How field security affects synchronization with Outlook

Article
02/24/2023

Securing a field with field-level security can impact synchronization between customer engagement apps (Dynamics 365 Sales, Dynamics 365 Customer Service, Dynamics 365 Field Service, Dynamics 365 Marketing, and Dynamics 365 Project Service Automation) and Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Outlook. Consider the following scenario.

Note

We do not recommend securing a field when the field is set to sync. Best practice is to NOT secure any sync fields. If you do decide to secure sync fields, you'll need to do the following:

Secure the field using field-level security. More information: see "Set field-level security" below.
Change the sync direction so that sync does not attempt to update or write the field during synchronization. More information: Control field synchronization between customer engagement apps and Outlook or Exchange

Scenario: Restrict users from changing Job Title

The Contoso company wants to promote consistent data entry. While sales personnel are out in the field, it's easy for them to create different data entries to describe the same thing. For example, the same job title could be entered as "Construction Manager", "Foreman", or "Site Manager". To prevent this, the Job Title field is secured. This has consequences for synchronization.

Set field-level security

John, the admin for Contoso, sets security on several fields.

Job Title field.

John did the following steps:

In the web app, go to Settings () > Advanced Settings.
Select Settings > Customizations.
Select Customize the System.
Expand Entities > Contact.
Select Fields and select jobtitle. There are a lot of Contact fields so you'll need to advance several pages.
Select Edit.
For Field Security, select Enable > Save and Close.
Select Publish All Customizations.

John also secured the following Contact fields so they won't appear in customer engagement apps: ftpsiteurl, governmentid

Create and configure a field security profile

John creates a field security profile and assigns sales team members to the profile.

John did the following to create the field security profile:

In the web app, go to Settings () > Advanced Settings.
Select Settings > Security.
Select Field Security Profiles.
Create a profile. Select New and enter a Name.
Select Save and Close.
Select the new profile > Users > Add
Select users and then celect Select > Add.

Set field permissions

With a field security profile created and users added to the profile, John can now set permissions on the fields to match the organization's requirements.

Edit Field Security form.

In the web app, go to Settings () > Advanced Settings.
Select Settings > Security.
Select Field Security Profiles > your profile.
Select Field Permissions > the field to secure > Edit
Change the security settings to match your company's requirements and then select OK > Save and Close.

What the user sees

Nancy, a salesperson at Contoso, uses Dynamics 365 for Outlook and creates a new contact and tracks it in Dynamics 365 apps.

Contact Rene Valdes form.

When Nancy synchronizes with customer engagement apps, the Job Title field is gone from the contact. This is because Nancy doesn't have update rights for the Job Title field.

Rene contact with no Job Title.

Nancy's manager, with update rights to the Job Title field, fills in the field with the correct job title: Construction Manager.

Nancy synchronizes again with customer engagement apps and now the Job Title field is in the contact with the correct title.

Contact with Job Title form.