Forum Discussion
Making my own CRM
I'm starting a small business and was looking at replicating what I've had with Dynamics 365 in my previous jobs, but I can't necessarily afford the cost. One thing I enjoyed was being able to have my accounts have a hierarchy. Is there a way to have accounts flagged or marked so that when I run reports or searches I can see each subordinate?
4 Replies
Hi,
Late to this thread but adding a perspective in case you're still working through this—or if someone else lands here with the same question.
The SharePoint + Power Apps route others mentioned is technically valid, but account hierarchy is one of the trickier things to model cleanly in SharePoint Lists. You can do it using a lookup column that references the same list (for example, a parent account linked to another row), then build cascading galleries in Power Apps to show subordinate accounts.
That said, getting to report and search to properly respect the hierarchy takes real effort. Maintaining it as the business grows can also become cumbersome.
If cost was the main reason for moving away from Dynamics 365, it may be worth considering HubSpot’s free CRM. It supports company parent/child relationships natively, lets you view associated contacts and deals under a parent account, and reporting works with the hierarchy out of the box without needing a custom build.
It’s not Dynamics, but for a small business it can cover a lot of similar ground without the licensing cost or implementation time.
Depending on where you landed since December 2023, happy to share how it compares with a SharePoint-based setup.
Happy to support and guide if that helpful.
A custom CRM in SharePoint can work well if you keep it simple. Lists handle contacts and deals, Power Automate manages workflows, and permissions control access. It’s flexible but requires planning.
- SpoilerTry Rapidstart CRM (free crm power apps based) or built simple in default environment with Dataverse which has Contact/Account entities and can be extended using power automate /custom field. Every one has access to default and you might have basic power app licenses included into your environment
EdgeTech78 you could do this with Power Apps if you have the right structure in your SharePoint list. So you'd end up with cascading galleries which is what I think you might be trying to achieve.
Rob
Los Gallardos
Microsoft Power Automate Community Super User.
Principal Consultant, SharePoint and Power Platform WSP (and classic 1967 Morris Traveller driver)
