Migrate from Knack to Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales

Knack Tables named for people or contacts do not map directly to a single Dynamics entity because Dynamics 365 Sales enforces the Account-Contact hierarchy. We split the source Table into Account records (for organizations) and Contact records (for individuals) using a name or company flag in the source data. The original Knack Table ID is preserved in a custom Dataverse field knack_table_id__c for audit. If the source Table contains both person and organization records with no clear discriminator, we present the customer with a choice during scoping: add an organization-type flag or accept a conservative Account-only migration with Contact optional.

Knack Tables representing deals or projects map to Salesforce Opportunity or a Dynamics 365 custom Project__c entity depending on whether the records represent sales-stage opportunities or long-running operational projects. Stage/status fields from Knack map to Opportunity StageName or a custom Status__c picklist. Closed-Won and Closed-Lost reasons migrate as custom fields. We determine the target entity type during scoping based on the customer's use case and whether a sales cycle is attached to the records.

Knack Tables holding task or to-do records migrate to Dynamics 365 Task. Due dates, priority flags, assignment (via Connection field to a user record), and completion status map directly to Task fields. If the source Table has a Connection to a parent record (Project, Contact, Account), we resolve the parent record GUID during migration and populate the WhatId on Task to maintain the relationship.

Knack Tables holding free-form notes or comment threads map to Dynamics 365 Annotation records. We preserve the note body as the Annotation notetext field, the author name as createdby, and the timestamp as createdon. If the Notes Table is connected to a parent record via a Knack Connection field, we resolve the parent Dynamics record GUID and attach the Annotation to the correct Account, Contact, or Opportunity.

Knack file fields store documents, images, and PDFs accessible via authenticated URL. We download each file from Knack's file URLs, upload to the target SharePoint site or Dataverse file storage, and create a SharePoint Document Location record or Annotation with the file URL embedded. The file relationship to its parent record (Contact, Account, Opportunity) is preserved by linking the SharePoint document location or Annotation to the migrated parent record in Dynamics.

Many-to-many junction Tables in Knack (Connection fields that create a linking table) require custom Dataverse entities to reproduce the relationship. We pre-create a custom Dataverse entity with lookup fields pointing to the two related parent entities, then populate the junction rows after both parent record sets have been imported. This ensures referential integrity at insert time rather than requiring post-migration cleanup of orphaned relationship records.

If Knack is used with a dedicated user or contact Table representing staff (distinct from customer-facing Tables), we map those records to Dynamics 365 SystemUser. Email, name, and role map to the corresponding SystemUser fields. If the Knack app relies on Knack's native user management rather than a user Table, we document the user list and map it to Dynamics Security Roles and Teams as a post-migration configuration step.

Knack supports 15+ field types including text, number, currency, date, email, phone, equation, and file. Standard types (text, number, date, currency) map directly to equivalent Dataverse column types. Multi-select options in Knack map to Dataverse OptionSet fields. Knack equation fields (computed values) do not replicate as computed fields in Dynamics; we evaluate them at migration time and store the result as a static value in the target custom field.

Knack Views are saved filtered or sorted subsets of a Table with no direct Dynamics equivalent. We document each View's filter conditions, sort order, and visible columns in a separate inventory sheet. Filter logic is translated into Dynamics Advanced Find queries or Saved Views for the customer's admin to create in the target system. The UI layout itself does not migrate.