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Customer definitions entity

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The Customers definitions entity supports creating and updating customers; and includes the most common fields for a typical customer.

When to use this entity

Use the Customer definitions entity as the default entity for importing customers as long as it contains the necessary fields, or the missing fields can be added from the existing data sources, and when performance is a high priority.

Summary

Type Name
Data management entity name Customer definitions
OData public entity CustomerBase
OData public collection CustomersBase
Related menu items Accounts receivable / Customers / All customers
Related entities Customers V3, Customer details V2
Performance pattern Multiple threads supported – Recommendation is to set Import threshold record count to 1000 and set Import task count to 8. For more information, see Parallel imports.
Application Object Tree (AOT) name CustCustomerBaseEntity

Fields

Field Description
CUSTOMERACCOUNT Specifies the primary key. The autogenerate mapping option can be used to use the next default value. This field is required.
ADDRESSCITY Specifies a foreign key to the Cities entity.
ADDRESSCOUNTRYREGIONID Specifies a foreign key to the Country/regions entity. This field is required when the ADDRESSDESCRIPTION is included.
ADDRESSCOUNTY Specifies a foreign key to the Counties entity.
ADDRESSSTATE Specifies a foreign key to the States entity.
ADDRESSZIPCODE Specifies a foreign key to the Postal codes V3 entity.
CUSTOMERGROUPID Specifies a foreign key to the Customer groups entity. This field is required.
DEFAULTDIMENSIONDISPLAYVALUE This field isn't supported. Use the Customer details V2 entity instead.
INVOICEACCOUNT This field isn't supported. Use the Customer details V2 entity instead.
NAME Specifies the customer's name if PARTYTYPE is Organization. It's ignored if PARTYTYPE is Person. This field is required, even when the PARTYTYPE is Person.
PARTYTYPE Specifies the type of the customer. The allowed values are Organization and Person. If this field isn't specified, the default value is Organization.
PAYMENTMETHOD Specifies a foreign key to the Customer payment method entity.
PAYMENTTERMS Specifies a foreign key to the Terms of payment entity.
PERSONFIRSTNAME
PERSONMIDDLENAME
PERSONLASTNAME		 These fields specify the customer's name if PARTYTYPE is Person. One of these fields is required if PARTYTYPE is Person.
SALECURRENCYCODE Specifies the default currency. Specifies a foreign key to the Currencies entity. This field is required.
SALESTAXGROUP Specifies a foreign key to the Sales tax groups entity.

Issues and considerations

The Customers definitions entity, when combined with the Customer details V2 entity, supports most of the same functionality as the Customers V3 entity. The highest performance can usually be achieved by using a combination of the Customer definitions and Customer details V2 entities. In most cases, using one of those other entities, or even using both of them, one after the other, will outperform using the Customers V3 entity.

The Customers definitions entity is compatible with the Customers V3 entity for most fields, except that ORGANIZATIONNAME is renamed to NAME for the Customers definitions entity.

The Customer definitions entity shouldn't be customized to add more data sources.

Example: Customer that is an organization

The following fields are required to create a customer that is an organization.

  • CUSTOMERACCOUNT

  • PARTYTYPE

  • NAME

  • SALESCURRENCYCODE

  • CUSTOMERGROUPID

Example: Customer that is a person

The following fields are required to create a customer that is a person.

  • CUSTOMERACCOUNT

  • PARTYTYPE

  • PERSONFIRSTNAME

  • PERSONMIDDLENAME

  • PERSONLASTNAME

  • SALESCURRENCYCODE

  • CUSTOMERGROUPID

  • NAME

Note

Only one of the person name fields is required.

Import customers in Dynamics 365 projects