Recently, a Microsoft Dynamics CRM customer noticed a difference in functionality when creating a new Contract record and creating a new Contract record from a Contact. Today we'll explore how this relates to CRM 2011 relationship mapping.

As you can see below when creating a new Contract record from the Contract entity and selecting the Customer the Bill To Customer field gets automatically filled.

It's a great out of the box feature to have since the Bill To Customer will most likely be the same as the Customer.  But when you create a new Contract from the Contact record the same functionality doesn’t occur. Take a look:

This is because the OnChange event of the Customer field did not occur.  Instead of adding JavaScript to the Contract form an easier way to keep the same functionality consistent is to use CRM 2011 Relationship Mapping.

To do this you customize the Contact’s entity one to many relationship to the Contract entity.

Then add a new Mapping that will map the Contact to the Bill To Customer field.

Now when a new Contract record is created from a Contact the same functionality will occur.

There you have it--how to use CRM 2011 relationship mapping.  It's easy to implement and no JavaScript is required. Just a handy little tip from your friendly CRM Expert.

Happy CRM’ing