Create custom insight cards

Article
09/11/2023

As a system administrator or sales manager, you can create your own suggested actions that are more relevant to your organization through the assistant management feature. By using events and conditions, you can customize the circumstances on when to create suggestions and push information into the seller’s workflow. This helps the sellers to close deals faster.

License and role requirements

Requirement type	You must have
License	Dynamics 365 Sales Premium More information: Dynamics 365 Sales pricing
Security roles	System Administrator or Sales Manager More information: Predefined security roles for Sales

Create a custom insight card

The following diagram illustrates a high-level flow of insight card creation:

Open assistant tab

In this procedure, we will show as an example how to create an insight to act when a property is updated. Let’s create the When property is updated, create an insight to act card.

Note

To create custom insight cards with the assistant studio, ensure that Microsoft Power Automate is installed.
The custom insight card is displayed in the list of insight cards in Assistant studio only after a card is generated based on the defined flow. For example, you defined a flow to display a card when an opportunity is created with an estimated value above $5,000. When an opportunity is created for the first time in the organization with the estimated value of $6,000, the card is generated and will be available in the list of insight cards in Assistant studio.

In the Sales Hub app, go to Change area in the lower-left corner of the page and select Sales Insights settings.
On the site map, under Assistant, select Home to go to the Assistant Studio page.

Tip

Alternatively, on the Sales Insights settings page, select Manage from the Assistant (full capabilities) section to go to the Assistant Studio page.
On the Assistant Studio page, select + Create a new insight card.

A template selection page opens.

Note

We recommend you use templates to create insight cards.
Select a template to create the card.

Note

If you want to create insight cards from an empty flow, select Create from blank. To learn more, see Create a flow in Power Automate.

In this example, we selected the Due date is coming up template to create the custom card.

The flow validates your accounts of the applications that the flow is going to connect. In this example, the flow is connecting to Microsoft Dataverse and Sales Insights for Dynamics 365 Sales. Once you are successfully signed in, you can continue creating the card.

If any of the accounts are not valid, the Continue button appears dimmed and you cannot proceed. Select Update to sign in with a valid credential.
Select Continue.

The predefined flow is displayed. In this example, we are creating an insight when a due date is coming up for an opportunity. There are three steps associated with the predefined flow with the prepopulated data:
- Step 1: Create schedule
- Step 2: Define operation
- Step 3: Define control
You can edit the steps according to your requirements.
In step 1, a schedule for when you want to display the card is defined. In this example, the frequency is set to daily and you can add other parameters such as time zone.

If you want to change the flow, select the plus (+) icon on the connector that links to the next step and then select Add an action as per your organizational requirements. To learn more, see Add multiple actions and advanced options to a flow.
In step 2, an operation is defined to get records from an organization to the selected entity. In this example, we have selected the entity as task and the organization.

Select Show advanced options to further update the step by configuring the parameters Filter Query, Order By, Top Count, and Expand Query.
In step 3, select an apply to each control and enter the necessary information.

a. The Value token is added to the Select an output from previous steps box. This value is obtained from the previous step where we defined the entity.

b. The condition step is defined to match the date of the task that is defined in step 2 to the current date to trigger the condition. Here, we are defining the value as formatDateTime(item()?['scheduledend'],'yyyy-MM-dd'), the condition as is equal to, and the threshold value as formatDateTime(utcNow(),'yyyy-MM-dd').

To learn more about conditions, see Add a condition to a flow.

c. The If yes section defines the properties of the card and actions you can take. Here we have selected an action to Create a card for the assistant. Enter the following information:
- Organization Name: The name of the organization for which you want to trigger the card.
- Card Name: Name of the card to refer to in the list of available cards in the Manage insight cards.
- Description: The summary or the basic information of the card that is to be displayed.
- Action: The convenient links that will help you complete whatever type of action the card is recommending. The number (up to two) and types of links provided here vary by card type. To learn more, see Add actions to cards.
- Action Parameter: The ID of the created action.
- Optionally, you can configure the advanced options for the condition. Select Show advanced options and update the parameters Title, Start Date, End Date, Display to, Reasons, Regarding Object ID, Action Parameter Entity ID Type, and Regarding Object Type.
When you select a text box, the dynamic content pane appears. You can select and add the relevant fields. These dynamic content field variables and values displayed by these fields change according to the information passed.

To learn more about expression conditions, see Use expressions in conditions to check multiple values.
Use Flow Checker to verify errors and warnings in the flow.

Errors and warnings in the flow cause performance or reliability issues. Ensure that the flow is free of errors and warnings. The checker is always active, appearing in the command bar in the designer. The checker shows a red dot when it finds one or more errors in your flow.

For example, while creating a For due date coming up card, you haven't entered Card Name. The flow checker identifies the error and displays a red dot.

When you select Flow Checker, the corresponding error is displayed with more details. In this example, the error specifies that the Card Name is not entered. Resolve the error to continue.

Note

You must resolve all errors and warnings to save the flow.
(Optional) Select the Test button to test your flow.

Ensure that all the configured steps are working as required. The test feature runs and validates each step in the flow and highlights any error that occurs on a step. You must resolve the error to proceed.

