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Implementing Access Teams in Dynamics CRM 2013

Post Author: Joe D365 |

Access Teams are a new type of team in Dynamics CRM 2013. Fundamentally they are different from the traditional owner teams we know in CRM 2011 in that they are not used to grant ownership to a record but instead they grant access to records via sharing. In addition, with access teams, you can create multiple teams that can each be granted varying levels of access to a single record. As we know, in CRM 2011, only a single team could be provided ownership (and thus access) to a record.

Access teams provide an alternate way of exposing and sharing records across functional teams without the need to modify or update the base security model in CRM via Business Units, Security Roles, or Teams.

To create an access team, you first have to enable the use of access teams on the entity for which you want to use them. To do this, go to Settings > Customize the System and select the entity for which you'd like to enable access teams. In the entity's Information screen, select Access Teams. Note, once you enable access teams for an entity, you cannot disable it.

Access Teams in Dynamics CRM 2013

Implementing Access Teams

To utilize access teams you first create an Access Team Template for specific entities and, from within the entity form, manually add users to the access team on the fly. With this approach, you can have specific users assigning other team members to access teams on the fly as necessary, granting and removing access to records as needed.

To use access team templates and have teams created automatically, do the following:

  1. Create the access team template and define the access rights and for which entity the template will be used. This is done by going to Settings > Access Team Templates.

    Access Teams in Dynamics CRM 2013

  2. Next, add a subgrid to your respective form that will be used to assign users to this access team. By doing so, each user added will be granted the team's respective access rights for that record. Pay special attention to the subgrid settings in the Data Source section.Access Teams in Dynamics CRM 2013
  3. Once the subgrid is set, remember to publish the changes.
  4. Open a record for the entity (in this case an opportunity) and use the + button and the lookup icon to add users to the access team.
  5. By adding users, you are granting them the access rights to that record that are defined within the access team template, even if their base security role does NOT grant them those rights. Note, the access rights are ONLY being granted for that specific record.

It is important to note that when using access team templates, a new team is created based on the template EACH time the first user is added for a record. If you change the access rights for an access team template subsequent to teams having been created based on it, those new access rights will only apply to future teams, not previously existing teams.

Since access teams do not determine ownership, it does not mean that records assigned to users via access teams will not show up in the default My Views. They are not owned by the users of the access teams, just shared. However, there is a way to create a view to show both records you are the owner of and records shared with you. Learn how to do that in our blog Access Team View in Dynamics CRM.

Dynamics CRM 2013 Online only allows a single access team template per entity. On-Premise CRM will allow more than one.

Now you know the process for creating and implementing access teams in Dynamics CRM 2013.  Looking for more 2013 CRM tips and tricks?  Check out our blog and other resources!

Happy CRM'ing!

Joe CRM
By Joe D365
Joe D365 is a Microsoft Dynamics 365 superhero who runs on pure Dynamics adrenaline. As the face of PowerObjects, Joe D365’s mission is to reveal innovative ways to use Dynamics 365 and bring the application to more businesses and organizations around the world.

17 comments on “Implementing Access Teams in Dynamics CRM 2013”

  1. Any idea when, after following these instructions, I open my custom entity, and as soon as I save the record, ALL users are added to the Access team?... Worse, there is no way to delete them (the little trashcan icon next to each row in the grid gives an error... This seems like the join isn't right somehow, but I've checked all the setting vs. this article and another installation i got to work...

    1. Hi Dave - this sounds like a bug or there is some code behind the scenes doing this? Is this a blank system or could you have a plugin that runs when you do something to an access team ?

        1. SOLVED - It seems there is a bug, that prevens the subgrid from updating the view correctly. So you can edit it get the result you want, but deleting the subgrid, publish and readd it Work perfectly for me. Hope it helps you.

  2. Is there any opportunity to add a Custom Entity to the Account Access Team? We built an Access Team for the Account and now all the addicted Custom Entities should be available for the User in the Access Team

    1. Hi MIchael - The Access team can only contain users. But you can enable access team in out of the box entities and custom entities. And the rights granted via access team will follow a relationship cascade rights.

  3. Hi

    I have a requirement in which there will be a Case Team specific to each case record. when I am creating team for each case, I have to capture the title of user while adding user to a team like a user can act as a Financial Analyst or Counselor. Moreover, the same user can be a Financial Analyst for one case and Counselor for other case so this will be title will be assigned at the time of adding user to a team. there can be multiple users with title as Financial Analyst or Counselor.

    Do you have suggestion how should I assign this title while adding user to a team as in system entity team, there is a grid of team members and I can't assign a title while adding user to a grid. So what is the approach to do this.

    1. Hi Geetika - The Access teams are made for super quick adding/removing users. Hense no other data fields are required/needed. if you do need a title with each one of your assignments, then perhaps an intersecting custom entity is needed. So instead of using the out of teh box access team, create a new entity such as 'case team'. Case team then has a title, user lookup and workflows can share/unshare based on who is added to the case team entity. This is were drawing in a white board the pros/cons of each approach can help come up with the best and most cost effective design.

    2. Hi Geetika - Alternatively you can use "Connections" for a case where you can add multiple users with a connection role. For ex: User A as Financial Analyst for Case 1 or User A as Counselor for Case 2. Also, you can trigger plugins on the associations of connections with case entity. Hope this helps

  4. 1. You are configuring user access in
    Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

    You need each account to
    have a unique group of people who have write permissions to the
    account.

    What should you do?

    A. Have Dynamics CRM
    automatically create access teams for each record, and manually share the
    account with the appropriate

    B. Create an owner team,
    and assign the accounts to the owner team.

    C. Create an access team
    template, and add to the account form a sub-grid that references the access
    team template.

    D. Manually create an access team record for each account
    and assign the account to the access team.
    Getting confused with this question while studying. I see the answer is D on blogs... I thought you could only assign the accounts to owner teams. But C seems a viable answer as well. Thanks!

  5. Hi, just want to comment about "Note, once you enable access teams for an entity, you cannot disable it." In 2015 update 0.1 I can disabled it from customizations. Note sure if it was only like that in 2013.

  6. Hi, Whenever an opportunity is created, corresponding record owner needs to be added in a "Sales Team" subgrid which is in Opportunity form. Please I don't have idea, I tried but iam not getting expected result. Please help me ASAP

  7. I have a requirement where few goals with should be visible to the system admins only. I tried using access template on the goal form. But am not able to add the users to the sub grid even after saving the goal record. Can you please suggest on this.
    Thanks in advance.

  8. Hi, is there any way to show which all Access Teams a specific record is shared with. For example, if I have shared the record with Team A and Team B, how can I show these sharing details in a sub-grid?

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