Update Entity

Audience: Low-code Engineers

Skill Prerequisites: Actions, Tokens, Connectors

Changes attributes (columns) of an existing record (entity) in Microsoft Dynamics 365 / Dynamics CRM. You identify the record by its entity logical name and ID (GUID), then map each attribute to change to its new value. Attributes you don't list stay as they are.

note

This action is part of the Dynamics (CRM, 365) add-on. The add-on is installed separately and requires the DYNCRM feature to be licensed. If it isn't licensed, the action fails with a message that the feature is unlicensed.

Typical Use Cases

• Update a contact's email or phone when a user edits their profile
• Change the status of a case or opportunity from a workflow
• Link a record to a different account or owner by changing a lookup

Don't use it to

• Create a record. Use Create Entity instead.
• Update records without knowing their ID. Find the ID first with Find Entity or Read Multiple Entities.

Related Actions

Action Name	Description
Create Entity	Creates a new Dynamics record.
Delete Entity	Deletes a Dynamics record by its ID.
Find Entity	Finds a Dynamics record that matches conditions.
Read Entity	Reads attributes of a Dynamics record by its ID.
Read Multiple Entities	Reads a list of Dynamics records.
Test Connector	Checks that a connector can sign in.

Input Parameter Reference

Parameter	Description	Supports Tokens	Default	Required
Connector	The Dynamics Service Connector to use. See Connecting to Dynamics.	No	none	Yes
Logical Name	The entity the record belongs to. The list shows the entities of the selected connector by display name, and saves the logical name, for example contact. You can also type a logical name or use a token. The value is changed to lowercase.	Yes	none	Yes
Entity Guid	The ID (GUID) of the record to update, for example [ContactId].	Yes	none	Yes
Entity Attributes	The attributes to change. Attribute Name is the attribute's logical name, for example telephone1. Value is the new value, and supports tokens. Values are converted the same way as in Create Entity. Add at least one attribute.	Values only	empty	Yes

This action has no output tokens.

How the update works

1. The action reads the record from Dynamics, with only the attributes you listed.
2. It converts each new value to the attribute's type and compares it with the current value.
3. If at least one value is different, it saves the record. If nothing changed, nothing is saved.
4. For each lookup, it removes the current link, if there is one, and links the new related record.

Considerations

• The record must exist. If Dynamics can't find a record with that ID, the action fails with the error from Dynamics.
• Use logical names. Attribute names must match the logical name exactly, including case, for example telephone1. An unknown name fails with The entity of type '<entity>' does not have attribute '<name>'.
• Clearing values. An empty text value clears the attribute. An empty lookup value removes the link. An empty number becomes 0 and an empty Yes/No value becomes false, so you can't clear those by leaving the value empty.
• Option sets take the option's number value, for example 100000001, not its label.
• Customer and Owner lookups can point to more than one entity. The action uses the first relationship it finds for the attribute, so test these carefully.
• Errors stop the flow. To handle them, put the action inside Execute Actions and use its On Error actions. See Common Parameters for Condition and the other common settings.

Examples

tip

To understand how to use the below examples, please see Running Examples.

1. Update a contact's details

This action updates the email and mobile phone of the contact whose ID is in [ContactId]. The connector ID is in the [DynamicsConnectorId] token.

{
    "Title": "Update Entity",
    "ActionType": "DynamicsCrm.UpdateEntity",
    "Description": "Save profile changes to Dynamics",
    "Parameters": {
        "Credentials": {
            "IsExpression": true,
            "Entry": "[DynamicsConnectorId]"
        },
        "LogicalName": "contact",
        "EntityGuid": "[ContactId]",
        "AttributeMapping": [
            { "name": "emailaddress1", "value": "[Email]" },
            { "name": "mobilephone", "value": "[MobilePhone]" }
        ]
    }
}

2. Move an opportunity to a new account

This action runs only when NewAccountId has a value. It changes the opportunity's parentaccountid lookup and its estimated value.

{
    "Title": "Update Entity",
    "ActionType": "DynamicsCrm.UpdateEntity",
    "Description": "Reassign the opportunity",
    "Condition": "[NewAccountId] != \"\"",
    "Parameters": {
        "Credentials": {
            "IsExpression": true,
            "Entry": "[DynamicsConnectorId]"
        },
        "LogicalName": "opportunity",
        "EntityGuid": "[OpportunityId]",
        "AttributeMapping": [
            { "name": "parentaccountid", "value": "[NewAccountId]" },
            { "name": "estimatedvalue", "value": "[EstimatedValue]" }
        ]
    }
}

Revised 09/27/2026