Select an option to test the flow by triggering actions or by using the data from previous test runs, and then select Save & Test.

In this example, you see that the step Look at all tasks in Dynamics 365 has failed the test. Select the step and more information on the error is displayed. You must resolve the error to proceed.
Save the flow.

When the card is saved, the Manage insight cards list gets updated and the Due date coming up card displays. Now you can edit the card to set priority and assign to different security roles.

View your saved flows

After you create a flow, a card must be generated based on the created flow to access the flow in the designer. Sometimes, cards may not be generated immediately and you may not find the created flow to update or view.

To access the saved flows, follow these steps:

Go to Microsoft Power Automate and sign in with your Dynamics 365 Sales credentials.

Note

By default, your organization is selected based on your latest association. If you have multiple organizations associated with you, select the proper organization from your profile settings.
Select Solutions and then select Default Solution.

All default solutions are listed.
On the tool bar, go to Search and search for the flow that you want update or view.

Add actions to cards

Important

This topic is pre-release documentation and is subject to change.

Important

A preview feature is a feature that is not complete, but is made available before it’s officially in a release so customers can get early access and provide feedback. Preview features aren’t meant for production use and may have limited or restricted functionality.
We expect changes to this feature, so you shouldn’t use it in production. Use it only in test and development environments.
Microsoft doesn't provide support for this preview feature. Microsoft Dynamics 365 Technical Support won’t be able to help you with issues or questions. Preview features aren't meant for production use and are subject to a separate supplemental terms of use.

You can add actions that a user can do on a card. To select an action, follow these steps:

In the Search connectors and actions box, enter Sales Insights.
Select the Create card for assistant V2 (preview) connector.
In Button type, select one of the following actions:
- Custom action (CRM process): Perform the steps in Custom action (CRM process) to invoke a custom action that is defined in Dynamics 365 Sales for an entity.
- Launch playbook: Perform the steps in Launch playbook to launch a playbook with the custom action.
- Open record
- Open URL
- REST: Perform the steps in REST to invoke a REST API with the custom action.

Custom action (CRM process)

Use the Custom action (CRM process) option to invoke a custom action that is defined in Dynamics 365 Sales for an entity. To learn more, see Use Web API actions.

To add a custom action, follow these steps:

In the Search connectors and actions box, enter Sales Insights.
Select the Choose custom action (CRM process) for insight card (preview) connector.

A step to choose a custom action appears.

In the Choose custom action (CRM process) for insight card step, enter the required information.

Parameter	Description
Environment (org)	Select your organization name.
Filter by entity	Choose the entity that is associated with the action.
Custom action (CRM process)	Select the custom action that you want to perform on the card.
Status	This is a dynamic field and the values that are displayed here are based on the selected custom action.

Define the card by using the chosen custom action. In the Create card for assistant V2 step, enter the required information.

Parameter	Description
Environment (org)	Select your organization name.
Card name	Enter a name for the card.
Card header	Enter a name to appear on the header of the card.
Card text	Enter a message to appear in the body of the card.
Button text	Enter a name for the button that should appear on the card.
Button type	Select the button type as Custom action (CRM process).
Custom action for insight card	Select the box. The custom action that is defined in the previous step is added automatically. This option appears only for the Custom action (CRM process) button type.

Create card for the custom action

Launch playbook

Use the Launch playbook option to launch a playbook from the card. Before you use the playbook option, verify that playbook solution is available in your organization. To learn more, see Enforce best practices with playbooks.

On the Create card for assistant V2 (preview) step, select the Button type as Launch playbook.

Enter the information as required.

Parameter	Description
Environment (org)	Select your organization name.
Card name	Enter a name for the card.
Card header	Enter a name to appear on the header of the card.
Card text	Enter a message to appear in the body of the card.
Button text	Enter a name for the button that should appear on the card.
Button type	Select the button type as Launch playbook.
Playbook template	Select a template in the list of playbook templates. This option appears only for the Launch playbook button type.
Entity type	Select the entity type of which you want to launch the playbook template for. This option appears only for the Launch playbook button type.
Record ID	Enter the unique ID of the selected entity. This option appears only for the Launch playbook button type.

Create card for playbook

REST

Use the REST option to invoke REST API.

On the Create card for assistant V2 (preview) step, select the Button type as REST.

Enter the information as required.

Parameter	Description
Environment (org)	Select your organization name.
Card name	Enter a name for the card.
Card header	Enter a name to appear on the header of the card.
Card text	Enter a message to appear in the body of the card.
Button text	Enter a name for the button that should appear on the card.
Button type	Select the button type as REST.
Endpoint	Enter the URL of the corresponding API to call. This option appears only for the REST button type.
HTTP method	Choose an HTTP method for the API to call. This option appears only for the REST button type.
Body	Enter request parameters for the REST API. This option appears only for the REST button type.

Create a card for playbook

Can't find the options in your app?

There are three possibilities:

You don't have the necessary license or role.
Your administrator hasn't turned on the feature.
Your organization is using a custom app. Check with your administrator for exact steps. The steps described in this article are specific to the out-of-the-box Sales Hub and Sales Professional apps.