Use Workflow to Configure Business Data Auditing in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0

Airline Travel » Use Workflow to Configure Business Data Auditing in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0

Fri, 13 Jun 2008 19:47:27 GMT

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re: Use Workflow to Configure Business Data Auditing in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0

Derek H — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 09:11:12 GMT

Using a relationship of referential, restrict delete will not leave the audit records there when the contact is deleted, in fact, the contact will not be able to be deleted until your audit record(s) have been deleted, and assuming this is a proper audit, users will not have access to do that, having said that, my standard practice is not to allow users delete anyway (they can de-activate all they like, but delete, being physical is too risky).

re: Use Workflow to Configure Business Data Auditing in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0

SDevlin — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 14:18:42 GMT

Thank you for this idea, it is frequently asked for with MS CRM.

Would the audit capture the data if the record is saved/changed the same day it was created?

When training new users, I always train them to fill in the required fields, save and then continue to fill out the remaining fields, saving when ever they have done a significant amount of work.

Thank you.

SDevlin

re: Use Workflow to Configure Business Data Auditing in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0

sandor aka friendlycrmonster — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 11:00:36 GMT

Very nice & useful post, thanks!

(pingback http://www.friendlycrmonster.com/2008/06/business-auditing-with-workflow.html)

re: Use Workflow to Configure Business Data Auditing in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0

Reuben Krippner — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 21:01:32 GMT

Thanks for your comments folks!

Derek, thanks for pointing out the referential limitations - I agree that turning off delete privileges for users is a best practise, particularly around customer records.

As far as the update question if the update is performed on the same day the answer is it will create this as an update record because the create and modified dates are held as date/timestamps so it will see that the 2 values are different and set it as an update audit.

Thanks for the feedback, frequently I get comments around this that it is such a simple solution but one that many people don't consider for workflows. Looking forward to sharing further tips with the field in future blog posts!

Kind regards,

Reuben

re: Use Workflow to Configure Business Data Auditing in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0

Simon Jackson — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 01:01:06 GMT

Hi Reuben,

This is a nice example of workflow and I can see this approach working for some simple audit requirements.

However the process of change, ie adding/removing a field is likely to prove cumbersome. For example, add a new field to the contact, also add it to the audit record. Update the workflow, remove existing workflow from the contacts and then re-apply the workflow to all existing contacts (please correct me if I've got this wrong). There a few steps to remember and over time, IMHO something will get skipped in someone's deployment.

Any ideas of how an audit solution could be implemented that requires less administration, maybe a little more dynamic.

Kind regards

re: Use Workflow to Configure Business Data Auditing in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0

Scott@Develop1 — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 14:13:44 GMT

Hi Reuben,

This is a great demonstration of how flexible CRM 4.0 workflow is, but IMO there does seem to be quite a serious drawback with this audit approach compared to registering a plug-in. There does not seem to be a post image stored on the async events used by workflows, so if someone updates a record before the workflow for a previous update has had time to run then it will look as though the first user entered the values that the second user entered. I would assume that a similar case would happen when workflows are triggered due to events being played back when a user goes back on line after disconnected edits.

Regards,

Scott

re: Use Workflow to Configure Business Data Auditing in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0

mehul mehta — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 04:38:32 GMT

Many Thanks, it is very useful

Auditing Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0

CRM MVP Connection — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 04:05:32 GMT

One of the most frequently requested features for Microsoft Dynamics CRM deployments is the ability to audit changes to records. A good example of using the workflow capabilities of CRM 4.0 to se ...

re: Use Workflow to Configure Business Data Auditing in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0

Jacki — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 02:32:20 GMT

Many thanks, this is very useful. However, I cannot seem to use this process to create audit logs of phone calls. Is there a workaround for this?

re: Use Workflow to Configure Business Data Auditing in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0

John Thibodeau — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 00:19:41 GMT

No dynamic options for setting picklist values between entities? You're kidding me, right?

This doesnt seem to work on deletes

Ian — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 04:01:17 GMT

When tracking delete events the auditing record cannot be created as the primary record has already been deleted by the time the async process runs and execute the work flow. Do you know how to get around this?

re: Use Workflow to Configure Business Data Auditing in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0

Ian — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 03:24:35 GMT

This method is not possible on the address entity either, as you cannot retrieve the parent or the addresses id. Another MS CRM "gotcha", these are starting to pile up now, especially in CRM online.

re: Use Workflow to Configure Business Data Auditing in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0

Mark Allen — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 22:50:20 GMT

HI again Reuben

I attempted to configure this in a DEV environemnt, but I'm not able to get it to work.

I think I'm missing something on step 10, where you have all of the highlighted fields in yellow. did you populate those manually? or were you able to click something on that form to populate them automatically?

thanks

Mark

re: Use Workflow to Configure Business Data Auditing in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0

Giovanni — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 14:15:48 GMT

Is there a way to audit the sharing of entities? The users want to be able to know WHO shared WHAT to WHOM. A lot of questions I dont seem to be able to answer with simple workflows.

re: Use Workflow to Configure Business Data Auditing in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0

John — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 22:35:58 GMT

Just want to understand. For update, how does it view the old data being change in certain fields.