No one enjoys opening up each record, one at a time, to update a field with the same value in your company’s CRM. This is why the bulk edit feature in Microsoft Dynamics CRM is such a great tool, especially if the field you need to update is a Lookup field. This ends up saving a bunch of clicks and ultimately, time. One thing I never really noticed though, is that while most fields can be edited there is one on the Account that stood alone. The Parent Account. Since I hadn’t had a need to ever update this field en masse myself it wasn’t until a client wanted to change the Parent Account on multiple records that I realized CRM has the lookup link grayed out. Meaning, a value cannot be selected. Thankfully there is a way to open this field for access. Granting this permission isn’t too difficult, but it did take me some time to get it working just right.
The first thing you will need to do is create a solution with the Account entity in it and export the solution. Next, extract the customization.xml file and open it up. I usually use Notepad++ as I find this is the tool that is the easiest to search and modify the file. Search for every occurrence of the label for Parent Account and locate the line <event name= “setadditionalparams” application= “true” active= “true”>. This could appear multiple times throughout the file so be sure to modify all of them. You will need to add BehaviorInBulkEditForm= “Enabled” in the event line.
Once the modifications are made, add the customization.xml file back into the solutions and import it back into your CRM. After publishing the solution and refreshing the browser, the lookup icon for the Parent Account field should no longer be grayed out. On my first attempt at performing this, I had only modified two occurrences of the Parent Account in the xml file so the field was still unavailable; however, after I found and modified the third value, Parent Account was then available on the Bulk Edit form.
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SCOTT FLORANCE |CRM Business Software Consultant
Scott Florance is one of the CRM Consultants at KTL and has proven his value as a member of the team since September 2013. Whether implementing a new CRM organization or adding to existing configurations, Scott has engaged clients with a positive and enthusiastic demeanor to help them meet their organizational needs. With four plus years of experience, Scott is familiar with CRM as both a power user and administrator. Scott received his bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Central Florida. He is a Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist for Dynamics CRM as well as a Certified Scribe Technician.
