataflow Import

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Posted on by AInglis

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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Microsoft Dataverse with Power Apps

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v-xida-msft on at

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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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Drrickryp Super User 2024 Season 1 on at

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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.

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AInglis 38 on at

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@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.

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RautenH 8 on at

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@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.

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takolota1 4,974 Moderator on at

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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)

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